105 Church Street
416.366.7444
Filipino
Makilala is a joyful celebration of Filipino culture and cuisine in the heart of Toronto. The latest spot from some of the city’s most prolific restaurateurs, it’s also the team’s first project devoted to Filipino food.
Any conversation about Thai food in Toronto inevitably involves chef Nuit Regular, and her husband Jeff. Inspired by chef Regular’s heritage, the duo has been successfully populating the city with red-hot Thai restaurants since the early 2000s.
With Makilala, the duo, along with Jeff’s brother, Joel, has shifted the focus from Thailand to the Philippines.
“Makilala means ‘to get to know,’ in Tagalog,” explains Joel. “It’s about my brother and myself getting to know our culture, our heritage. We grew up here, so it’s kind of about getting to know where our parents are from.”
For chef Nuit, switching from Thai food to Filipino classics was a departure, but not the vast leap some might think.
“Many of you might not know, but I’ve been married to Jeff for almost 25 years,” she says. “I cook Thai food at work but I come home and I get to eat Filipino food and cook Filipino food.”
Makilala’s menu, she explains, represents years of tasting and learning, and was created, not just by herself, but by generations of family cooks perfecting passed-down recipes.
“Many of Jeff’s relatives have different ways how they cook one dish,” she explains. “They bring their best dishes to share their recipes with us. Now, we get to bring all that and put it on the table, with the help of the family because all the recipes are from the family.”
Cementing the spaces’ authenticity, is the bustling room dotted with imported keepsakes, posters and snacks, family photos and goods from local Filipino makers. That there are capiz shell windows, a basketball court and, yes, karaoke, just proves the brothers’ commitment to bringing the Philippines to life in Toronto’s downtown core.
“We really wanted to transport people. We want people to feel as if they just walked off the plane onto the streets of Manila,” says Joel. “It’s an experience of nostalgia.”
“We didn’t want to make a theme park,” adds Jeff. “It’s more, how do we take the walls and make the walls be art? Make it feel like, in the Philippines, this would be here. Everything flows and makes sense. We wanted to tie everything in.”
Take a first sip of those connections via one of the team’s thoughtful cocktails or non-alcoholic beverages. Made with ube syrup and sprite, Ube Fizz ($9) is sparklingly sweet and fresh: an option that could easily delight non-imbibers and their underage kids.
Named for the national flower of the Philippines, the Sampaguita Sour ($18) is Jameson, blended with calamansi syrup and bitters, then capped off with egg white foam for a tropical riff on a traditional whiskey sour.
Despite its connection to the moon-devouring dragon of Filipino mythology, Bakunawa’s Bite ($19) is more light than dark, a refreshingly fruity mixture of gin, melon liqueur, lime, pineapple, and mango juices.
From grilled pork belly to ginataang langka, Makilala’s menu is a collection of fan-favourite dishes. “We picked from the most-liked dishes,” says chef Nuit. “We asked family and friends what they would like to eat.”
For starters, they crave the savoury meatiness of pork-filled Lumpia Shanghai ($15). Supersized to twice their usual length, the party staples are seasoned with pickle relish and soy, and served with chili-spiked dipping sauce.
Fork tender, varnished in soy sauce and banana ketchup, Grilled Pork Belly ($18) is chef Nuit’s favourite dish. One that carries the memory of summer, no matter the season, it’s zippy and fatty, with a delicate lick of smoke.
For a more potent hit of the grill, side it with Ensaladang Talong ($14), a pungent, smoky, multihued salad of grilled eggplant, tomato, mango, and more.
Adorned with a gleaming lobster carapace and, happily, the beast’s meat, Palabok Lobster ($MP) arrives to a chorus of “oohs” and “ahhs.”
An upgrade on shrimp, the more commonly used protein, the lobster is a sweet, celebratory enhancement to the bowl of heavily seasoned noodles. Tossed with smoked fish, chicharron, calamansi and a bevy of aromatics, this one disappears in a series of punchy, flavour-forward bites.
Centred on a plush peanut broth and fall-apart morsels of meat, Oxtail Kare Kare ($32) is the type of dish that could breathe life into the most feeble among us. Warming and rich, it’s best completed with a swirl of the accompanying bagoong, a traditional condiment of fermented shrimp paste.
How else to finish a meal at Makilala than with a joyously constructed Halo Halo ($15) brimming with tender, sweet, cool and luscious ingredients?
“Nuit’s introduction to Filipino food was through my family,” concludes Jeff. “Our parties — birthday parties, Christmas — are huge and there’s always a table full of, like my aunt’s dishes and our cousin’s adobo and all that stuff. It’s been almost 20 years of eating and learning.”
Makilala is located at 105 Church Street.
