Michelin Guide Debuts in the Philippines With Two Stars for Helm
The first MICHELIN Guide Manila and Environs & Cebu lists 108 restaurants, with Josh Boutwood's Helm in Makati at the top and eight one-star addresses.
The MICHELIN Guide published its first selection for the Philippines on 30 October 2025, at a ceremony held at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Newport World Resorts. The MICHELIN Guide Manila and Environs & Cebu 2026 lists 108 restaurants: one with two stars, eight with one star, 25 Bib Gourmands and 74 further recommended addresses.
The headline is Helm, in Makati, which entered directly at two stars. Chef Josh Boutwood, who is of British and Filipino heritage, serves a modern tasting menu built on local ingredients, with Spanish influences. It is the only two-star restaurant in the country, and no restaurant received three.
Eight restaurants were awarded one star. They include Hapag and Celera in Makati, Gallery by Chele in Taguig, Linamnam in Parañaque and Asador Alfonso in Cavite, south of the capital. Gallery by Chele also received the guide’s Green Star for sustainable practice. Most of the starred addresses are concentrated in Makati, the business district that has become the centre of the capital’s fine dining.
The geography of the guide is broader than Metro Manila. The “environs” cover nearby provinces including Pampanga, Cavite and the Tagaytay area, and Cebu has 18 listed restaurants, six of them Bib Gourmands and 12 recommended, though no stars in this first edition. Of the 108 addresses, 90 are in Manila and its surroundings.
Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the MICHELIN Guide, said the selection paid tribute to a new generation of Filipino chefs and to international chefs who have settled in the country, and that the inspectors had been impressed by the authenticity and creativity they found, from fine dining to street-side eateries.
The arrival of the guide had been announced in February 2025 and follows its recent expansion elsewhere in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam in 2023. For travellers, it gives Manila, long overlooked as a food destination, a recognised map of where to eat, at the moment when the city’s luxury hotel offer is also changing with projects such as the return of Mandarin Oriental to Makati.