“The best employees I have are the poorest with the worst education that simply want to work. If you have a good attitude and you want to learn, you’re good,” Chef Wade Watson tells Rolling Stone Philippines in the middle of our meal at his newest restaurant, Brontë. “I’ll hire you any day over some asshole who just came out of Enderun who thinks he’s fucking Gordon Ramsay.”
Watson is quite a confounding personality. He’d rather hire a hungry and passionate college dropout than a know-it-all culinary school graduate. When he’s in Japan, he likes to eat at FamilyMart. When traveling, he doesn’t like staying at hotels with crappy food, and at home, he would rather have the housekeepers do the work instead of having to clean up everything himself. Between these apparent contradictions, one thing is certain: Watson likes to eat and serve great food.
“It’s fun to see the natural progression of a restaurant dishwasher. You see that guy’s paying attention, so you get him on salads, get him on making bread, get him on desserts. You just see their skill set grow, and it’s fun to watch them achieve shit and become good at a trade.”
The Australian chef has spent years working at different fine dining restaurants around the world, from his home base down under to Hong Kong and Canada (“I just went snowboarding and drank alcohol for six months — terrible,” he recalls). He has also put down roots in the Philippines, opening Makati’s Bondi&Bourke in 2015. He’s been cooking all his life, he says. “That’s all I’ve done. It’s all I know how to do.”
Brontë, an Australian steakhouse, is the latest of his ventures. For this one, he teamed up with actor Derek Ramsay, with whom he’s been playing golf for six years now. “Derek is very definitely a perfectionist in a lot of things, which sort of suits me too because I’m a bit loopy. I like things spotless and he’s probably even worse than me,” Watson tells us, before pointing to an air-conditioning unit in the ceiling. “That aircon was dripping the other day, so [Derek] basically stood there for three hours just cleaning it.”
What’s On The Menu?
Like Bondi&Bourke, Brontë is named after another beach in Sydney and offers refined Australian cuisine, presented without the pomp of degustation. There is much to choose from the à la carte menu. The opening includes Foie Gras Terrine, a hearty Brontë Caesar, Burrata and Prosciutto, and Watson’s own take on the French Onion Soup, served in a gruyere crostini. But the real star of the show is the soft Japanese pull-apart bread.
The seafood menu includes Moules Marinière, Japanese Scallops, Tasmanian Salmon Crudo, and a bright, clean Prawn Cocktail. The Grand Seafood Plateau, “best ordered the moment you sit down,” serves two to four and includes oysters, tiger prawns, and smoked salmon.
There’s also more seafood in Brontë’s house signatures, from the Boston Lobster Risotto and New Zealand Orange Roughy to the mildly briny and vibrant Barramundi Meunière. Other house signatures include the Brontë Burger and Watson’s favorite, Australian Lamb Chops.
Naturally, steaks take center stage in Brontë. The steak menu has some variety, from the Filet Rosini that uses tenderloin to the Red Phoenix Bone-In Striploin and 1.3kg Grand Porterhouse. But across the different offerings, Watson is adamant about letting a steak rest to relax the proteins and let the juices soak through everything. Meat selection is also important, his lowest grade being a prime ribeye and the highest being an Australian wagyu with a marbling score of 8 to 9. “I don’t have A5 Japanese wagyu on the menu purposely, but I keep it around me for people who want it,” he adds.
Desserts include baked Alaska, Dark Chocolate Tart, and Crème Brûlée Flan, which is described as “French custard meets Filipino flan.” In my visit, I got to try the very light and crisp Pavlova with berries and passionfruit, as well as the heavier, sweeter Sticky Toffee Pudding.
What It’s Like in Brontë’s Kitchen
When asked what makes Brontë different from other steakhouses, Watson says, “Most steakhouses will grill the steaks; I cook them in a really hot oven, the opposite.”
More than that, the chef says he “wants to change expectations,” especially as most steakhouses in the Philippines draw from American-style steakhouses that serve wedge salads. Brontë offers an Australian take on the steakhouse, which means a more seafood-forward menu to complement the steaks.
“When you come here, you don’t feel like you’re in a chain restaurant,” says Watson. “[Those restaurants] have a feeling that this has all been done before. I feel like I eat the same shit in every steakhouse, you know what I mean? I didn’t want to be that.”
A lot of Watson’s personality and preferences shine through in Brontë. “Cuts of 500g and above require 45 minutes. We trust you have a drink in hand,” reads a note in the menu card’s steaks section. The restaurant’s offerings, as a whole, are uncomplicated but still reflect painstaking attention to detail and quality. And for a lot, if not all, of the menu items, serving sizes are enough to share with at least one other person at the table.
“Filipinos like to share,” he says. “That’s a part of the culture. Everyone sits down and we all share food. And I think it’s a much better way of eating.”
The Realities of Running a Restaurant
Brontë is, in many respects, an extension of the chef himself. The restaurant reflects not only his tastes and meticulous approach to cooking, but also how his philosophy on running a kitchen has evolved over the years. “I grew up in a hard world. Now, it’s a bit different,” Watson says. “[Back then,] my chef would smack me with steel. If we didn’t stand up straight as we worked, he’d just come up behind us with the steel and just go, ‘What the fuck?’ If we overcooked the steak, he would throw it at us as hard as he could. But those days are over.”
He admits that his “old” age has made him less likely to scold staff. “I used to be pretty brutal, but now I just let the staff handle it. At least they can do it in Tagalog and deal with it faster and easier than me having to lose my shit.”
He also laments the business side of running a restaurant. “Maintaining it and sustaining [Brontë] is long-term work. That’s always the hard part with restaurants these days, with the cost of labor just going up again, the cost of quality goods here,” he says. “Even the cost of the average person’s food here is just through the roof. I like to see the staff earning money, and at the same time, I also realize that from a business owner’s perspective, you can’t just offset one cost for another.”
“That’s a part of [Filipino] culture. Everyone sits down and we all share food. And I think it’s a much better way of eating.”
Despite the financial pressures, Watson says his greatest satisfaction comes from watching his kitchen staff grow. “It’s fun to see the natural progression of a restaurant dishwasher. You see that guy’s paying attention, so you get him on salads, get him on making bread, get him on desserts. You just see their skill set grow, and it’s fun to watch them achieve shit and become good at a trade.”
For all his bluntness, Watson’s philosophy is ultimately less about pedigree than potential. Brontë may be built on refined Australian cooking and exacting standards, but the chef seems just as invested in building the people in the kitchen as he is in perfecting what lands on the plate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chef Wade Watson is the Australian chef behind Brontë, an Australian steakhouse in Makati, and Bondi&Bourke, which he opened in 2015.
Brontë officially opened its doors on May 30, 2026 at the penthouse level of the Levanto Building on Jupiter St., Makati.
Brontë is co-owned by Chef Wade Watson and actor Derek Ramsay, longtime golf partners who share a mutual perfectionism and attention to detail.
Some of Brontë’s noteworthy dishes include the French Onion Soup, the Brontë Caesar, Australian Lamb Chops, Barramundi Meunière, Filet Rossini, and Sticky Toffee Pudding.
Brontë serves refined Australian cuisine with a “fancier,” seafood-forward menu alongside its steaks, breaking from the American-style chain steakhouses common in the Philippines.
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