Crosta

Pizza in Salcedo Village: Where the Format Does the Talking

Salcedo Village occupies a specific register in Makati's dining geography. The streets between Ayala Avenue and the weekend market draw a mix of finance professionals, diplomats, and residents who treat the neighbourhood as a permanent address rather than a destination. The restaurants and small-format operators that survive here tend to do so on repeat custom rather than tourist volume. Crosta, at the corner of HV Dela Costa and L.P. Leviste Street, fits that pattern precisely: a small room, a short menu built around dough and topping, and a wine selection designed for regulars who return often enough to notice what changes week to week.

The physical scale matters. In a city where restaurant openings frequently trend toward large, multi-concept floors with elaborate interior design, a venue with few seats and a deliberately narrow offer carries a different kind of signal. It says the operators have chosen depth over coverage, and that the constraints are intentional rather than circumstantial. Makati's Michelin-recognised tier, which includes Hapag (Filipino), Helm, Celera, and Kása Palma, demonstrates that small-format, focused operations can build lasting credibility in this city. Crosta operates at a more accessible price point and without tasting-menu formality, but the logic of restraint is the same.

The Meal in Sequence

Pizza, as a dining format, rarely rewards the kind of multi-course narrative framing that applies to a tasting menu at, say, Atomix in New York City or Le Bernardin in New York City. But at Crosta, the progression is real even if the pacing is informal. The doughs are made in different styles, each with its own structure and chew profile, and the decision to vary them across the menu means that choosing a first pizza and a second, or moving between a simpler and a more complex topping, produces something that feels closer to a considered sequence than a single repeated dish.

The toppings move from direct, traditional combinations toward more layered applications as you work through the menu. The salami round draws repeated attention in accounts of the place: balanced, well-composed, the kind of pizza that tests whether the dough and the topping are genuinely integrated or merely placed together. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Pizza balance, where neither the base nor the topping dominates, is harder to achieve consistently than most casual formats suggest. The version here is cited as one that holds up across visits.

Gelato closes the meal. In the context of a short, focused menu, a dessert that adds textural contrast without competing with the main event is the right call. It also keeps the pacing light, which suits the format and the setting.

The Wine Selection as a Weekly Variable

One of Crosta's more defining characteristics is the approach to wine: available by the glass, selected for quality, and described as offering novelties at prices that do not require a special occasion to justify. That framing positions the wine program as something closer to a curated off-licence list than a conventional restaurant wine service. The intent, clearly, is that a regular can return and find something different without committing to a bottle or a price point that narrows who can participate.

Wine by the glass at this level of curation is more common in European informal dining than in Metro Manila, where the dominant model for quality wine access tends to run either through high-end hotel restaurants or through bottle-focused fine dining. A small operator in Salcedo Village running a rotating glass program alongside pizza places Crosta in a narrower niche, and one with few obvious local comparators. For context on Makati's broader drinking scene, the our full Makati bars guide maps the options across different formats and price points.

Three Collaborators, One Format

The three people behind Crosta bring backgrounds that do not obviously overlap, and that divergence is part of what gives the place its particular character. Ingga S. Cabangon Chua arrives from a position of deep engagement with dough, the kind of focus that shows in the variation between styles and the consistency of execution. Thomas Woudwyk brings wine knowledge and a commercial instinct for what makes a glass program work for returning customers rather than one-time visitors. Yuichi Ito, who joined after years working in Japan, adds a precision to the pizza-making that reflects a culinary culture where technique and discipline are baseline expectations rather than differentiators.

Japan's influence on pizza, particularly in the treatment of fermentation, dough hydration, and topping restraint, has been documented in cities from Tokyo to Osaka, and that sensibility has begun to travel. The doughs at Crosta carry some of that DNA without being overtly Japanese in presentation. The result is a menu that feels neither European nor Asian but draws from both without announcing the fact. Comparable cross-cultural precision in Metro Manila's restaurant scene shows up at places like Inatô and, further afield, at Gallery By Chele in Manila, each navigating the same question of how international technique beds into a local dining context.

Makati in the Wider Philippines Context

Metro Manila's restaurant scene has developed significantly over the past decade, with Makati functioning as the highest-concentration district for serious dining. The city's Michelin footprint, established in the 2024 guide, placed Makati at the centre of the Philippines' formal recognition. Crosta does not sit in that awards bracket, but it operates in the same neighbourhood and draws from the same pool of food-aware residents and visitors who populate the Michelin-recognised rooms. For a fuller picture of what the district offers, the our full Makati restaurants guide covers the range from tasting-menu formats to casual specialists.

Other Metro Manila operators working in similarly focused formats include Blackbird Makati in Manila, Bolero in Taguig, and Linamnam in Parañaque, each approaching a specific cuisine or format with comparable discipline. Beyond Manila, Asador Alfonso in Cavite and Abaseria Deli and Cafe in Cebu represent the same instinct applied in different regional contexts.

Planning a Visit

Crosta is at 104 HV Dela Costa, corner L.P. Leviste Street, in Salcedo Village, Makati. The seat count is limited, which means the room fills without requiring much volume. Arriving early or, better, confirming availability in advance is advisable. Phone and booking details are not publicly listed at the time of writing, so the most reliable approach is to visit directly or to ask locally. Given the neighbourhood, Salcedo Village is walkable from several Makati addresses and accessible by car with direct street parking in the area. The our full Makati hotels guide covers accommodation options at different price points within easy reach. For those building a broader evening around the area, the our full Makati experiences guide and our full Makati wineries guide offer additional context on what the district supports.