Veega

 

Que Pasa

Arifoglu

Seeds of Change

Liwa Dates

Greens

My vegetarian niece Maddie recently arrived from Zug for a tour of the Philippines, Burma and Thailand.   Together with Monique, we had a quick lunch at this vegetarian restaurant Greens, which Erika found with a little research on the internet.   The restaurant is along Scout Castor, and isn't hard to find.

Surprisingly, the kabab and the sisig did taste like the real thing.  And the plate of vegetable lasagna was quite good.  The best part?  We had the meal at just less than P200 per person!

The ambiance is quiet and good for intimate meals with good friends.  Staff are pleasant and very conversant about the merits of their veggie dishes.  Street parking is available.

The Wholesome Table

It was sort of like a business lunch, but I was with family--my cousins Yeye and Mitchi.  We had just come from a meeting with our family stockbroker at the Salcedo Village, and we hopped over for lunch to The Wholesome Table next door.  The ambiance is pretty much like home--cozy, plenty of greenery and relaxing.  The food is organic, very healthy!  Spent something like P600 per person, not bad at all for a filling meal which we shared (meatballs, pizza and a burger).

Grace Park

My cousin Karen arrived with her husband Pete from Zurich, and the long flight was quite stressful on their part.  Since we hadn't seen them for some time now, Gwammy decided to host a lunch at Grace Park, a health-themed Italian restaurant of celebrity chef Gaita Fores, located at the Rockwell Center. Interiors are done in shabby-chic, which makes some people smile, and some people grimace.   I was just glad that my cousin found it relaxing.

As you can see, we ordered a lot.  I was pleasantly surprised with the steak--soft, juicy and salted just right.  The meals can get pretty pricey though, and you can spend up to around P1,000 per person on the average, and P1,500 per person for the whole works.  Parking is available right in front of the restaurant, which is a big plus for us.  Service is speedy and unobtrusive.

Green Pastures

The organic food industry has been up on the rise these past few years, and I think that a lot of the young ones are beginning to get exposed to healthy eating and lifestyles.  But whoever associated healthy eating with bland food has got it all wrong.  We had a meeting with some friends at Green Pastures, on the 4th level of the new wing of the Shangrila Mall.  The first thing I noticed when the food came in was the hearty serving sizes!

Salad came in a big wooden bowl, and I was contented with the delicious dressing and the slivers of hard cheese.  My friends had porchetta, and this was covered in a variety of greens.  I had a tequila Joe sloppy cow (salpicao), which was tender and covered in garlic sauce--just the way I like it!

The interiors felt very warm and relaxing, and made use of lots of shrubs to create the atmosphere of precisely that--Green Pastures!  You can get by with P500 per head, but if you eat family style, and share the viands, you can have a real feast with a wide variety of choices with some P700 per head.  The waiting line forms quite fast on weekends, so try to be early if you want eat the moment you get there.