The Guadalupe Public Market is the biggest of its kind in Makati. Here you can find plenty of…read morestalls selling fresh meat, seafood, vegetables, and fruits. But just like any public palengke or wet market, this place is not for the faint of heart. Expect the floors in the meat and fish area to be wet and smelly. And since this is an old establishment, the paint on the walls are already peeling off and the general condition of the place is grimy. However, if you can look way past the appearance of this public market, you'll find that it's actually a good place to buy not only wet items, but dry goods as well. Guadalupe Public Market also has stores selling traditional baskets, plastic items, affordable apparel, household cleaning materials, and even cheap diapers. Another advantage of patronizing this public market is that you can develop loyalty with your favorite sellers and they would be more than willing to give you the choicest cuts and huge discounts on your purchases. The Guadalupe Public Market is very accessible because it's near jeepney terminals and bus stops along EDSA. Plus, it has access to the Guadalupe MRT station.

Great one stop shop! Has everything needed for dinner or a party. One day they might add Gina Mango…read moreJuice in 1 liter cartons!

My recent favorite find! I can't believe I didn't know this place existed in Manila. I can live…read morehere now! It's a European deli + grocery, where you can find meats, cheeses, produce. There's a good selection of ingredients for European cooking - Italian, French, German. Plus, they have a wide array of my favorite European snacks! Brands like Cailler, Kagi, Manner, Hero, Piacelli, etc. Pluses are the cafe upstairs, olive bar, gift baskets, breads, and they can make a very presentable charcuterie plate. Friendly associates too. Negatives are they can't serve coffee to go, and they quoted me the wrong price for the charcuterie plate. I selected meats and cheeses on promo and the price they charged me was way higher than the sum of the individual meats. I took it up to them and they didn't do anything to correct this. I'll just have to keep a sharper eye when they ring me up next time. This will be my go to place for my European ingredients needs and snacks! Yay! After a terrible weekend in this city, Santi's kind of redeemed Manila for me!

My Saturday routine usually starts at Salcedo Market and ends at Säntis Delicatessen. I've read…read moresomething about this gourmet-paradise place in some expatriate's web forum and wanted to check it out. Well, I can say it was love at first sight. If you like to cook different dishes (I mean, not the everyday ones), this is the right place for you to find sophisticated ingredients. They sell gourmet products from all over the world. So there's no matter if you want to impress and prepare some Moroccan food or serve authentic Italian pasta: there you'll certainly find what you need. The products I always buy there are prime meats, chicken breast, fresh salmon, turkey ham and imported cheese. Their US beef tenderloin is the most tender I found in town - and I've tried many supermarkets before. Highly recommend it! Santis also has a wine cellar with a big variety of bottles. Just choose the country and region you appreciate the most and voilà, you'll have all the elements for a great gourmet experience.

The issue with the Makati store is that they will sell very expensive milk with an expiration date…read more5 days from now and the milk is already Turing bad when you open it and then the management gives you a hard time to get a credit even though we have been coming to this store twice a week for 2.5 years and as Americans we stand out and they all know us. Then they tell us to come back next time for the credit slip, when it should take 2 minutes to give you a credit slip that day, then you come back and they say they lost your request for a credit - Mickey Mouse business practices and this is wrong.

This is supermarket we choose when we have to do our big monthly grocery. There's a reason: The…read moreLandmark brings together good variety and also lower prices compared to Rustan's, for example. The highlights, for me, are the great variety of greens, fruits and vegetables (including organic ones!) and the fact that they sell Santïs meats, so I don't have to do two shopping trips. They sell also a good variety of rice (if you're not used to the filipino one, then they have Basmati, Jasmine, Brown Rice and much more) and beans. Thanks to the beans from Landmark, I can keep the Brazilian "rice and beans" tradition at home. And believe me, that means a lot to me :) I also love Landmark's food court. There's a green juice in some stall there that's is just perfect. I also like Bread Talk and Kumori, the Japanese bakery. I mean, there's a lot to explore there before you start pushing your shop cart! TIP: Landmark is cheaper than Rustan's and has much more variety than the SM Supermarket. Choose it for the big once-a-month grocery.

Okay, it's been nine months since I first reviewed Pioneer Street Market, and yes, the place has…read moreshaped up nicely. There are more than a dozen food concessionaires in the compound, and they are amazing. We now have hipster coffee, roast beef, homestyle tapa, paninis, peri-peri chicken, shawarma, tapas, sate babe, burgers, and so much more! Ang saya-saya! I just hope that people flock here as I would hate to see this go. The response from the public has been awesome though.

I work just in front of the Pioneer Street Market so I've ventured here several times, and I have…read moreto say that this is every organic person's haven. Inside Pioneer Street Market in an array of fresh goods. From colourful fruits to leafy vegetables, all-organic baking needs ingredients to healthy juices, PSM has it. They have several stalls inside that sells these plus a bunch of other healthy eats you health buffs will definitely enjoy. Right outside Pioneer Street Market is a mini-garden shop where they sell a few plants. This instantly caught my eye because I've been meaning to try planting and find out if I've got the green thumb or not. I saw a few plants that I had to stop myself from buying. There was the Plant Candle Top, Bonsais and my personal favourite, the Milflores. And the best part is that they're relatively cheap! (Well, I actually don't know how much plants are but for 120pesos per pot of Plant Candle Top, I think it's a steal!) Pioneer Street Market during the weekdays don't have a lot of stalls or they're not as filled up unlike their weekend markets. So if you do plan to visit, I suggest stopping by on a Saturday or Sunday so you're sure you'll find something to purchase.

During our most recent visit to Manila, we have dined at three different locations (actually if we…read morecount another one last year, it will be four for me). Every single location delivered the same top-notch service and excellent food. It seemed that there was always a waiting list. But what they did that was so smart was give us the menu and and an order form and that gave us the time to peruse the menu, decide what we want and place our orders. By the time we sat down, it didn't take long before our orders were delivered. The first time we dined, there were only two of us, so we ordere the small plates. Another smart idea to have the choice of small, medium and large orders depending on the number of people. We've always dined family style so we were able to taste different foods. We've ordered the essential Filipino foods i.e., different kinds of sisig, salpicao, sinigang, adobo, pancit palabok, buko pie, puto bumbong, halo halo. And every single dish was phenomenally tasty, especially for us who are all residing in the US. Manam will always be our first choice whenever we are in Manila.

Easy eats vibes with the choice of smaller portions if you aren't too hungry…read more Went for a casual lunch. Despite there being tables available, we had to wait about 15 minutes to sit. Ordered their garlicky chicken and pork adobo, sisig, garlic rice, and turon. The adobo was fine, I think it would have been better just with the pork vs with chicken. Sisig was on point. The garlic rice was fine as well. The turon didn't have bananas in it but mangoes instead. I had thought it would have had both mangoes and bananas, but was mistaken. Overall, a decent place for casual sit-down vibes.