La Chinesca’s newest outpost in Bonifacio Global City is a compact but culture-dense study in global street aesthetics, reimagined through JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio’s razor-sharp design lens. The 92-square-meter restaurant unfurls like an urban collage, equal parts New York corner-store grit, Hong Kong cha chaan teng nostalgia, and the graphic candor of contemporary Mexican street culture.
Acuna layers the space with a richly tactile palette: resin-infused stone aggregates sourced from Japan, corrugated stainless steel panels that catch Manila’s tropical light, and a custom Obrastone floor patterned with the brand’s bold geometric print. Furniture, locally fabricated and materially experimental, pushes the narrative further. Corn husk, resin, and concrete coalesce into sculptural tables, while bespoke lighting in polished and raw stainless steel grounds the scene in a quietly industrial rhythm.
Branding by Inksurge becomes architectural punctuation: floating acrylic signage, a playful pickup window, and a “corner shop” retail wall that nudges the restaurant into lifestyle territory. A porous indoor-outdoor flow blurs the edges of the 30-square-meter alfresco zone, ensuring the space always feels in motion.
La Chinesca BGC is less a restaurant and more an urban gesture, a spirited convergence of culture, craft, and culinary energy, distilled into a meticulously choreographed street-level experience.
Questions and Answers
What was the core inspiration behind the design direction for La Chinesca BGC?
The core inspiration for La Chinesca was our studies on New York City corner shop, deli, and convenience store cultures, and what we tried to do was create a charming space with a bit of irreverence and fun, and cheek us something that is an homage to the traditional, but looks to the future with a bold attitude and personality.
The space references corner stores, taco truck culture, and Hong Kong street architecture. How did you ensure these influences coexist without overwhelming the 92-square-meter footprint?
We were able to blend all of the different references that our clients were in love with, by making sure that our materials and colour palette were focused and minimal to some three to four main materials like pebble and stone, stainless steel, black timbers, and a little pop-up colour here and there. The materials take all of the different influences and rationalise their usage within the planning of the space.
La Chinesca is known for its bold culinary identity. How did you translate Chef Bruce Ricketts’ energy into material choices and spatial gestures?
The client collaborated with a graphic design studio called Ink Surge, and they came up with very interesting and fun patterns that aligned with the menu of the restaurant, and with those patterns we were able to create fun motifs with bespoke floor finishes, and unique custom table tops made out of cornhusks which when you look at it catches the eye but adjacent to the pleated meal has an amazing and beautiful and colourful choreography.
The project features custom materials and locally fabricated furniture. Which experimental detail or collaboration are you most proud of in this location?
Same with pretty much all of our projects, our projects are bespoke to the identity of the restaurant and the aims and aspirations of the client, the menu, so everything was designed from scratch, including the chairs, the tables, the indoor and outdoor banquet and furniture, and the incorporation of fun things like resin barstools.
With all this, we are pretty much proud of every item we designed for the unit. It was no easy feat to do because we’ve never done resin barstools before, but through close coordination with the client and the suppliers, we were able to make something beautiful and magical happen from ideas that we had never thought of.
We thank our client for this and the opportunity to create something new for the project, and we are so proud of everything we’ve done for this project. We can’t pick just one.
The restaurant includes a retail moment that blurs dining with lifestyle. How do you see this approach shaping the future of hospitality design in Manila?
Not just Manila, but globally, it is now about trying to make an experience iconic, whether it be a retail insertion in a dining space or a café insertion in a retail space.
What we’re trying to see right now is how spaces add a bit more value to the guest experience. This kind of trend will be here to stay and will be meaningful for the generation that is so used to being on their mobile phones, and now it’s really something that can be tactile and experienced in person.