PA L AT E
S tr e ss e d t o i mpr e ss
What does it take to impress Filipino millennial diners this 2018?
w ords Rina Caparras
I M AG E S Lidye Petit and Ali Inay of Unsplash
Ever since I got old enough to venture on my
own, I’ve prioritized eating out. If I showed you my
expenses tracker, you’d see that 40% of my income goes
to restaurants. The same is true for my peers. Food has
become the center of millennial culture. If we’re not at
trendy restaurants or speakeasy bars, we’re at third-wave
coffee shops or our neighboring food parks.
It’s no surprise, then, that restaurants are targeting our
demographic. We belong to a generation that’s connected
to social media 24/7, spending most of our time ogling
at pictures of food. We have food apps that let us book
reservations with a single click, as well as Uber to take
us to places in the most inconvenient locations. We have
countless resources that enable us to eat wherever and
whenever we want to.
But how do you make millennials happy? What will
make us flock to restaurants over and over again?
First, know that we don’t enjoy Instagram food as
much as you might think we do. By Instagram food,
I mean food that is wonderful to look at but is often
overpriced, unhealthy and unremarkable taste-wise. At
its worst, it’s selling us something we can get any day for
a really low price, like raindrop cakes, which is basically
just gelatinous water. At its best, it gives us something
interesting to post on social media, as well as something
delightful to drink/eat at least once, and never again, like
unicorn frappés.
I’m not saying people should stop aspiring to make
food that looks good. But average diners like me can’t
eat our Instagram likes. Only influencers can live off the
number of likes they get on Instagram.
For most of us, our food should make sense. After
we’ve posted images of our gorgeous but ridiculous
shake, topped with pretzels, popcorn, cotton candy,
popsicles, and other things, will we go and buy it again?
Unlikely.
We look for food that goes back to the basics; food
that has well-balanced flavors and reasonable servings.
It doesn’t even have to be trendy food. Mama Lou’s has
proven that timeless classics like Truffle Mac and Cheese
and Seafood Oglio can sell when executed perfectly and
consistently. The long lines in front of Silantro would
also attest to this fact.
We look for food that’s effortlessly gorgeous, like
ramen, dim sum, pasta and tacos. All would make lovely
additions to our Instagram feeds but would also satisfy us
again and again, once we stop being mesmerized by the
visual appeal of it all. Food, in order to succeed, should
satisfy our palates and our appetites, not just our eyes. If
we can enjoy food even without feeling the need to post
it on Facebook or Instagram, that’s the true sign that we
loved our restaurant experience.
Find a balance between authenticity and uniqueness.
Filipino millennials are a well-traveled bunch. With just a
few clicks, we can book trips to anywhere in Asia, the USA,
Europe, and South America.While it’s rare for a lot of us to
be venturing abroad three to four times a month, most of us
travel out of the country at least once or twice a year.
93