Balai Palma

 Balai Palma is one of the newer Filipino restaurants offering inventive tasting menus. Located along Palma Street in trendy Poblacion, Makati, it features an interesting private dining experience courtesy of Chef Aaron Isip. The word balai means “house” in Ilonggo, the Filipino dialect spoken where his mother is from.

Before opening Balai Palma in August 2022, Chef Isip was Chef de Cuisine at Dix-Huit, a Parisian restaurant that was named one of the best restaurants by Le Figaro in 2014. In 2015, he received the Trophée Espoir for the Île de France region from renowned restaurant guide Gault et Millau. Unless I’m mistaken, he’s the only Filipino chef to have received that award.

Chef Isip’s French culinary training is on full display at Balai Palma, where he creates complex technique-driven dishes like this ube in three textures. It consists of ube prepared in three ways with halaan clams, Oscietra caviar, and clam emulsion.

What you’re looking at below is one of his signature main courses – giant mangrove crab cold somen. Served in a crab shell, it consists of cold somen noodles tossed in an aligue (crab roe) and tarragon sauce. Sitting on top of the noodles are Chilean uni and fried soft shell crab.

This next main course – boudin noir soup in cuttlefish ink – was every bit as delicious and inventive as it was beautiful.

A play on Filipino dinuguan, this striking dish was made with sauteed squid, pork chicharron, sigarilyas (wing beans), and white beans served in a bowl with cuttlefish ink and a side of puto (rice cakes). Unless I’m mistaken, the tuile was also made from cuttlefish ink.

Be sure to check out my article on Balai Palma for more pictures and information on Chef Isip and his fantastic restaurant.

Aside from the food, what makes a meal at Balai Palma even more special is the venue itself. The restaurant is set in Chef Isip’s townhouse, which he continued to live in at the time of our visit.

Reservations at Balai Palma are a must and can be made through their Instagram page.