Even After Three Generations, Creativity and Identity Are One and The Same for Melo’s Steakhouse
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Even After Three Generations, Creativity and Identity Are One and The Same for Melo’s Steakhouse

Roasted Beef Belly Bistek plated with Bistek Jus, Fried Onions and Onion Soubise. Photographed by Andre Cesar

Melo’s Steakhouse welcomes the new year with a renewed and renovated outlook while still keeping its founder’s passion for curiosity and familial connection close to heart.

In 36 years, Carmelo Santiago’s recipes of Western-inspired dishes are infused with his own brand of “Filipino touch.” For Melo’s Steakhouse, the patriarch’s version of the steak fried rice started a distinct approach to their family gatherings, later becoming a standard within the restaurant’s identity of partaking in contemporary casual dining. 

Steak and Mushroom Vol-au-Vent made with a side of House Salad. Photographed by Andre Cesar

This standard has been what differentiates the family business’ approach from what’s trending, adapting its traditional principles with modern innovations as a way to invite its customers to “still go back to what’s classic, what’s good and simple, but it’s something that you can always come back to,” as public relations manager Bianca Macasaet shares.

Alongside her cousin Francis Mesias, both cousins now stand at the forefront of the family business operations, primarily focusing on maintaining the hospitality and enthusiasm of the “Melo’s experience”. However, Macasaet has also served a role in the creative process of its upcoming menu for 2025, sharing, “Our new menu continues to honor those values by adapting and reimagining them, ensuring that each dish carries forward the values that were passed down to us.”

To introduce their new dishes, the team aims to gradually feature them in clusters throughout certain holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. The goal? Showcase its new line of dishes relative to moments of celebration while emphasizing the dining experience that has since become integral to Melo’s identity.

Valentine’s Day

Curated for a table for two, Melo’s Steakhouse brings in a triad of dishes that start with an entrée of Potato Pave Steak Bites which plates thinly layered potato slices, skewered with a cut of slow-roasted beef belly, atop a truffle cream hollandaise sauce.

For the main course, the restaurant introduces the Steak and Lobster and Filet Mignon with Foie Gras Sauce dishes, which predominantly feature the restaurant’s Australian Wagyu tenderloin cut. The former is paired with a butter-roasted lobster tail which is then dressed in a mix of sauces that offer a light yet hearty accent to the plate; the latter, however, elevates the steak’s flavor by transforming its thickness of foie gras into a sauce that is both creamy and savory in flavor.

Potato Pavé Steak Bites dressed and placed atop of a Truffle Cream sauce. Photographed by Andre Cesar
Steak & Lobster made with Australian Wagyu Tenderloin and Butter-roasted Lobster Tail, dressed with Buerre Blanc sauce. Photographed by Andre Cesar

Mother’s Day

As an ode to the “Ilaw ng Tahanan,” this year’s Mother’s Day menu begins with a Watermelon and Seared Tuna Salad which features cuts of seared raw tuna on basil-infused watermelon steaks in watercress leaves topped by fried capers and a wasabi dressing.

Watermelon and Seared Tuna made with Basil-infused Watermelon Steak and Seared Raw Tuna on a bed of Watercress, and mixed alongside Fried Capers and topped with Wasabi Dressing. Photographed by Andre Cesar

For the arrangement’s main course, the Salmon Wellington complements the entreé by encasing a salmon filet with the restaurant’s in-house puff pastry dough, joined by a spinach and crepe filling with a white wine cream reduction served on the side.

Wellingtons and more

Akin to its sea-dwelling counterpart, the Beef Wellington sees a seasoned cut of the restaurant’s Australian Wagyu tenderloin encased in puff pastry alongside the traditional mushroom duxelles. It is soon decorated with a port wine jus, an assortment of greens, and a potato pave just beneath the dish’s cross-section

Beef Wellington made with Australian Wagyu Tenderloin and Mushroom Duxelles, and plated on Port Wine Jus and a side of Potato Pavé. Photographed by Andre Cesar

Alongside the featured items on the restaurant’s upcoming menu, the team showcases its collection of quality cut meats and seafood by incorporating them with dishes inspired by various cuisines and techniques, all while adapting its founder’s principles.

From a Beef Carpaccio dish, a thinly shaved tenderloin alongside a microgreen salad and parmesan crisps to an Australian Wagyu Tomahawk steak dressed in emmental and gruyere fondue, the menu also features a distinctive approach toward a Seafood Thermidor by plating buttery Barramundi fillets, halved prawns, and soft scallops above the eponymously named sauce, among others more.

For Melo’s Steakhouse, the restaurant’s heritage would be incomplete without the longstanding team that has stood by them for generations. Marketing and public relations specialist Francis Mesias also shared how the restaurant’s familial environment became one of the many reasons for their staff’s tenure, sharing an interaction that he recalls fondly, “We have one staff member [that] decided she wanted to do something else. [When] she came back last year, she told me [that] when it came to a sense of camaraderie in these other places, she [couldn’t] find it, and one of the quotes she said to me was ‘sir, there’s no place like home.”

Chef Him Uy De Barron. Photographed by Andre Cesar
From Left to Right: Public Relations Manager Bianca Macasaet and Public Relations Specialist Francis Mesias. Photographed by Andre Cesar

Today, the team believes that the relationships and communities that the restaurant has fostered over the years all go back to the experience that Carmelo Santiago fostered since the restaurant’s establishment in 1998.

With their Bonifacio Global City branch reopening after going under renovation last November, the restaurant now plans to translate its refreshed vision towards its Alabang and Quezon City branches as well. “It’s the whole experience in general. Down from the moment you enter [to] the moment you leave, it’s the in-between that gets people coming back,” Mesias adds.

Visit the Melo’s Steakhouse website to book your next reservation, and visit their Facebook and Instagram pages to learn more. Melo’s Steakhouse is officially located in the following areas:
Forbes Town Center 29th Street, Burgos Circle, Taguig.
58 Sgt. Esguerra Ave. Diliman, Quezon.
Precinct 41, Westgate Center Alabang, Muntinlupa.

Photography by Andre Cesar. Art Direction by Andre Cesar and Wainah Joson. Produced by Sophia Correa. Written by Liam Biteng. Multimedia Artist: Andre Cesar. Shot on Location at Melo’s Steakhouse Westgate Alabang.

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