Your Local goes the Rebel route

It looks like someone decided that 2026 had to start on a rebellious note, at least in a culinary sense. That someone is Your Local’s Chef Patrick Go, who took his flair for Asian flavors and married it with Rebel Bakehouse’s chef Diego de Rivera and pastry chef Donna Aldana’s skill at viennoiserie, inspired by their Baguio roots.

With ingredients from Baguio and the Cordilleras at the forefront, this collaboration served up a menu of dishes that not only enlivened your tastebuds, but would be living rent-free in your brain way after brunch was over.

But, alas, like most good things, even good eats never last. This one was on a strictly one-weekend run in January. So if you managed to find a seat at the table during brunch or dinner service, you’re one of the lucky ones!

In true Your Local style, Chef Pat kept the menu simple, but far from boring. Just a few interesting twists on familiar dishes, and even some of the YL classics — enough to make you pause and say, “Ooh, that was tasty!” Diners got to choose a starter, a main and a drink — so if you went with a friend, hope you had different picks and tasted them all.

What made this collaborative menu work was that the chefs were not trying to outdo each other. All the dishes were balanced, with flavors playing nicely with each other. Among the starters, the biggest hits were the Scallion pancake with pork chashu and a nam jim slaw; and the Yellowfin tuna marinated in Baguio strawberry coulis on cacao sourdough. Then the Danish got a Thai-inspired twist via the Local mushroom and roasted broccoli Krapow Danish, and went the part-Asian, part-European route with the Truffled beef lechon Suisse with fermented garlic jus.

Now it’s when you got to the entrees where things got a bit tricky. One was hard-pressed to choose a favorite, to be honest. A Smashed Fried Chicken Croissantwich, on Rebel’s rich buttery croissants, looked delicious, but it was the Your Local classic Torched Salmon, with Rebel Fried Rice this time, that won out. Not that it was tempting to order the other one alongside. The server did say that the Roast Beef with Bugnay Wine Jus was not only a bestseller; but also kept selling out at each service.

Now, the menu really did say that dessert was optional. Was it really? The chefs at Your Local and Rebel Bakehouse didn’t really give you much of a choice. The Choco na Gatas Panettone had friends raving about it for days. After all, the ice cream is a practically one big reason diners return to Your Local over and over, and the Panettone, we heard, is Rebel’s current obsession. If a deceivingly lighter dessert was more your speed, then the Strawberry Dos Leches was practically as light as a cloud – so there was no guilt in finishing every last bit of it.

The frustrating thing about these collaborations, especially if it’s really good like the Your Local x Rebel Bakeshop, is that it’s only around for such a limited time. One weekend at that. Or maybe it’s a lesson for us on being present. That we savor the meal, every bite of it and really taste everything. We can only hope that some of the crowd favorites will find a permanent place on the Your Local menu. What say you, Chef Pat?