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Tiya’s House opens at South Palms

Jeeves De Veyra

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769866159661EXTERIORS 1.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Tiya’s House is located on the resort’s beachside. Jeeves de Veyra</div>South Palms Resort &amp; Spa - MGallery Collection formally opened Tiya’s House, its very own private dining venue with a Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao themed farm-to-table degustation by award-winning chef Bettina Arguelles.Tiya’s House is meant to be a destination within a destination. Located on the resort’s beachside, this venue is a standalone structure steps away from the main resort. It is rebuilt from old wood and resembles a real house that once stood on the property.  <div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769866321221INTERIORS - Luzon Dining Room.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Luzon dining room. Jeeves de Veyra</div>Upon entering the main house, one can find the Luzon dining room within the central atrium. Up on the wraparound second floor, there are the more intimate Visayas dining room that looks out onto the beach, and the Mindanao room at the back.  The whole space is decorated with Boholano touches with only slight hints of modernity. The biggest and most practical modern design touch being the floor-to-ceiling window on one side that protects guests from the elements and seals in the air conditioning.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17698663624820 - Bagoong Highball.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Bagoong highball. Jeeves de Veyra</div>Stop by the bar for refreshments and relax in the outside lounge right before dinner. Aside from the classic drinks, South Palm’s own bartenders shook and stirred their own unique Filipino cocktails. This Bagoong Highball was most unusual but surprisingly refreshing. Made with bagoong-infused tapuy, the savory umami funky salty notes complemented the alcohol though more bagoong can be added to make those flavors stand out even more.Chef Bettina welcomed guests and joked that she wasn’t only the chef, but also the chef/tita that night.Chef Bettina is no stranger to the resort. South Palms is placed in the Accor Group’s MGallery Serenity luxury tier, it was but fitting to have someone of her caliber to handle the food program of the resort. She has been working with them since early 2025 even before they opened to develop their culinary program from menus, to training, to kitchen operations.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769866444922Chef Bettina and Team.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Chef Bettina Arguelles and her team. Jeeves de Veyra</div>This wasn’t just a dinner. This showcased the impressive ecosystem that feeds South Palms’ culinary program. The owners are experienced hoteliers who, aside from operating several hotels and businesses in Bohol, also own fisheries and farms around the immediate area and give new meaning to farm-to-table.The farm is South Farms, which is just a few minutes’ drive away. What started out as an agricultural property that supplied the hotels has since grown into its own agritourism attraction. Within South Farms is their Prawn Farm restaurant which serves up seafood from their fisheries, petting zoos with rabbits and guinea pigs, an aviary, and even a cat house where kids come and cuddle with the cats. But more importantly, one can find piggeries and the plots where they grow produce for the menu. Visitors can also mingle with free range ducks and chickens as they go about the property uncaged.For this dinner, Chef Bettina joked to call her “Tita Bettina” as she donned dual hats as the chef and genial host. The entrees presented would be the foundation for the exclusive Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao entrees offered in Tiya’s House menus for those private events within its space.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986675930201 - Amuse Bouche.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Amuse Bouche. Jeeves de Veyra</div>She started out with a trio of amuse bouche where she immediately gives a preview of her playful interpretations of Filipino fare. An inasal liver paté, a lamb kalderata cromesquis, and her sinuglaw which substitutes pork with chicken skin and fish with raw oyster in a dressing of pinakurat with a puffed taro crisp.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986678886302 - Ensaladang Talong.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Ensaladang Talong. Jeeves de Veyra</div>This Ensaladang Talong proudly showed off the seafood bounty of Panglao. Better called an “en-sea-lada,” this was chock full of snails, uni and mangrove clams imparting briny flavors all around.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986682646303 - Hilabos.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Halabos na Hipon. Jeeves de Veyra</div>The plumpness of the prawn in the Halabos na Hipon immediately drew attention. Chef Bettina remarked that these “were on the small side” while still slurping on the decadently rich laksa-like prawn bisque on top of coconut noodles.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986685146404 - Pianggang.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Piyanggang Manok. Jeeves de Veyra</div>Next was her interpretation Tausug staple Piyanggang Manok made with a saucy burnt coconut sauce with a side of rice tinged with blue from ternate leaves.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986690160305 - KBL.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>KBL. Jeeves de Veyra</div>Her KBL is a great re-interpretation of this Ilonhgo favorite. Kadyos is ground into a bean paste, the langka is cut into flat crisps, then served with boiled, and roasted pork to let diners try two different textures.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986693650406 - COCIDO 2.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Cocido. Jeeves de Veyra</div>I thought the best way to have this Cocido was in the order of the meats’ intensity of flavor. Start with the tender short rib, followed by the bacon slab, and finish with the punchy saltiness of the duck confit. Then perhaps, mix everything up then have them in one bit just for comparison.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986696586307 - BABOY RAMO LECHON.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Lechon Baboy Ramo. Jeeves de Veyra</div>The main course was a nose-to-tail Lechon Baboy Ramo. This pig was on the lean side yet tasted very clean. A portion of the meat was saved to make paksiw which was a bit too liver-y for my personal taste, though many in the room enjoyed that dish.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769866992201CHEF BETTINA cooks Tuslob Buwa.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Chef Bettina cooks tuslob buwa. Jeeves de Veyra</div>A rare treat was getting to taste freshly cooked Tuslob Buwa. Chef Bettina gamely cooked the stew with pig brain from the pig that was slaughtered for the lechon. She gushed about learning how to make puso, rice wrapped in nipa common in the Visayas. The recommended way to eat this was to use the Tuslob Buwa as a dipping sauce and dip the rice from the puso. It’s not what I expected. It didn’t have any unfriendly funky flavors and was rather enjoyable.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176986704796210 - Dessert Trio.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Dessert trio. Jeeves de Veyra</div>The meal ended with a trio of desserts. A chocolate flan with Bohol chocolate, pineapple in a clay pot and a guyabano Sorbet. Just to make sure her guests were full, the true ending was a plate of local petit fours.This dinner serves as a template for the collaborations and pop-ups MGallery hopes to have here hoping to attract the best and brightest chefs from all over. The condition is that the visitors will be interpreting a Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao menuMoving forward, Chef Bettina lays out a vision that will make the South Palms kitchens an aspirational place to work for any culinary professional. It’s already rare for a cook to have access to the freshest ingredients, produce, meat, and seafood they would need for their menus, it’s another thing altogether for chefs to be able to request for an ingredient that they’d need to be grown in the properties that support the hotel.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769867156802Chef Bettina and South Palms GM Danish Khan.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Chef Bettina and South Palms general manager Danish Khan. Jeeves de Veyra</div>“There’s no excuse. If you need it, ask for it,” said Chef Betttina, having brought a lot of ingredients with her to South Palms for this dinner.With this support structure in place, it’s all but guaranteed that this will make Tiya’s House, and South Palms Resort &amp; Spa - MGallery Collection a preferred destination, not only for its best of class amenities but for their elevated food as well.<div> </div><div>Tiya&#x27;s House is located inside South Palms Resort &amp; Spa - MGallery Collection in Barangay Tawala, Panglao Island, Bohol.</div>

South Palms Resort &amp; Spa–MGallery Collection formally opens Tiya’s House, a private dining venue designed as a destination within the Panglao resort, with a Filipino regional degustation by award-winning chef Bettina Arguelles.

South Palms Resort & Spa–MGallery Collection formally opens Tiya’s House, a private dining venue designed as a destination within the Panglao resort, with a Filipino regional degustation by award-winning chef Bettina Arguelles.

Bohol eats: Tiya’s House opens at South Palms with a Filipino regional degustation

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Bohol eats: Tiya’s House opens at South Palms with a Filipino regional degustation

Jeeves De Veyra

Published Feb 01, 2026 10:00 AM PHT

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Bohol

Panglao

South Palms Resort

Tiya's House

Bettina Arguelles

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