Regina Troy Barrios

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Offbeat Bistro

Quietly overlooking the expansive Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati is<a href="https://www.instagram.com/offbeatbistroph/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> OffBeat Bistro</a>, a “modern‑retro” Filipino bistro championing regional Filipino cuisine presented in new ways.Inside, OffBeat feels like a page out of a modern artsy diner with its striking cherry‑red walls and high mirrored ceilings. Let your eyes linger a little further and you’ll find touches of Pinoy retro like Paete papier‑mâché figures, disco‑themed music, and even cocktails like root‑beer floats and “Icy Gems”. And yet, at this intersection of the new and the old, you’ll find elements that feel freshly re‑imagined.Marching to the offbeat of their own culinary drum, chefs and long-time friends<a href="https://www.instagram.com/donbaldosano/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Don Baldosano</a> (of<a href="https://www.instagram.com/linamnam_mnl/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Linamnam</a> fame) and award-winning food writer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fooddudeph/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Angelo Comsti</a> founded this restaurant after many years of playing around with the idea of it. Their friendship grew around Don’s home restaurant where Sunday research sessions (a.k.a. drinking sessions) inspired big ideas. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17503253399541.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Angelo Comsti and Don Baldosano, the longtime friends bringing OffBeat to life | Photo: Offbeat Bistro</div>Don remembers, “Me and Angelo and one of our good friends would hang out in my house every Sunday… Every time Linamnam’s closed, they’re my guests… This recurring topic for me and Angelo all the time was: ‘What if we open something together, using all of this stuff that we’ve been researching on for the past years?’” Angelo Comsti is no stranger to regional Filipino cuisine, having dedicated a significant amount of his life’s work to researching about provincial delicacies to documenting it in his award-winning book “<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/life/12/03/19/new-book-shines-spotlight-on-lesser-known-pinoy-dishes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Also Filipino</a>” and even doing faithful recreations of regional dishes at his island restaurant in Boracay called <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/food/restaurants/hain-boracay-by-angelo-comsti-at-the-henry/38194" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hain</a>. Over time, what started as a running joke turned into action. “It was just a running joke… until at some point we were like, ‘Let’s try it out. Nobody’s doing it. Maybe we can be that change in Filipino food’,” Don recalls.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750341465694OffBeat_7004-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Lumpiang Kulawo | Photo: Ching Dee</div>Frustration with the Filipino food scene’s habit of repetition led them to start something new. “Honestly, yes. I was frustrated seeing the same dishes all the time. But I realized: why be frustrated when I can just be part of the change?” Don says.Take the Lumpiang Kulawo: smoky bites of charred eggplant with beansprouts, and sayote tucked in a crunchy spring roll and brightened by a coconut‑vinegar emulsion. Laguna’s regional delicacy is alive and well in this dish, but its fresh treatment gave it so much more texture that you can devour with gusto. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750471496476OffBeat_7039-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Sweet Baked Potato | Photo: Ching Dee</div>Or try their Sweet Baked Potato, where twice‑cooked kamote meets patis caramel, puffed rice and burnt kesong puti, finished with a toyo gastrique—crunchy, salty, unexpectedly comforting. All the comforts of familiar ingredients with fresh new ways of presenting them. Their genius savory take on Bibingka comes dressed in shrimp salad and spiked with smoked queso de bola, cured yolk, burnt coco powder and salted egg sauce. The Bibingka (made with mashed cooked rice instead of rice flour) is warm, pillowy, and slightly sweet while the shrimp salad is chilled, savory, and creamy. The play on contrasting temperatures and flavors made this dish an instant favorite. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750341541173OffBeat_6995-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Bibingka | Photo: Ching Dee</div>OffBeat’s Pinangat wraps a piece of Pompano in hoja santa leaves then steamed until tender and served on a pond of clam milk sauce with tiny tapioca pearls. Yes, sago. With fish. And trust us, it works and we cannot even explain it ourselves. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750341559532OffBeat_7021-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Pompano Pinangat | Photo: Ching Dee</div>But if for some reason you’re forced to try just one thing from OffBeat’s menu, let it be the Inihaw na Baboy Rice. A complete savory meal on its own, their take on fried rice comes with shredded grilled pork tossed with white rice — glistening in its soy sauce-glazed glory—before being crowned with garlic chips and spring onions. Unashamed and hungry for more, this writer can say I could finish an entire serving of it all on my own. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750341580435OffBeat_7030-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Inihaw na Baboy Fried Rice | Photo: Ching Dee</div>In the end, OffBeat is more than a restaurant. It’s a curated experience that celebrates memory, regional flavor and showmanship: food, decor, cocktails and music all speaking to different chapters of Filipino creativity. This — more accessible than their fine dining concepts — is how they invite a wider audience into their version of Filipino culinary heritage.“For me, I just wake up knowing I’m going to cook Filipino food that I love. There’s no other routine I want right now,” Don says. <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1750341608453OffBeat_6969-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Icy Gems Cocktail | Photo: Ching Dee</div><div>You can find<a href="https://www.instagram.com/offbeatbistroph/"> OffBeat Bistro</a> on the 2nd floor of The Shops at Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati City; follow them on Instagram at<a href="https://www.instagram.com/offbeatbistroph/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> @offbeatbistroph </a>or call 0995 639 3672 for inquiries.</div>

Celebrating lesser-known dishes in new forms, OffBeat Bistro invites diners to rediscover Filipino cuisine through flavor and history.

Celebrating lesser-known dishes in new forms, OffBeat Bistro invites diners to rediscover Filipino cuisine through flavor and history.

This New Modern-Retro Bistro Makes Filipino Food Wildly Fun Again

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This New Modern-Retro Bistro Makes Filipino Food Wildly Fun Again

Ching Dee

Published June 21, 2025 10:12 AM PHT

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offbeat bistro

where to eat ayala triangle makati

new restaurant makati

don baldosano

modern filipino food

filipino restaurant

angelo comsti

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