Houston’s food scene continues to impress and surprise. Just when you wonder how many more unique and wonderful experiences it can sustain, a concept like Lumikha appears. This exclusive supper club, located in a private studio kitchen in downtown Houston, is offering an immersive, five-course Filipino Food Progression with a healthy portion of warm-hearted hospitality topped with lofty ambition. Currently, Lumikha only offers two seatings on Sundays. You’ll enter as a customer — and likely a stranger — and leave feeling like an old friend.

Lumikha is the brainchild of founder Emmanuel Garcia, better known as Chef Bham, who hails from Chicago (which happens to be the home of the world’s first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant). He trained in the kitchens of renowned French chefs and restaurateurs Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas where he honed his classical techniques and mastered French cookery, but he would eventually grow tired of life in Sin City and return to the Windy City. He then joined the team at revered Lincoln Park restaurant Alinea under the tutelage of chef-owner Grant Achatz. He was apprehensive at first, unsure if he was ready for the challenge, but it was a risk worth taking. He credits his time there for his personal aha moment. 

During one of his first shifts at the three Michelin-starred restaurant, he was sent to retrieve an item from a supply closet and noticed a wide and varied selection of soy and fish sauces. Until then, he had “run away from Filipino food”, thinking that the cuisine of his motherland wasn’t of the same caliber as classical French haute cuisine. He even thought he’d be saying “Oui, chef!” forever. Seeing the respect for the same ingredients he grew up with was an eye-opening revelation and the seed to someday have his own business was planted.

Six years ago, Bham’s then-girlfriend, whose family resided in Beaumont, was offered a job opportunity in Houston that they couldn’t pass up. So, they did something that wasn’t on his vision board and moved to Texas. The couple would subsequently tie the knot and have three beautiful children while Bham also kept a promise to himself to become the best chef that he could. He took a position under Paul Qui at the short-lived Aqui just before its closure. Qui recommended that Bham get a job at the nearby Montrose outpost of chef Tyson Cole’s Uchi. There, he would go on to spend the next three years sharpening his knives and his skills.

Fast-forward to 2024, his proverbial seed now a sapling, his ambitious Lumikha supper club concept was cultivated with some help from close friends who shared his vision. The team includes general manager Perryl Libardo and Dunn Estacio, who is responsible for welcoming guests and making sure everyone makes themselves at home. His congenial nature is a highlight of the event. Guests are encouraged to get up from their seats and “treat the space as your own”, including interacting with the chef and making friends with their neighbors. Estacio’s stated goal is “good food, good community and we want you to leave happy.” He adds that the team gets by on “a dream, a prayer and positive thoughts, but what we don’t have is capital, and that’s what you need to start a restaurant. And that’s what we are looking for here.”

Lumikha stems from the Tagalog root word meaning “to create”. Its’ mission statement is “to create an experience where Filipino cuisine is the focal point,” says Bham. It showcases a study of history and culture, including how many dishes “came about from the Spaniards, from the Malays or from the Chinese from the north or from Indonesians as our southern neighbors, or even from the Americans with their short stint of stay in the Philippines.”

(Indeed, if you are wondering why many of the above names sound Spanish, it is a product of the Spanish colonial period when Governor-General Narciso Clavería issued a decree forcing all Filipinos to take Spanish surnames to facilitate census taking and taxation.)

He also embraces modern techniques and approaches from his professional background and one day hopes to operate out of a brick-and-mortar worthy of Michelin recognition. His endgame is to bring the concept back home to the Philippines, which he feels is underserved but fully deserving of culinary accolades. (I wait with baited breath to book a bucket list trip to also visit Bobby Heugel, Jessey Qui and Eddie Nassar’s Last Chance cocktail bar on the island of Siar Gao!)

The venue for Lumikha is a high rise studio complex, the address shared with guests once a reservation is booked, with multiple free or paid parking options in the vicinity. Dinner kicks off with a glass of sparkling lychee water as a palate cleanser and an introduction from Bham and Estacio. Estacio’s never worked in the hospitality industry but you’d never know that unless he told you. His affable delivery and dedication to the overall execution of the event cannot be understated.

Guests are then provided with a hot towel bathed in oils of Arabian jasmine, the national flower of the Philippines, to clean their hands. It’s a small touch that was super effective amongst the Filipino diners during my visit, with Filipino cook and food enthusiast Paolo Almacen sharing that the gesture took him back to his childhood, where street vendors and children would sell necklaces adorned with the fragrant flower. It’s an integral part of the “Santacruzan” and “Flores de Mayo” celebrations which mark the arrival of the spring season during the month of May, and its scent lingers in neighborhoods and outside of churches for weeks thereafter.

The first two courses are interpretations of kinilaw, a Filipino-style dish of marinated fish similar to ceviche which translates to “eaten fresh”, with the first being a bright and tangy amuse-bouche of braised turnip marinated in coconut vinegar atop a rosemary cracker. It’s topped with black truffle caviar and visually presents an ode to the national flower. It highlights the purity of the ingredients, with acidity that lets the quality and freshness shine.

The next bite is inspired by kilawin, a version of the aforementioned finger food prepared with meat instead of fish. It consists of diced beef marinated in coconut-vinegar with black garlic aioli and shallots served over a tartlet of pandesal — a staple bread recipe left behind by the Spanish similar to French baguette or Mexican bolillos.

For the third course we were treated to a riff on tapsilog, a popular Filipino breakfast meal (and portmanteau of Tagalog words translating to “thinly-sliced marinated beef, garlic fried rice and fried egg”). Bham condenses the dish into a single nigiri-style bite of tapa marinated in toyomansi sauce over fried yucca which is torched and topped with a fried quail egg with grated truffles. 

This savory umami-bomb is followed by a play on Bicol Express, a popular pork dish from the district of Malate, Manila named after the eponymous railway train. Bham’s is a surf-and-turf interpretation of the Bicolano-style recipe built around a scallop prepared in the French ‘mi-cuit’ (meaning half cooked) technique in a rich and creamy coconut milk sauce with salty, fermented shrimp paste (known as alamang), hon-shimeji (white beech mushrooms) and bits of savory lechon kissed by flavorsome chilies. It’s a tremendously successful dish which blends all of its elements into a velvety medley of salt, fat, acid, heat and sweet.

Bham then serves up another seafood take on a dish traditionally made with meat. His kare-kare, a rich, peanut stew typically prepared with oxtail, tripe or braised short ribs, instead takes inspiration from the ocean surrounding the 7,641 islands of the Philippines by incorporating a 24-hour sous vide octopus. It is braised, then fried and served with eggplant and sweet pea microgreens, which surround the nutty sauce. While kare-kare is not generally spicy on its own, Bham’s works lemongrass, cayenne and Thai chilies into his curry sauce for a gentle and welcome kick.

By this point in the dinner, guests are on a first name basis and accustomed to taking turns getting photographs in the kitchen and pouring drinks. Laughs are had, selfies taken and stories are shared.

Things end on a sweet-and-salty note with The Ube, a bowl of fried plantain chips, candied pistachios, ube cake crumbles, shaved frozen strawberries and roasted white chocolate dusted with Asín tibuok, a rare, artesian sea salt aged in a clay pot “dinosaur egg” made by filtering seawater through charred coconut husks. The salt is impressive on its own, a luxury foodstuff like truffles or caviar now made only by a handful of families on Bohol Island over a tedious and labor-intensive, multi-day process. It amplifies the flavors of the dessert and provides its own distinct, smoky note of coconut. 

As elevated and refined as each dish is, the bottom line is that it’s all wholesome comfort food with a story to tell. While you may not be familiar with every ingredient, the end result is the same. You’ll walk out happy and satisfied with a certain sense of nostalgia pulling at your heartstrings. And you just might make some new friends along the way.

Tickets for the two-hour degustation currently cost $85 per person plus taxes and a 20% service charge. Pre-paid reservations are available online. The menu is subject to change and seasonality. Wines are paired with each course at no extra charge, but guests are welcome to BYOB. 

Mario-Sebastian Berry

Mario-Sebastian Berry is a wine and spirits vendor who has been in the hospitality industry since 2002. Currently, he represents Blanco, Texas-based Andalusia Whiskey Co. He holds numerous wine, beer and spirits certifications including Certified Sommelier. Somehow, he also finds time to be Houston Food Finder’s associate editor and social media manager.