La Chinesca Manila design, Philippines restaurant building photos, Taguig architecture development images

La Chinesca in Manila

19 November 2025

Design: JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio

Location: Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines

Photos: Scott Woodward

La Chinesca, Manila, Philippines Restaurant Building

La Chinesca’s newest outpost in Bonifacio Global City is a compact but culture-dense study in global street aesthetics, reimagined through JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio’s razor-sharp design lens. The 92-square-meter restaurant unfurls like an urban collage, equal parts New York corner-store grit, Hong Kong cha chaan teng nostalgia, and the graphic candor of contemporary Mexican street culture.

Acuna layers the space with a richly tactile palette: resin-infused stone aggregates sourced from Japan, corrugated stainless steel panels that catch Manila’s tropical light, and a custom Obrastone floor patterned with the brand’s bold geometric print. Furniture, locally fabricated and materially experimental, pushes the narrative further. Corn husk, resin, and concrete coalesce into sculptural tables, while bespoke lighting in polished and raw stainless steel grounds the scene in a quietly industrial rhythm.

Branding by Inksurge becomes architectural punctuation: floating acrylic signage, a playful pickup window, and a “corner shop” retail wall that nudges the restaurant into lifestyle territory. A porous indoor-outdoor flow blurs the edges of the 30-square-meter alfresco zone, ensuring the space always feels in motion.

La Chinesca BGC is less a restaurant and more an urban gesture, a spirited convergence of culture, craft, and culinary energy, distilled into a meticulously choreographed street-level experience.