Table Service: How These Two Kitchens Are Planning to Change Manila’s Food Scene

CloudEats’ Burger Beast and Super Healthee are branching out from their online-delivery origins with a different take on community and traditional Filipino dining

Since the mid-2010s, food delivery apps have become the go-to for many meal cravings, house parties, and self-proclaimed rewards after a long day of work. The early 2020s only amplified such conveniences, giving at-home chefs and startup businesses a reason to explore their ideas through cloud kitchens and online storefronts. In recent years, however, companies such as CloudEats have started to shift from their digital platforms to turn their concepts into casual dining experiences.

For Burger Beast and Super Healthee, the first two brands from CloudEats’ 18-brand portfolio, the move into brick-and-mortar restaurants marks more than just brand expansion. Today, brand managers Emmanuel Trota and Ivan Arvisu share how the transition has impacted their delivery-first origins, and what it now means to serve customers beyond the family dining table.

Burger Beast

Seven years ago, Trota recalls that Burger Beast was founded with the intention of making restaurant-quality burgers accessible to the everyday Filipino. Though the brand now has seven branches across Metro Manila, Trota says that the brand’s fundamentals for crafting burgers have remained consistent despite its growth.

“From day one, our goal has been to bring restaurant-quality burgers into people’s homes, which means having complete control over every component that goes into each burger,” says Trota. “This allows us to maintain consistency in taste and quality across every order while giving us the flexibility to continuously refine our recipes and create flavors that are uniquely Burger Beast.”

Despite not starting within a traditional kitchen, Trota says that the team kept each part of the process centralized, whether that’s through the patties, brioche buns, or their homemade ketchup. This allowed them to stay focused on refining their lineup, while still leaving space to explore new ideas. He adds, “That said, evolution is inevitable. A great example is our transition from the Cheeseburger to the Lava Cheeseburger.”

For Trota, such ideas were results of actively listening to both their customers and the greater community. “For us, it’s about understanding how Filipinos enjoy food. The local palate naturally gravitates toward bold, savory flavors, rich umami, indulgent cheese, and food that’s satisfying from the first bite to the last.”

From holiday-inspired menu items to a brand collaboration with Godzilla and King Kong, Trota says that expanding to physical stores was not meant to take the brand away from the community it fostered, but to grow closer to them instead.

“If anything has changed, it’s our confidence. We have a clearer understanding of who we are and what we want Burger Beast to represent. We’ve become a place for everyday occasions; whether it’s a quick lunch, a casual date, a family meal, or friends catching up over burgers, in a space designed for people to slow down, connect, and enjoy good food together,” adds Trota.

Super Healthee

Super Healthee came at a time when access to health-conscious meals was the main concern for Filipinos stuck at home. “Health trends come and go, but one thing that never changes is that people want food that tastes good,” says Arvisu. 

Initially called 24/7 Super Healthy, the brand is now elevating classic Filipino dishes such as tapa, salpicao, and sisig, an approach that was meant to cater to customers’ healthier eating habits, according to Arvisu.

“By taking familiar favorites and re-engineering them with leaner proteins, whole foods instead of processed meats, healthier grains, and fresh vegetables, we were able to change that dynamic,” he says. “Super Healthee is designed to make healthy eating approachable by celebrating small, everyday choices instead of demanding perfection.”

Over the years, Arvisu says that the brand has stayed attuned to changing consumer preferences by listening closely to its audience, particularly health and wellness creators. He also adds that fostering a transparent and consistent relationship with its consumers allowed the brand to develop both its menu and identity into what it is today.

“We wanted to make sure the brand matured alongside them. Early on, we listened closely to feedback around nutritional accuracy and portion consistency. Those insights led to significant investments in our operational processes, nutrition tracking, and quality controls to ensure every meal delivers a more consistent experience,” says Arvisu.

Being only the second brand under CloudEats to head into the dine-in scene, he says that Super Healthee is still far from its final evolution. “We started the brand to focus on making healthy meals more convenient for consumers and [we] evolved into a more precise and consistent dining experience. While we’re now Super Healthee, what has not changed is our core belief that healthy food should never feel like a compromise. We remain committed to making healthier eating feel welcoming, achievable, and rewarding, one delicious meal at a time,” he says.

Visit @burgerbeastph and @superhealthee on Facebook and Instagram to learn more.