The Best Places to Drink in the Philippines

The name means "sound" in Japanese, and the all-vinyl playlist is not a gimmick. Oto is a cocktail bar in Poblacion where the menu runs from daiquiris and dirty martinis through to signatures that fold in tamarind syrup or wheat beer, and a riff on the Breakfast Martini that nods to Salvatore Calabrese. The room is striking enough that the drinks have to compete, and the drinks are up for it.

Melbourne is the unlikely muse for this all-day café and cocktail lounge tucked into the Alabang commercial sprawl. The drinks menu is illustrated like a coffee-table book and written like one too, walking you through strawberry distillates and acid blends without making you feel like you need a lab coat to order. A Difford's Guide pick and a The 50 Discovery selection, it leans modern and precise in a neighborhood that doesn't always expect that.

The sliding wooden doors that conceal the bar during daylight hours open at night to reveal what is, by day, an architectural firm. That dual life shapes everything: the cocktail bar keeps the office's concrete-and-glass bones and its minimal, industrial calm. It sits inside Lamp Quarters, a retail complex in Marikina City, and works best for small groups settling into corners that, a few hours earlier, someone was billing clients from.