FEELING CLOSE TO THE CHEFS AT KEI MAKI

Open kitchens are wonderful because these allow restaurants to have transparency. Literally. Diners can see through huge glass windows how clean the kitchen is, and how chefs handle or mishandle the food.

But there's something better than this: the bar layout for Japanese dining, where diners sit on stools around the bar, watching chefs up-close while they prepare each dish. It is an immersive and intimate set-up where chefs can practically bond with diners.

I experienced this recently when Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo—the restlessly creative restaurateur who opens dream restos—asked me to try her Kei Maki in Taguig.