Thus you come up against the unusual catch-22 of: the public gets scared off by Filipino food; and Filipinos will not eat well-presented and prepared fine dining because it’s too expensive and they can make as much of it at home as they like, they way they like it.

So when it comes down to it, the birth and health of a Filipino fine dining restaurant depends on creating it solely to appeal to non-Filipinos, while avoiding the damning wrath of Filipinos who decry its authenticity.

Added to that is the additional problem that Filipino “brand identity” just isn’t as strong as Japanese or Chinese restaurants. For example: you walk into a Japanese restaurant, you expect a certain ambience and decor and demeanor of service; in short, there is a certain dining experience you expect when going to into a Japanese restaurant. Same thing for Chinese restaurants. There is a bit of a dilution when you start getting into Korean and Thai restaurants, and you start seeing certain decor and ambience being shared in the two spaces. But the food does have certain distinct elements: Korean use of spices and aromatics (kimchi being a notable example even though it’s just a side dish) for instance, or the Thai use of lemongrass, peanuts, fish sauce and rice noodles. Thai food also has the positive PR image that it can be made healthy (even though it also has its share of brown, oily & fried.

But when you walk into a hypothetical Filipino fine dining restaurant, the challenge is to try to present an experience that isn’t already available in other types of restaurants. There needs to be an experience that people want to come back to, without resorting to kitsch like a Filipino show every weekend.

So, therein lie the great barriers to the longevity of a Filipino restaurant: quality, presentation, dining experience and surviving the negative criticism of Pinoys.