Best Burgers in Manila: Makati, BGC and QC

The best burgers in Manila are spread across Metro Manila rather than the city proper: Poblacion in Makati, Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig, Kapitolyo in Pasig and Maginhawa Street in Quezon City hold most of the independent burger kitchens. Many more sit inside the malls, where much of the capital eats out.

Filipino burger culture has its own taste: slightly sweet, and often eaten with rice. Jollibee, founded in Quezon City in 1978, made its Yumburger a national habit, and burger steak, a patty under mushroom gravy served with a scoop of rice, is a fast-food staple across the country. The household condiment is banana ketchup, credited to the food scientist María Orosa, who developed it when tomatoes ran short around the Second World War. A Manila burger that ignores that sweet tooth usually tastes foreign to locals.

Burgers in Manila: key facts

• Neighbourhoods to explore: Poblacion (Makati), BGC (Taguig), Kapitolyo (Pasig) and Maginhawa Street (Quezon City).
• Local specialty: burger steak, a patty with mushroom gravy and rice.
• Local condiment: banana ketchup, red, sweet and made from saba bananas.
• Currency: Philippine peso (PHP).
• Getting around: the MRT-3 along EDSA, the LRT lines, jeepneys and ride-hailing. Traffic decides how far you go for dinner.
• Rainy season: roughly June to October, when typhoons can flood roads and push dining into the malls.

Every guide we publish on Manila is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. For other cities, browse all our burger restaurant guides.