Chefs Chele Gonzalez and Álvaro Romero-Abreu Raya bring Cantabrian flavors to Manila in mouthwatering and creative ways.
What a time it is to be a foodie in Metro Manila! With all the restaurants and cafés sprouting here and there, a forty-something tita like me can hardly keep up.
A few weeks ago, The POST was invited to a special dinner at Cantabria, perched high above the labyrinthine streets of Ortigas, on the 30th floor rooftop of The Westin Manila. Dinner was hosted by Chele himself, and we had a chat with him before the Cantabrian feast. He happily shared that the restaurant is doing well, “even if it doesn’t yet get the recognition that it deserves.”
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And doing well it is! When I arrived on a rainy mid-week evening, all the tables filled up by the time my sangria was served. Three hours later, Cantabria was still packed with happy looking diners.
I’m quite sure the recognition chef Chele is hoping for Cantabria is coming soon because we surely had a night—and a feast—to remember.
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A taste of Chele’s home
Chef Chele shared that Cantabria is focused on seafood, and gave me a crash course on Spanish geography, zeroing in on his home province. Cantabria is flanked by Asturias to the left and the Basque Country to the right. “It’s a very unique region—you have the ocean and you have the mountain,” he said. “In between you have all the green sierra (mountains).”
It’s a province blessed with diversity, he said, adding how its cows make it an excellent region for dairy. “We have amazing butter,” he said with a grin. (For me, butter is a gift from the gods!)
Chele acknowledges how the neighboring Basque region is a global culinary powerhouse, but said that Cantabria, which is just across the border, is “geographically and gastronomically almost the same.”
He shared that seafood is one of the specialties of Cantabria, and growing up (was that a twinkle in his eye?) he ate a lot of fresh fish. “Actually,” he exclaimed while pointing to a fish on display over ice on the counter, “That’s the turbot you’re going to eat tonight.”
Apart from the fish, other ingredients from Cantabria are the oysters and anchovies“ They say that our anchovies are the best in the world,” he said quite proudly. “I think Cantabria is not talked about enough just yet. But I think it’s a great restaurant.” Yep, we agree, wholeheartedly.
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Nuevo chef, nuevo sabores
“Every time I have a restaurant under my name, one of my requirements is to have a chef with a very good background, who can really execute the food at the level that is required,” Chele explained. “In this case, it’s chef Álvaro (Romero-Abreu Raya), who comes from the south of Spain but lived in the Basque Country for many years. In fact, he was part of the R&D team of Mugaritz, a two-Michelin star restaurant where I worked before. That’s how we’re connected.”
The dinner on that rainy Wednesday evening was a collaboration between him and chef Álvaro, who brings with him a formidable culinary background. Before coming to the Philippines to work in Cantabria, chef Álvaro worked for a range of restaurants around Spain—including the famed Mugaritz in Errenteria, La Salgar in Asturias, and Abantal in Seville—honing his skills from hearty homemade dishes to delicate fine dining creations.
Being a chef, however, wasn’t part of his initial plans. Before making the big leap, he used to be a law student, initially planning to be part of the police force, but life had other plans for him—one that actually started in his childhood, specifically the afternoons spent in the kitchen with his grandmother and both his parents.
Chef Álvaro briefly chatted with us, sharing with a playful grin his fondness for San Miguel Beer, but not without discovering the infamous kick of Red Horse first. We all let out a chuckle when he said that one of the Filipino words he first learned was pulutan. The chef sure is charming—we all agreed on this—but also plenty talented, as we were about to find out when the first dishes were brought out.
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A standout dinner
What I’m about to describe is quite possibly the best dinner I’ve had so far midway through 2025, so pardon if I wax too poetic about the food.
Opening our eager palates were Cantabria’s new dishes, starting with Ostra Manzana y Lima-Limón and Tartar de Salmón con Vieiras y Gazpachuelo de Jalapeños y Coco. The former is simple yet show-stopping: the freshest oyster made even more divine with a delicate apple foam and lemon-lime zest. A taste of both the sea and the earth in one mind-blowing bite. The salmon tartare, meanwhile, was an inventive take on the ceviche: salmon cubes topped with slivers of torched scallops and coconut cream on a jalapeño emulsion.
Up next was a medley of tapas—because what is a Spanish feast without these bite-sized wonders? Don’t let the Croquetas de Jamón Ibérico’s simplicity fool you. Unbelievably creamy and flavorful, this was one of the evening’s crowd favorites—and that’s saying a lot considering the company in which it finds itself.
Photos from The Westin Manila
The Tortilla Española Crujiente, meanwhile, is a fun reimagining of a classic Spanish dish. Served in a pani puri, this one’s as delectable as it is playful. Up next is a dish that had chef Chele’s voice break a little with nostalgia. The Guiso de Maganos en su Tinta con Patatas en Texturas reminds him of his mother’s cooking: tender baby squid cooked in its own ink, and mixed with crisp snow peas and potato slivers for some crunch.
Opening the second act of the evening’s feast is Cantabria’s crown jewel—Rodaballo a la Parrilla. I’m no fan of fish, but just one bite of this glorious, impeccably grilled turbot flown in from Cantabria made me an instant convert. The fish was only very lightly seasoned, making me imagine the taste of the Cantabrian Sea.
Chef Chele went through the trouble of carving the fish for each of us while urging us to savor it down to the bones—to which we all obliged and ended up grateful for doing so. The turbot was by no means a beauty (someone at our table blurted out that it looks rather ugly), but in deft hands, such as chefs Chele’s and Álvaro’s, it’s transformed into the sublime.
The second star of the evening was the Paella de Wagyu y Tuétano: rice, beef, and marrow. My mouth was watering as I typed these words. This time it was chef Álvaro’s turn to serve us, thoroughly mixing the paella with the wagyu and that sinful marrow. Oh, he made sure to scrape the umami bomb that is the socarrat (the burnt rice at the bottom of the pan). Each spoonful made me wonder what I had done to deserve this most wondrous of dinner.
Then there’s dessert, featuring two creations which made me realize the night had no real climax. We didn’t crescendo toward a mind-blowing finale—it was a sure and steady journey, with each dish a joyful, thoughtful creation.
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The Soufflé de Chocolate, Calabaza y Pistacho is as indulgent as it is surprisingly comforting—chocolate soufflé sprinkled with crunchy roasted pumpkin, vanilla toffee, and a dollop of pistachio ice cream.
Closing the feast is the Sobao Pasiego, another taste of Chele’s childhood. He said that they used to have this milk-soaked butter cake—which is a bit similar to Tres Leches—for breakfast. Breakfast? I wondered, because it was so rich and complex (it was topped with berry coulis and a scoop of cheese ice cream), it wouldn’t look out of place in a feast—such as that lovely Wednesday night when I had a taste of Cantabria and culinary genius.
Cantabria is at the penthouse of The Westin Manila, San Miguel Avenue corner Lourdes Drive, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong. For more information, visit their website.
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