TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese restaurant has been selected in the first-ever Michelin Guide for the Philippines.
On Oct. 30, the Michelin Guide Manila and Environs & Cebu 2026 was released, featuring 108 restaurants, including one two-star, eight one-star, 25 Bib Gourmand recommendations, and 74 Michelin Guide Selected restaurants, per CNA. Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), a Taiwanese home-style restaurant in Metro Manila's Quezon City, is among the establishments to receive the Michelin Selected distinction.
Fong Wei Wu’s female owner and chef, Linda, told CNA that receiving this recognition was “indescribable.” She added, “When I got the news, I thought my employees were joking. When they confirmed it was true, I had goosebumps.”
In 2000, Linda, now in her 60s, moved to the Philippines to help her daughter, who had just graduated from junior high, improve her English. With time on her hands and a love for cooking, she took over a small restaurant, starting with traditional Taiwanese dishes like beef noodle soup, pork ribs with rice, and braised pork rice.
“It was an unexpected success,” she recalled. Cultural and language differences made starting a business abroad challenging, especially in managing staff, but she persevered.
To improve her culinary skills, Linda attended Taiwanese cooking workshops organized by the Overseas Community Affairs Council, learning from five-star hotel chefs. She then adapted those high-end techniques into dishes for her restaurant.
To suit local tastes, she tweaks some dishes, such as adjusting the fat-to-lean ratio in braised pork rice and adding more sauce. Her signature Dongpo Pork retains traditional methods, but she makes her own braising mix with about nine different spices.
All of Linda’s key ingredients, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, broad bean paste, fried shallots, pickled mustard tuber, and even takeout containers, are shipped from Taiwan. Although this raises costs, she refuses to compromise on authentic Taiwanese flavors.
This dedication is reflected in Michelin’s review of Fong Wei Wu: “It is managed by a Taiwanese female chef who specially selects Taiwanese condiments such as soy sauce to recreate authentic Taiwanese flavors.” The guide also recommends the fried bihon, rice vermicelli stir-fried with pork and cabbage, "topped with flavorsome minced pork to create a harmony of soy umami and vegetable sweetness."
Looking back on her journey, Linda admitted there were times she wanted to give up, especially during the COVID lockdowns. What kept her going was her staff’s livelihood. "Some of them have been with me for over 10 years. What would happen to them if I gave up?"
Her patrons are roughly half Filipino and half Chinese, with local customers increasing year by year. Many share their experiences on social media, and some Taiwanese tourists stop by based on recommendations from friends in the Chinese-Filipino community.
When asked for advice for young Taiwanese considering starting a business in the Philippines, she stressed, “Persistence, persistence, and more persistence, that’s it.”
