Visual arts scribbled and sprayed illicitly on the walls make this compound a place to remember.  And not necessarily an ordinary compound, as it is the current home of a chain of restaurants and art shops aligned to make every visual artist to call this their home as well as for art lovers to have a visual feast on the abstracts and cartoon images engraved on the walls.

Being situated at the central business district of Makati City, no one would expect that such a haven for artists and food lovers would exist named as The Collective.

The Collective is tagged as the "mini-art district", said to be a former warehouse and now transformed into a vast art gallery with independent stores, shops, house galleries and restaurants specifically situated at 7274 Malugay Street, San Antonio Village, Makati City.  

The mini-art district is open Mondays to Sundays from 2PM onwards.  If you haven't been to this compound, then  it's indeed time to appreciate the underground arts and visuals as they call it that is within view while giving yourselves a treat on a remarkable and sumptuous dining experience.

On this day and age where vaping is the new tobacco for chain smokers, the vaping community has been brought to a level of elegance and sophistication on the restaurant where we dined at.  

This is one of the many restaurants that the Collective has in store and the concept is quite unique that not only vapers are welcome.  But for those who cannot withstand inhaling the smell from the e-cigarette, then there are other alternative restaurants to choose from, with equally sumptuous set of dish being served.

While roaming around the vicinity, I was surprised that there are no corners of blank spaces, each corner has its visual arts to display.  

We are even reminded of one of the best comedians of Philippine cinema, Mr. Rene Requestas in an art installation displayed at the door step of one of the shops in the compound.

Creativity was simply the theme of the warehouse turned art gallery.   

Photography enthusiasts would never get bored once within the compound as each corner gives a surprise.

And this is what we had for the night!

While dining, we noticed the various designs of ukulele displayed on one shop which made us reminisce of the first musical instrument that was taught to us in grade school and it was compulsory at that.  This is the time when you suddenly realize our teachers may have been into something for involuntarily "harnessing our musical talent".  They must have envisioned that at least one of their students would be a great musician of the country - with ukulele as the instrument? Why not?

It was definitely a good dining experience and the murals/visual arts that surround were a treat to the eyes as well.  Thus, Makati City is not only about business-related establishments and towering skyscrapers of multinational companies as there are more to discover of what it is known for.