White Plains spot bringing authentic Filipino flavors and gathering space to the community
TARA! Filipino Diner takes its name from a word most Filipinos reach for when they want a barkada to move, whether it’s for a brunch, a movie, or just to spend time together.
When we reach out to our friends and our family, we always say ‘tara,’” tells Chef Datu Shariff Pendatun III, co-owner of the restaurant and Chief Culinary Officer of Aluyan Food Group.
To us, it’s an integral part of our culture, this word, and we wanted to keep that spirit alive by naming our efforts Tara.”
Located along Katipunan Avenue Extension in White Plains, the all-day breakfast diner opened last year as Aluyan’s first branch. It has treated the restaurant less like a destination and more like an extension of the barkada itself, and the crowd it has built reflects the neighborhood as much as the menu does.
I think what makes Tara special is that, in every dish and every aspect of the restaurant, we have our community in mind,” Pendatun says.
The food, ambience, and atmosphere we’ve developed, we believe, are the favorites of the community. We really want our guests to enjoy every aspect of the experience.”
Familiar Dishes, Slightly Rearranged
The menu runs on Filipino breakfast staples reworked into diner form.
The top seller is the Big Brekky, a mix of textures and flavors drawn from Filipino breakfast standards that were reassembled with the group’s own flair. The purple pancakes, made with ube, are another regular order, and Pendatun refers to them as another dish that cuts across generations.
Their boldest departure from tradition yet is the Belgian champorado, using Belgian chocolate instead of tablea for that smoother texture, and tuyo dust instead of whole tuyo to skip having to pick through the bones.
These fixes say something about how Pendatun and his team approach Filipino food more broadly, as none of them reads as change just for the sake of change; the adjustments tend to solve an annoyance before giving way for the dish to shine.
The Chef Who Writes as Much as He Cooks
Pendatun’s personal work extends past the kitchen. He has written on food culture for several publications and sits as a judge for the Doreen G. Fernandez Food Writing Awards. His background is part of why Tara is positioned around a defined identity rather than a straightforward menu.
His goals for the diner, though, stay fairly practical:
Just like the food that we serve, we want our guests to have fun,” he says.
More importantly, we want them to keep coming back, because this is a place where they (can) have good experiences with friends and family.”
Tara, where next?
The diner is expanding on that promise. Aluyan Food Group is set to open a second TARA! branch in BGC this September, growing the community it has been building one breakfast plate at a time.
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