Before Makati, Milky Way was a neighborhood favorite near Malacañang

Milky Way Café remains famous for food that feels deliberately old-school.

Imagine Manila in the 1960s. Just a stone’s throw from Malacañang, students, office workers, prominent families and even people from the country’s most powerful household could drop by a neighborhood restaurant for ice cream, sandwiches and home-cooked Filipino food.

That restaurant was Milky Way.

Before it became the Makati institution generations of diners know today, Milky Way operated on Aguado Street in San Miguel, Manila, near Malacañang Palace. Its proximity reportedly made it a favorite haunt not only of ordinary Manileños but also of presidential families.

Milky Way’s story began in the early 1950s as a humble dairy bar owned by Doña Maria Cartagena de Tomas. When she migrated to the United States, the Araullo family acquired the rights to the business.

In 1962, Julieta “Julie” Araullo-Gamboa, a certified public accountant, took charge of her own Milky Way operation near Malacañang.

Julie came from a family with roots in Guagua, Pampanga. Soon, the restaurant began serving more than ice cream. Kapampangan cooking and family recipes found their way onto the menu.

There was dinuguan, pancit, chicken asparagus sandwiches and other home-style dishes. What started as an ice cream parlor evolved into a full-fledged restaurant known for familiar Filipino food.

Its location helped create its legend.

Students from nearby schools, office workers, Manila society figures and families connected to Malacañang became part of its clientele. In an era before sprawling malls and restaurant chains dominated Metro Manila, Milky Way was essentially a neighborhood hangout—with the presidential palace for a neighbor.

Eventually, the business moved away from San Miguel and established itself in Makati, particularly along the old Pasay Road, now Arnaiz Avenue.

But the flavors followed.

Today, Milky Way Café remains famous for food that feels deliberately old-school: kare-kare, crispy hito with mustasa, pancit luglug, dinuguan with puto and its wonderfully retro chicken asparagus sandwich.

Then there is its legendary halo-halo, topped with homemade ube ice cream—a reminder that underneath the restaurant Milky Way eventually became is the DNA of that original dairy bar.

Its homemade ice creams and sherbets, including avocado ice cream and buko lechias, further preserve that connection.

The restaurant has also remained a family affair, passed down to another generation of the Gamboa family. The Milky Way Building in Makati eventually became a culinary destination of its own, housing other family restaurant concepts alongside the Filipino institution.

More than six decades after Julie Araullo-Gamboa took over Milky Way, diners can still order dishes that would have looked familiar on tables generations ago.

The presidents changed. Manila changed. Milky Way moved. Even Pasay Road changed its name.

But the flavors of that little neighborhood restaurant near Malacañang survived.