Update, October 29: The Michelin Guide named Bacolod Chicken House Express a Bib Gourmand in its 2027 Manila and Environs & Cebu selection. This piece was first published October 17, before the announcement, and has been revised to reflect the result.

The line was long, and I hadn’t expected it. Bacolod Chicken House Express, which most people call Chicken House Express, sits in the Savana Market complex in Makati, in front of Shopwise, and from the outside it looks like a grill counter in a market. I joined the queue anyway. At the register I asked the cashier whether it was always like this. The crowd, the cashier told me, doesn’t let up from opening to closing.

On October 29, the Michelin Guide noticed. At its second Philippine ceremony at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Newport World Resorts, the guide named Bacolod Chicken House Express, listed as C.H.E. Bacolod Chicken House Express, a 2027 Bib Gourmand, its award for good food at moderate prices. It is one of 10 new Bib Gourmands this year, in a category that now totals 31. I can’t say what the inspectors ordered. I can say what I ate here in two visits before the announcement.

Chicken Worth the Line

Chicken inasal is grilled chicken from Bacolod, the capital of Negros Occidental. It’s marinated in vinegar, calamansi, pepper and aromatics, then basted with annatto oil over charcoal until the skin turns orange-gold. On my first visit I ordered it with two cups of rice and a Coke, and it was among the best chicken I’ve ever tasted. I liked their chicken oil as well, the annatto-tinted fat that inasal places set out for pouring over rice.

A Name That Goes Back to 1976

The restaurant shares its name with Bacolod Chicken House, which Jose Maria Cajili opened in Bacolod in February 1976. A 2007 Philstar feature said inasal was barely known outside Bacolod before then, and that the restaurant’s chicken caught on quickly. Its main branch is on Lacson Street, and the same feature counted four branches in Manila at the time.

Diners who know the Bacolod original keep making the comparison. Reviewers of the Makati branch say its inasal tastes closer to what they ate in Bacolod than most of Manila’s options, and a few put it alongside Aida’s.

Why Bacolod Owns Inasal

Bacolod’s claim runs through Cuadra Street, nicknamed Chicken Alley, where grill stalls lined the road in the 1970s. Aida’s started there as a carinderia (a neighborhood eatery serving home-style dishes) in the mid-1970s. The stalls later moved together into Manokan Country, the complex of inasal grills that is still on most visitors’ Bacolod itineraries. Manokan comes from manok, the word for chicken.

Iloilo, across the Guimaras Strait, contests the origin. Banoy Velez of Oton, Iloilo, claimed to have brought inasal to Bacolod in 1946. Iloilo’s version tends sweeter, the style Mang Inasal, founded in Iloilo City in 2003, took nationwide. Bacolod’s leans sourer, and its marinade leaves out soy sauce. At the table it comes with sinamak, a palm vinegar steeped with garlic, chili and galangal.

Bacolod made its claim official in November 2022, when the city council declared chicken inasal a local cultural property. In October 2024, the food ranking site TasteAtlas put Bacolod chicken inasal first on its list of the 100 best Filipino dishes, based on about 3,800 user ratings.

The Second Visit Was Liempo

Two days later I came back and switched to liempo, the grilled pork belly. It came out tender and juicy. I ate alone both times and paid for both meals myself. A full meal, with the main, two cups of rice and a Coke, cost me ₱200 to ₱250.

What Other Diners Say

On Tripadvisor, the Makati branch holds 4.1 out of 5 from 16 reviews. Its lowest marks are for atmosphere, since the setting is an open-air market and the dining area is basic. Regulars praise chicken grilled to order and the garlic rice. Not every visit lands, and one reviewer wrote that their chicken tasted cooked earlier and reheated. On other review sites, diners describe arriving before opening to find a queue already formed, and waiting 30 to 40 minutes, which fits what the cashier told me. Beyond paa (leg) and pecho (breast), reviewers also order isol, the chicken tail, and atay, the liver.

Aida’s Got There a Year Earlier

Aida’s Chicken, another Bacolod-style inasal restaurant with a branch in Makati, was named Michelin Selected in the guide’s first Philippine edition, announced on October 30, 2025. Michelin Selected is the guide’s tier for restaurants it recommends without a star or a Bib Gourmand. The inspectors reviewed Aida’s Makati branch and singled out its Bacolod-style chicken inasal. Bacolod Chicken House Express joins the guide a year later with a Bib Gourmand. For more of the guide’s affordable picks, see our list of affordable Michelin restaurants in Metro Manila.

I’ve eaten at Aida’s, though I never got around to its chicken. The first time, the day after the guide’s announcement last year, the chicken had sold out. I tried again in mid-October and arrived about ten minutes before closing, too late to dine. I’ll go back.

Why the Guide Matters Here

The first Philippine edition, covering Manila, its surrounding provinces and Cebu, named 108 establishments. Helm in Makati received two stars, eight restaurants got one star, 25 got the Bib Gourmand, and 74 were Michelin Selected. That last group reached past fine dining to places like Lola Helen’s Panciteria, a pancit house in Marikina.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is the guide’s destination partner here. Then-Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said it took three years to bring the guide to the Philippines. The DOT hasn’t disclosed what it pays. Tourism agencies elsewhere have funded their editions; Thailand’s tourism authority reportedly paid more than $4 million in 2017. Gwendal Poullennec, the guide’s international director, has said partners see nothing of the selection before it’s released. In July, Tourism Secretary Dita Angara-Mathay said the DOT has signed on for at least two more editions, 2027 and 2028.

For the restaurants named, the effect showed up at the register. The co-owners of The Underbelly, a Bib Gourmand awardee, said several recognized establishments doubled their sales after the first list, small family-run eateries among them. Gastronomy also entered the National Tourism Development Plan for the first time, and tour operators added carinderia tours and Binondo food crawls.

Filipino food has been called the next big thing for years without the moment arriving. The first guide drew criticism for what it missed: Pampanga, long called the country’s culinary capital, had no restaurant on it. The 2027 selection reaches further, with Pampanga and Tagaytay among the places it now covers. The dish that ranks first among Filipino foods is still mostly served the way it is here, from a market grill, for under ₱250, and the guide has now put one of those grills on its list.

The Case for a Third Visit

Two meals are not an inspection, and I said so before the list came out. The guide says it weighs consistency, and a kitchen that feeds a line from opening to closing gets tested on that every hour it’s open. Both of my plates held up, and the guide has now put its name to the same conclusion. I’m going back for a third meal, and I’ll try Aida’s chicken again too.

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Field Notes

Where: Bacolod Chicken House Express (Chicken House Express), 114 K. Savana Market, Metropolitan Avenue, Makati, in front of Shopwise.

What to order: Chicken inasal with rice and their chicken oil. Liempo if you’re going back for a second meal.

Crowd: Expect a line. The cashier says it runs from opening to closing.

Michelin Guide Manila and Environs & Cebu 2027: Bib Gourmand, announced October 29 at the Manila Marriott Hotel, Newport World Resorts. One of 10 new Bib Gourmands among 31 this year.

Budget (per person, PHP)

• Full meal (main, two cups of rice, Coke): ₱200–250
• Total for a solo meal: ₱200–250

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