Restaurant in Manilla, Philippines
Makati fine dining with real awards behind it.
M Dining + Bar M is one of Manila's most consistently recognised Asian Fusion restaurants, holding an Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Asia ranking for three consecutive years. Chef Tom Bascon's third-floor Makati room works well for celebration dinners and client meals, with a bar program that earns its own visit. Booking is easy, and the venue is closed Sundays.
Most people land at M Dining + Bar M because of the restaurant's growing reputation in Makati's fine-dining circuit. The common assumption is that Bar M is an afterthought — a holding area while you wait for your table. That assumption is wrong. The bar program here is a deliberate, standalone operation worth planning your evening around, not just passing through.
M Dining + Bar M sits on the third floor of Alegria Alta Building on Chino Roces Avenue in Makati, under chef Tom Bascon's direction. The Asian Fusion format gives both the kitchen and the bar room to move across flavor registers — expect a drinks program that reflects the same cross-cultural sensibility as the food, rather than a generic cocktail list dropped in as an afterthought.
The room reads as a considered space, not a maximalist flex. The third-floor positioning separates it from the street-level noise of Chino Roces, which matters for a special occasion dinner or a business meal where you need the room to actually carry a conversation. The visual impression is composed and deliberate , this is a venue that has thought about how it looks and how it feels to sit in it, which is the baseline expectation for a restaurant that has made the Opinionated About Dining Leading Restaurants in Asia list three consecutive years (Highly Recommended 2023, #278 in 2024, #307 in 2025).
Bar M operates as a genuine companion to the dining room rather than a bar-cart accessory. For a venue anchored in Asian Fusion cuisine, the drinks program has the opportunity to work with regional spirits, local ingredients, and flavor frameworks that go well beyond a standard hotel-bar cocktail menu. The bar is open across both lunch and dinner service, Monday through Saturday, which means you can drop in mid-afternoon or build an evening around an extended drinks-and-dinner session. If you are booking for a celebration or a date night, arriving early at the bar before a dinner reservation is the way to get the full range of what the venue offers.
Friday and Saturday evenings are the obvious peak windows. If your priority is a quieter room with more attentive service, the weekday dinner slot , opening at 5 pm, running to 9:30 pm , gives you more space. Lunch service runs 11 am to 2 pm daily (Monday through Saturday), and the bar is open across those same hours. Sunday is a full closure, so do not plan a weekend brunch visit. The venue does not operate past 9:30 pm on any night, which makes it a first-stop dinner rather than a late-night destination , plan accordingly if you are building a longer evening in Makati.
M Dining + Bar M works well for celebration dinners, date nights, and client meals where you need a venue that signals care and intent without requiring the kind of weeks-long advance booking that Makati's most in-demand kitchens demand. A Google rating of 4.4 across 171 reviews is a useful signal: this is a restaurant with consistent execution and a loyal regular base, not a venue coasting on hype. The OAD Asia ranking across three consecutive years puts it in verifiable company , this is not a local curiosity, it is a restaurant that holds its own against regional benchmarks. Booking is currently rated easy, so a celebration dinner booked a few days out is realistic, though peak weekend evenings will always fill faster.
If you are building a broader Makati or Metro Manila dining itinerary, Helm in Makati and Linamnam in Parañaque are both worth considering for contrast. For a full picture of the city's dining options, see our full Manila restaurants guide. If you are staying overnight, our Manila hotels guide covers the options near Makati. For after-dinner options, our Manila bars guide is the practical next step.
For context on Asian Fusion at a similar tier in other cities, Dos Palilos in Barcelona and Aalto in Milan offer useful reference points on how the format performs in competitive European markets.
Booking is rated easy , for weekday dinners, a day or two of notice is typically sufficient. For Friday or Saturday evening, give yourself three to five days to be safe. The venue's consistent OAD Asia ranking means it attracts a steady flow of visitors alongside its regular clientele, so weekend slots fill faster than the overall ease rating might suggest.
Go in knowing the bar is worth your time before dinner, not just a waiting area. The Asian Fusion format under chef Tom Bascon means the menu moves across multiple flavor frameworks , if you are used to a single-country cuisine focus, expect something more compositionally varied. The venue has held an OAD Asia ranking for three consecutive years, which sets a clear quality expectation. It is not the cheapest table in Makati, but it is one of the more reliably executed ones at its tier.
No dress code is specified, but the third-floor Makati setting, OAD Asia recognition, and overall positioning point clearly to smart casual as the floor. Jeans are likely fine; shorts and sandals are a risk. For a celebration dinner or client meal, business casual is the practical call , you will not be overdressed and you will not feel out of place.
No seat count is listed in available data, so large private group requests are leading confirmed directly with the venue before booking. For a group of four to six, the standard dining room should handle the booking without issue given the easy booking rating. For larger celebrations or corporate dinners in Manila, also consider Gordon Ramsay Bar & Grill in Pasay or Asador Alfonso in Cavite as alternatives with more confirmed large-group infrastructure.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| M Dining + Bar M | Easy | — | |
| Toyo Eatery | Unknown | — | |
| Gallery By Chele | Unknown | — | |
| Locavore | Unknown | — | |
| Antonio's | Unknown | — | |
| Txanton | Unknown | — |
How M Dining + Bar M stacks up against the competition.
Book at least one to two weeks ahead for Friday and Saturday dinner, which are the busiest windows. Weekday lunch slots are more accessible and worth considering if flexibility allows. The restaurant is closed Sundays, so plan accordingly. Given its consecutive OAD Top Restaurants in Asia rankings in 2024 and 2025, demand has been climbing.
The venue sits on the third floor of the Alegria Alta Building on Chino Roces Ave in Makati, so factor in building access when planning arrival time. Chef Tom Bascon leads an Asian Fusion format across lunch and dinner service, Tuesday through Saturday. The bar component, Bar M, is a genuine part of the experience rather than a waiting area. OAD has ranked it among Asia's top restaurants three consecutive years, which is a credible external signal of kitchen consistency.
No dress code is documented in available venue data, but the third-floor Makati setting, consecutive OAD Asia rankings, and client-meal positioning all point toward polished casual at minimum. Avoid beachwear or overly casual streetwear. For a celebration dinner or client lunch, treat it the way you would any Makati fine-dining address.
The venue works for small groups given its fine-dining format, but specific private dining or large-group capacity details are not confirmed in current venue data. For parties of six or more, contact them directly before assuming availability. The room is better suited to intimate dinners and client meals than to large celebratory parties.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
