Some places are built to attract visitors. TayoTayo Fili Cafe, however, was built to make them feel at home.
Located in Taytay, Rizal, the neighborhood cafe is the first business venture of sisters Kessiah and Kate Katigbak. Its name comes from a familiar Filipino expression: “Tayo-tayo lang”—the people we consider our own.
For Kessiah Katigbak, General Manager and co-founder of TayoTayo Fili Cafe, the name captures exactly what they want the cafe to represent.
“TayoTayo is a neighborhood cafe here in Taytay, Rizal,” she shares. “We coined the term Tayo Tayo as how we Filipinos refer to the people we call home.”
At its core, it’s a simple idea that shapes everything, from the space itself to the way guests are welcomed.
Rooted in Taytay
For the Katigbak sisters, TayoTayo Fili Cafe means more than running a business. Instead, it gives them a way to celebrate their roots and share their hometown with others.
Kate Katigbak, co-founder of TayoTayo Fili Cafe, explains that their experiences traveling and discovering local food inspired the concept.
“We noticed that whenever we travel, the local cuisines are the ones we get to try,” Kate says. “We want guests to, when they visit Taytay, get to try local cuisines also but elevated.”
Beyond the menu, the cafe’s local identity also shines through its design. For instance, the sisters incorporated retaso, or fabric scraps, into the interiors to honor Taytay’s reputation as a garment city.
As a result, the space feels distinctly local—a neighborhood cafe that brings the comfort and warmth of a Filipino home.
Familiar Flavors, Reimagined
At the heart of the cafe, meanwhile, is a menu built around dishes Filipinos already know and love.
One standout is its bestselling kare-kare, which draws from the sisters’ mother’s recipe. To develop the dish, they returned to their roots and relearned how their mother prepared it.
“For us, it was very nostalgic,” Kessiah recalls. “It was quality time spent with her.”
Alongside this family favorite, the menu offers playful takes on Filipino classics, including tapa-tapa, sisig-sisig, pares-pares, and sardines spaghetti. The drinks follow the same creative approach, with crowd favorites such as the Banana Turon Latte, Spanish Latte, and Biscoff Latte.
Together, these offerings give familiar flavors a fresh identity while keeping their Filipino roots intact.
Come As You Are
Beyond serving good food, TayoTayo Fili Cafe hopes to make every guest feel welcome. For the sisters, this means extending Filipino hospitality in the same way they would to friends and family at home.
“We don’t treat our customers just as customers, but we see them as visitors,” Kessiah says. “Just like how we would treat our visitors at home.”
Ultimately, that may be the cafe’s simplest invitation: come hungry, settle in, and discover a little more of Taytay—one familiar flavor at a time.
Read more stories on Simpol.ph
Melo Senti As Timely With Fern.’s “Kahit Na Umulan”
