6 Filipino Spots To Try While Ube Is Having Its Moment
Words: Tobi Ilori
The Purple yam has gone from Filipino dessert tables to chain coffee menus which we are not sure how to feel about. However if you’re suddenly curious, start with the Filipino spots in Ireland that knew what to do with it long before it started trending.
Ube is having one of those internet moments where everyone suddenly acts like a flavour has been discovered. Glaring at you intensely matcha heads. It is in lattes, it is in cakes. It is being lined up as the next matcha, It has become the purple thing on your feed that people are either obsessing over or confidently mispronouncing in the comments.
For the record, it is oo-beh.
And yes, the current wave is real. Starbucks Ireland currently has ube drinks on its featured menu, including an Ube Vanilla Velvet Latte and Iced Ube Vanilla Matcha Latte. So this is no longer just something quietly sitting in Filipino barkers and dessert shops.
But ube is not new. It’s not a seasonal menu invention. It is not just “the purple one”. It is a purple yam long used in Filipino cooking, especially in desserts like ube halaya, cakes, bread, halo-halo and ice cream.
So if the trend has you interested, that’s music to my ears and I have a few places you can start from our own beautiful Island.
Charap
Where to start: Ube Halya bubble tea or ube cookies
The drink side is where the ube craze gets especially obvious. A purple latte from a chain might be what gets people talking, but Dublin already has Filipino owned spots doing drinks with actual context. Charap Bubble Teas & Cravings in Temple Bar is one of them, serving Ube Haalya bubble tea alongside Filipino snacks like siopao and Taho.
That is the better route if the drink is what pulled you in. You can still get the cute cup. You can still take the picture. You can still enjoy the purple moment. Just maybe do it somewhere that was not introduced to ube through a marketing deck five minutes ago.
Orani
Where to start: Ube croissant and ube frappe
Orani in Blanchardstown is where the “purple drink” conversation starts to feel a bit small.
Yes, you can start with the ube croissant and ube frappe. They’re colourful, easy to love, and exactly the kind of thing that will make sense to anyone who was lured in by the latte trend. Grand. We all like a pretty drink. No one is above it.
But Orani also shows the bigger picture. Their halo-halo brings shaved ice, evaporated milk, fruit, jellies, beans, sweetcorn, cornflakes and ube ice cream into one gloriously chaotic bowl. It’s sweet, cold, textural and very much not something a chain latte can explain for you.
ED3N Café
Where to start: Ube Taho
ED3N Café in Blanchardstown is the place I’d bring in for the café side of this whole thing.
The café opened on Main Street in Blanchardstown in 2022 and describes itself as a French-inspired patisserie with an Asian twist. Phoenix FM has also noted ED3N’s close links with the local Filipino community in Dublin 15.
That makes it different from Orani. ED3N is not the “sit down and unpack a whole Filipino dessert culture” stop. It is the “if you want the café version of this trend, at least go somewhere with roots and context” stop.
Listings and reviews have mentioned Filipino breakfast, mango royale and Taho at ED3N. I would still check the current menu before marching in demanding one with full main character energy, but it belongs in this conversation because it shows how Filipino flavours can sit naturally inside a modern Dublin café.
Mayumi
Where to start: Halo-halo.
Mayumi in Ballincollig gives the piece a Cork leg.
The Filipino-Japanese restaurant comes from Chenny Dimaandal and Ryan Lumor, the team behind Sensei Coffee & Sushi Café. Coverage of Mayumi’s opening highlighted Filipino dishes like sisig and ube ice cream, alongside the Japanese food Cork already knew them for.
That is a more interesting story than “ube is the new matcha.”
It is not just about flavour. It is about people bringing food with them, adapting, opening businesses, feeding locals and building something that becomes part of Irish food culture without flattening where it came from.
Filipino Bakery and Cafe
Where to start: Any baked ube goods they have available
Filipino Bakery and Cafe on Liffey Street lower is another useful correction to the whole “ube as trend” thing.
Their dessert menu puts Ube cheesecake beside leche flan, buko pie and mango float, which is exactly the context people should be seeing it in. ube is not just a flavour floating around on its own. It belongs to a much bigger Filipino dessert world.
That is the bit that gets lost when something becomes a trend. A purple latte can be fun. But cake will teach you more.
If your only reference point is a chain drink, this is a useful little reset.
Gold Ribbon
Where to start: Ube Ensaymada if they have it. If not go for the cake
Gold Ribbon on Dorset Street is exactly the place that makes the current ube trend feel very late to the party.
The bakershop is run by Daisy and Ronald Mauhay and specialises in Filipino cakes, breads and pastries. Their menu includes Panadesal, Ensaymade and custom cake, all rooted in the kind of baking that does not need a coffee chain roll out to justify itself.
This is where the conversation should probably start. We definitely are not saying chains are not allowed to use ube. Relax. We are just saying if you want to understand why people care about it, you should taste it somewhere that knows what it means.
Try the chain drink if you want. Nobody is calling the guards.
Food trends can be fun, and if this one sends more people towards Filipino flavours, brilliant. But the trend should not become the whole education.
Ube is not the new matcha.
It is ube.
It has its own history, its own uses and its own place in Filipino food culture. Treating it like the latest purple accessory for coffee menus misses the point. The colour might stop people scrolling, but the flavour means more when you understand where it comes from.
So before your entire reference point becomes a seasonal latte, go to Gold Ribbon. Go to Filipino Bakery And Café. Go to Charap. Go to ED3N. Go to Orani. Go to Mayumi.
The trend is loud right now.
The Filipino spots were already there.
