A Maginhawa food trip, one converted garage at a time.

The place

Why Maginhawa.

Maginhawa grew up around the campuses of Diliman. Cheap eateries opened in old houses, converted garages and hole-in-the-wall rooms for students, and the street kept that scale as it grew: mostly small, owner-run places rather than chains.

Quezon City has recognised it formally. A 2015 city ordinance (SP-2439) declared Maginhawa and the streets around it a tourism district, the Maginhawa Art and Food Hub, and in late 2024 a stretch of the 2.2 km street got pedestrian and bike lanes.

Ten stops

Ten Maginhawa stops and what to order.

Addresses are as listed by SPOT.ph in May 2025; every place here also appears in a January 2025 guide to restaurants open on the street. Maginhawa turns over quickly, so check a place is still open the week you go.

The route

A walking order that works.

1. Start with the classicA shared tapsilog at Rodic’s Diner, a Maginhawa name for decades, is a good way to begin.
2. Walk the numbersMost stops sit in one stretch of house numbers, from 20 up to 189. Pick a direction and graze as you go instead of zig-zagging.
3. One bowl, not threePho at Namnam20, ramen at Happon and a noodle bowl at Caution Hot are all soup. Choose one for the trip.
4. Save the big table for lastA Crabaholic platter or a Steak to One sizzler is a sit-down meal. Make it the dinner that ends the walk.

Getting there and timing

How to do Maginhawa well.

• Where it is. Maginhawa Street runs through Teachers Village in Diliman, Quezon City, near the UP Diliman campus.
• By public transport. The usual routes are a jeep or bus to Philcoa and a tricycle from there, or LRT-2 to Anonas and a jeep and tricycle onward. Routes shift, so check a maps app on the day; a ride-hailing car to Maginhawa is the simple option.
• Go in December for the festival. The Maginhawa Arts and Food Festival is held on the first Saturday of December.
• Share everything. One order per two people at each stop leaves room for five or six stops.
• Expect change. Small restaurants here open and close often. That is part of the fun — and a reason to keep your own list.

Copy this

Your Maginhawa checklist.

Screenshot it and tick it off. Doing the other QC food street too? See our Banawe food trip.

• ☐ Tapsilog at Rodic’s — sweet tapa verdict: ___
• ☐ Pho or ramen — which bowl won: ___
• ☐ Pizza at Friuli — whole or half-and-half: ___
• ☐ Katsu — crunch out of 5: ___
• ☐ A new place nobody had heard of: ___
• ☐ The dish I would walk back for: ___

Keep the trip

Ten stops, one street, one map.

With PlateDiary, one photo of each table is enough: every plate is cut out into a save on your phone, each stop becomes its own moment, and the map lines the whole walk up along Maginhawa. Add your barkada as companions and the day sits on each of their pages too.

Because Maginhawa changes so often, the place page is the part you will be glad of later: it remembers what you ordered at a restaurant even after the sign comes down.