Manarola Is More Than An Italian Restaurant

We had the entire restaurant to ourselves, or at least that’s what it looked like. The guest list for this intimate dinner was only a select few, but the company made it feel plentiful. 

“It’s not media, it’s people,” co-owner Sean Kevin Chua Yuquimpo said during his introductory speech. He believes that the best marketing that has worked for them wasn’t constantly churning out content that may or may not reach the right audience, but good old fashioned word-of-mouth between human and human stemming from genuine dining experiences. 

Manarola is not your typical Italian restaurant. With a kitchen three times as big as the size of their first restaurant’s, Sean and co-owner and Chef Aaron Cyril Shiu are finally unshackled. They get to experiment; they get to play. That night’s menu showcased exactly why they call their food, and restaurant concept as a whole, “beyond Italian”. 

Why The Name and Why The Name Change

Cinque Terre is a coastal area in the northwest of Italy made up of five cliffside villages. La Spezia is the gateway and transport hub that welcomes you to the area. This made it fitting as the name of Sean and Chef Aaron’s first restaurant in Quezon City where they’ve been serving classic family-style Italian food for the past decade. Naturally, they named their second location in BGC the same thing, at least in the beginning.

Months after opening, however, they changed the name to Manarola, after the one of the five fishing villages. For both Sean and Chef Aaron, this shift unveiled an exciting new concept they seemingly have been dying to delve into. 

“[If] La Spezia is our [introduction], then Manarola is stepping into Cinque Terre [itself]. It’s the same with our cuisine,” Sean explained. La Spezia may have been their culinary starting point, but Manarola is taking it a step further. 

A Menu Inspired By Global Flavor

Both restaurants’ menus are inspired by the owners’ travels throughout the years, not just in Italy but all around the world. For Sean, “totoo na global yung flavor.”

But for Manarola, the label “Italian” is more like a formality than an accurate descriptor. They aren’t clamping themselves down to the idea of Italian food. They rid themselves of the restraints, while still incorporating the cuisine’s structure and cooking techniques. 

A lot of fleeting thoughts, feelings, and reactions rush in and out of you after eating a total of ten courses. It felt almost hypnotic. I’ll try my best, so here’s what remained with me after recovering. 

The first course that left a mark on my psyche was a burrata dish, which Sean shared was inspired by the ratatouille. It was a big piece of burrata mixed in brunoised olives, squash, courgette, bell pepper, and tomato, all drizzled with olive oil. I love kamias, but I never thought to put it together with strawberry and seafood. The sweet strawberry and the sour kamias created a unique acidity that paired really well with the melt-in-your-mouth Hokkaido scallop that was just barely cooked. This ended up being one of the standout dishes for me. The tenderness of their mortadella made in-house served with arugula and pickles was another sensation that will stick with me for a while. The night ended with a classic chocolate mousse that one of my tablemates raved about, having tried it herself during a previous visit. Every spoonful of it was decadent and more balanced than you’d think thanks to the olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

No Such Thing As Perfect 

One of the guests I sat with had dined at Manarola once before. She was raving about the Goose Ravioli, served with a foie gras emulsion. And she was thrilled to see it as part of our 10-course menu for that night. But when it was served at our table, it looked noticeably different from the picture she showed me on her phone. 

When I asked Sean about it, he talked about how all of the dishes in their menu are constantly changing. For them, there is no perfection. They weren’t too precious with their dishes. They saw them as concepts that were evolving rather than static, untouchable food items. 

“We changed the shape of the pasta, [changed] the way it’s [was] presented to make it better. Pero the flavor, ‘yun pa rin. [That] didn’t change… Kaya medyo naguguluhan na rin ‘yung staff. Kasi today it’s this, tomorrow it’s that. And [then on] the third day, we’re gonna go back to the [version from the] first day… It changes with the situation.”

Opening Manarola seems like a path especially-made for the owners that was ten years in the making. No longer holding back, it has become a place where perfection is traded for continuous growth and where every meal offers a glimpse into a kitchen operating with true creative freedom.

Manarola is located at Lot 21&22, Block 33 Triangle Drive, Taguig, Metro Manila.

Laura Mendoza Writer

Laura admits that she is a slow eater. She prefers to take her time with the food she likes to eat and the stories she wishes to write. Having graduated with a Creative Writing degree, she comes from a background in writing fiction and poetry. Because of this, she has set herself on a creative mission to explore and delve into what other modes and channels exist for stories and narratives to be told, expressed, and shared with others. For Laura, food as a medium is an exciting proposition. Behind every dish, every ingredient, and every cooking technique, there lies a history worth discussing, a human being worth listening to, a lived experience worth gleaning from. As a means to satiate her appetite for learning about and understanding new and known things, she aims to be the kind of food writer who is approachable, reliable, and personable to readers.

See Full Bio

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "beyond Italian" mean at Manarola?

At Manarola in BGC, “beyond Italian” means the owners treat “Italian” as more of a formality than an exact descriptor. The menu draws on global flavors from the owners’ travels while still using Italian cuisine’s structure and cooking techniques, which lets the kitchen experiment freely.

Laura Mendoza Writer

Laura admits that she is a slow eater. She prefers to take her time with the food she likes to eat and the stories she wishes to write. Having graduated with a Creative Writing degree, she comes from a background in writing fiction and poetry. Because of this, she has set herself on a creative mission to explore and delve into what other modes and channels exist for stories and narratives to be told, expressed, and shared with others. For Laura, food as a medium is an exciting proposition. Behind every dish, every ingredient, and every cooking technique, there lies a history worth discussing, a human being worth listening to, a lived experience worth gleaning from. As a means to satiate her appetite for learning about and understanding new and known things, she aims to be the kind of food writer who is approachable, reliable, and personable to readers.

See Full Bio

Why did La Spezia's owners rename their BGC restaurant Manarola?

Owners Sean Kevin Chua Yuquimpo and Chef Aaron Cyril Shiu renamed the BGC restaurant, originally also called La Spezia, to Manarola months after opening. Manarola is one of Cinque Terre’s five villages, and Sean describes it as stepping into Cinque Terre itself, a step beyond La Spezia, the area’s gateway.

Laura Mendoza Writer

Laura admits that she is a slow eater. She prefers to take her time with the food she likes to eat and the stories she wishes to write. Having graduated with a Creative Writing degree, she comes from a background in writing fiction and poetry. Because of this, she has set herself on a creative mission to explore and delve into what other modes and channels exist for stories and narratives to be told, expressed, and shared with others. For Laura, food as a medium is an exciting proposition. Behind every dish, every ingredient, and every cooking technique, there lies a history worth discussing, a human being worth listening to, a lived experience worth gleaning from. As a means to satiate her appetite for learning about and understanding new and known things, she aims to be the kind of food writer who is approachable, reliable, and personable to readers.

See Full Bio

Where is Manarola located, and who owns it?

Manarola is located at Lot 21&22, Block 33 Triangle Drive in Taguig, Metro Manila. It is owned by Sean Kevin Chua Yuquimpo and Chef Aaron Cyril Shiu, who also run La Spezia in Quezon City, where they have served classic family-style Italian food for the past decade.

Laura Mendoza Writer

Laura admits that she is a slow eater. She prefers to take her time with the food she likes to eat and the stories she wishes to write. Having graduated with a Creative Writing degree, she comes from a background in writing fiction and poetry. Because of this, she has set herself on a creative mission to explore and delve into what other modes and channels exist for stories and narratives to be told, expressed, and shared with others. For Laura, food as a medium is an exciting proposition. Behind every dish, every ingredient, and every cooking technique, there lies a history worth discussing, a human being worth listening to, a lived experience worth gleaning from. As a means to satiate her appetite for learning about and understanding new and known things, she aims to be the kind of food writer who is approachable, reliable, and personable to readers.

See Full Bio

What dishes were served in Manarola's 10-course menu?

A 10-course dinner at Manarola featured a burrata inspired by ratatouille, Hokkaido scallop with kamias and strawberry, house-made mortadella with arugula and pickles, Goose Ravioli with foie gras emulsion, and a chocolate mousse finished with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

Laura Mendoza Writer

Laura admits that she is a slow eater. She prefers to take her time with the food she likes to eat and the stories she wishes to write. Having graduated with a Creative Writing degree, she comes from a background in writing fiction and poetry. Because of this, she has set herself on a creative mission to explore and delve into what other modes and channels exist for stories and narratives to be told, expressed, and shared with others. For Laura, food as a medium is an exciting proposition. Behind every dish, every ingredient, and every cooking technique, there lies a history worth discussing, a human being worth listening to, a lived experience worth gleaning from. As a means to satiate her appetite for learning about and understanding new and known things, she aims to be the kind of food writer who is approachable, reliable, and personable to readers.

See Full Bio

Does Manarola's menu stay the same, or do the dishes change?

Manarola’s dishes change constantly because the owners see them as evolving concepts rather than fixed items. Sean said the kitchen changed a pasta’s shape and presentation while keeping its flavor, and that dishes can return to earlier versions depending on the situation.

Laura Mendoza Writer

Laura admits that she is a slow eater. She prefers to take her time with the food she likes to eat and the stories she wishes to write. Having graduated with a Creative Writing degree, she comes from a background in writing fiction and poetry. Because of this, she has set herself on a creative mission to explore and delve into what other modes and channels exist for stories and narratives to be told, expressed, and shared with others. For Laura, food as a medium is an exciting proposition. Behind every dish, every ingredient, and every cooking technique, there lies a history worth discussing, a human being worth listening to, a lived experience worth gleaning from. As a means to satiate her appetite for learning about and understanding new and known things, she aims to be the kind of food writer who is approachable, reliable, and personable to readers.

See Full Bio