Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

My friend Ane has been raving about Cafe Capreal for quite some time.  I’ve seen the restaurant as it’s located near my place.  However, I didn’t have the chance to dine there.  Several friends have given the restaurant a thumbs up too.  I wonder how good Cafe Capreal or Capreal Cafe & Restaurant really is.  I had high expectations!

Yesterday, Ane invited me for an early lunch.  Not surprisingly, she suggested we dine at Cafe Capreal so I can finally try it out, hahaha!  So I drove to Cafe Capreal, parked at the front and went inside the restaurant.

It’s not a high-class looking restaurant but you can see that a lot of people would hang out at Cafe Capreal.  There’s free wifi.  One thing that really impressed me the most about the place is the hospitality and topnotch customer service given to us by the waiter on duty yesterday.  His co-waiter haven’t arrived yet but he was able to manage very well in spite of having 3-4 different groups dining at Cafe Capreal.

My friends ordered soup, salad and a dish for sharing while I ordered a rice dish.  The dishes weren’t spectacular for me but it was pretty decent.  It’s worth trying out.  Just don’t forget to order Cafe Capreal’s chicken quesadillas, that dish is worth raving for! 🙂

• French Onion Soup (Php 75)

I like the presentation of this soup with the melted cheese on top of the toasted bread.  The taste is pretty much the same as the traditional onion soup where onions, beef broth, cheese and bread are made to create the soup.

• Mango Kani Salad (Php 165)

I guess after having sampled an all-organic salad, my outlook for salads became so much different.  So even if Cafe Capreal’s mango kani salad tasted good, I have the ‘not healthy’ sign at the back of my mind.  The serving is pretty generous though with them serving extra dressing on the side without us asking for it.

• Chicken Quesadillas (Php 195)

This is a MUST-ORDER!  I never knew that this simple looking quesadillas would taste soooooooo good!  If I have to rave about Cafe Capreal, it must be their chicken quesadillas!  I’m not sure what the secret is but I believe that every part of this dish was made excellently.  The mixture of onions and tomatoes, the chicken inside, the sauce on top of the quesadillas and the overall taste was just perfect!

• Grilled Porkchop (Php 195)

While I was able to take a bite of Cafe Capreal’s creations, I also tried out one of their main dishes.  This was highly recommended by the waiter.  I must say, not all restaurants can make good grilled pork chops.  Only a few can make tender, flavorful pork chops.  I was pretty wary whenever I try a new one as I did with Cafe Capreal’s version.

Fortunately, I really liked the grilled pork chops I ordered!  It was tender and very flavorful.  I wasn’t able to see any blood (which is good as I’m so afraid of blood in cooked meat!).  Even though I have a full schedule of foodie appointments for the rest of the day, I still finished the grilled pork chops.  It’s proof enough that I enjoyed eating it right?

So there, I’ve finally tried out Cafe Capreal courtesy of my friend Ane 🙂  If there’s anything that I would be craving for, that would be the chicken quesadillas.  I might go back just because of that dish.  Perfectly done by the chef.  Unforgettable!

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Cafe Capreal
87 Maria Clara st., near cor banawe st.,, 1110 Quezon City, Philippines
(02) 701-4563

I’ve shared a few days back about SugarLeaf’s Organic All You Can but you have to know that there’s so much more about the restaurant than their all-organic salad.  In this post, you’ll see the other products we tried out at SugarLeaf.

SugarLeaf promises us delicious, detoxifying, energizing and healthy food.  I wonder why they named their restaurant as SugarLeaf.  Apparently, Sugarleaf pertains to a plant name stevia, whose leaves has a sweetening capability.  Stevia is regarded as totally safe, has anti-oxidant properties, zero calories and doesn’t affect blood sugar levels.

According to the owners, Sugarleaf symbolizes sweetness, happy thoughts and feelings linked with healthy living and organic lifestyle.  I must agree as after we tried all the yummy food at SugarLeaf, I was a happy foodie 🙂

SugarLeaf’s tagline is ‘foods that nourish’.  Living up to that goal, Sugarleaf includes a mini-store which features Healthy Picks where they sell locally-sourced organic produce (vegetables, herbs and fruits) from the LaTOP (La Trinidad Organic Practitioners) Multi-purpose Cooperative farmers.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the products has been approved by OCCP (Organic Certification Council of the Philippines) to be all-organic.

Here are the reasons why SugarLeaf think we should buy organic LaTOP products:

1. Organic produce are grown and handled according to strict procedures and standards
2. Organic produce are more nutritious and tasty
3. Produce are free from pesticide residues, growth promoters, genetically modified materials and synthetic chemicals
4. Organic produce has more health benefits and reduces health risks such as cancer
5. Organic farming protects the environment and enhances biodiversity
6. Organic products provides livelihood for marginalised farm families
7. LaTOP vegetables, with proper handling, have longer shelf-lives

The owners noticed that most organic-produce are only available at weekend markets.  So they decided to have them in Sugarleaf for us to get access to those healthy fruits, vegetables and herbs every single day.

However, it’s not only the vegetables that SugarLeaf offers.  The restaurant and mini store also offers a wide variety of natural, organically produced goods.  Products like free-range chicken, eggs, pork, kambucha, carabao and cow’s milk, organic highland coffee and rice, natural sweeteners, home-made dips and dressings, air-dried tea, organic eggs, kefir milk and yogurt

Who wouldn’t want to eat the food prepared by SugarLeaf using the products they sell?  We surely didn’t!  So we tried out some for lunch last saturday.  I didn’t feel guilty at all as I knew that whatever we had eaten were all good for our health.

• Liver Cleanse Healing Juice (Php 100)

This liver cleanse juice is one of the top 2 best selling healing juices that is available in SugarLeaf menu.  It’s a combination of pineapple, carrot, beet root and lime.  Oh, it does taste good!  A must order.  If I may suggest, you can opt not to have the beet root in the mixture as it tasted so much better without it hehehe 😛  Don’t worry as we can choose any combination we like for our all vegan juice.

• Detox Healing Juice (Php 100)

The other bestseller is the detox healing juice.  It’s a combination of apple, grapefruit, watermelon and ginger.  As they say, detoxification is very important as it’s a way for us to remove toxic substances in our body.  You have nothing to worry as the juice tasted good.  Instead of drinking so much artificial juices, having SugarLeaf’s healing juices is the way to go.

• Organic All You Can (Php 400)

Do I need to say more?  Check out my full review of this awesome eat all you can organic salad (with complimentary bowl of SugarLeaf’s soup of the day).

• Good Kefir Smoothie (Php 100)

Goody Kefir is considered the emperor of yoghurt.  With the long list of health benefits, we can never go wrong with this drink.  You see, Kefir is a probiotic preparation that includes 40 different species of GOOD bacteria.  I must admit I’m not a fan of yogurt.  However, I’ve started to embrace it as chefs has been making the yoghurt yummier.  Just like this pinacolada flavor that we ordered in SugarLeaf.  It’s a combination of kefir, pineapple and coconut.

I was offered coconut sugar if I didn’t like the bitter taste of Kefir.  Lo and behold, it made the drink sweeter and I ended up liking it!  Whee!

Can’t get enough of Kefir?  SugarLeaf sells it too!  Flavors available are mango, strawberry, banana, vanilla and plain kefir.

• Turkey Waldorf (Php 180)

I was totally surprised with the presentation of this Turkey Waldorf.  I’m not fond of sandwiches so my friend had this.  I did taste the sandwich though.  I must say that the Turkey Waldofr which is a classic salad in a sandwich looked and tasted so nutricious!  The delish sandwich is made of turkey, red apple, celery, toasted cashew nuts dressed with kefir-nutmeg-mayo and served in raisin-cinnamon bagel.  Whew!  See how the recipe was made in so much detail.  Would you believe that one of the owners. Gina Yambot, who created most of the recipes in Sugarleaf was self-taught?  She didn’t even go to a professional school but her creations are so up there!

Organic products for sale, organic food creations available for dine in PLUS workshops covering various topics about healthy eating — those three things are being offered at SugarLeaf at decent prices.  Such a small price for taking care of our body and well-being.

Thanks to the owners Angelo Songco, Jeren Lorenzo, Gina Yambot and Rman Lorenzo for putting up SugarLeaf.  I know the San Juan branch is still new since it just opened last February 2011.  I do really hope they expand soon as I want to have more of SugarLeaf.

I had such a great time and for the first time, I didn’t feel guilty having eaten so much food!  My friend even bought several products home.  We also had a great experience to share with you.  I have this blog as medium.  So here’s my advice: If you want to be really healthy, then you should try out SugarLeaf.  You’ll love it!

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SugarLeaf
G/F Health Cube Building, 226 Wilson Street, West Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines 1502
(02) 385-0387

A few days ago, I publicly announced in my Facebook wall that I’m determined to lose 10 to 15 pounds more to reach my ideal weight.  It’s timely that I ended up eating the most delicious healthy food in the Metro a day after I posted the status message.  I must admit I’m one of those people who easily believe brands who advertise their product as healthy.  Honestly, when you get to try REAL healthy food, you would know the difference.

That’s how I felt when I finally tried out SugarLeaf.  It was a great foodie discovery that I wanna share with you.  The small healthy restaurant is located at the G/F of the Health Cube Building along Wilson Street in San Juan.  Such a perfect location to put SugarLeaf as the people going to that building are health-conscious people (in the truest sense!).

SugarLeaf is just a small place.  It’ll probably just fit 40 people but the food they serve are just overwhelmingly good!

We chose the table beside the big window.  In the picture below, you’ll see my cute friend ready to order some healthy food for our lunch.  I especially love that spot as we get to see the full view of SugarLeaf.  The lighting is very nice there too!

Aside from serving food, SugarLeaf also sells the products in the restaurant.  My friend bought several nuts and other food products to take home to her family 🙂  I can truly say that SugarLeaf is a haven for healthy buffs.  As more and more people are getting conscious with their well-being, I really hope that SugarLeaf will open more branches as it’s rare that we can find restaurants like it!

I was there to try out SugarLeaf’s Organic All You Can but I ended up eating a lot more (I’ll save the other dishes we tried in a separate post).  For this blog post, I’ll concentrate on the Organic All You Can offering of SugarLeaf.

With SugarLeaf’s Organic All You Can, we can enjoy and savour unlimited servings of nutritious organic vegetables with a variety of home-made dips, dressings and sauces for only Php 400.00!  It comes with a complimentary bowl of SugarLeaf’s soup of the day.

Who wouldn’t want eat salad that is rich in nutrients, vitamins and minerals?  SugarLeaf has the stamp of approval from the OCCP (Organic Certification Council of the Philippines) to prove that the produce (vegetables, fruits and herbs) is all-organic.  Now, that’s a guarantee.

We were also fortunate that SugarLeaf co-owner Angelo Songco was there to chit-chat with us and share what SugarLeaf is all about.  He was explaining each of the ingredient included in the Organic All You Can.  I’m truly impressed with the level of detail the owners put into each of the products they offer at SugarLeaf.  They aren’t just making business but they are trying to influence us to have a healthier lifestyle.  I really appreciate that.

When you order SugarLeaf’s Organic All You Can, you get a complimentary bowl of their soup of the day.  We were lucky as we got to try out two different soups (one for me and one for my friend).  My friend had the Pechay Sayote soup.  I tried it and I must say, it tasted soooooooo nice!  The pechay really stood out in this dish.  Do you know that SugarLeaf used chicken broth in the soup?

I, on the other hand, had the all vegetarian soup.  It’s veggie in the purest sense.  The soup was made from tatsoy (a Japanese pechay), celery, onions, garlic and spinach.  It had strong veggie flavors but I didn’t mind.  It tasted just as good.  Having tasted the soup, I already knew that we would be having a great lunch.  I was excited to try out the salad!

The Organic All You Can consists of 4 major components:

• Greens

The vegetables that basically make up the salad.  The greens are served mixed.  Types of veggies included will depend on the store availability that day.  We had Lolo Rosa, Romaine and Lettuce that day.  SugarLeaf complete list of greens include: Romaine, Lolo Rosa, Spinach, Arugula and Alfalfa.

• Vegetables

Pictures doesn’t lie.  Just see how fresh the vegetables looked?  And to think that we can have unlimited servings of those all-organic vegetables, I was already hoping that time would stop at that moment.  I wanted to get more of it and enjoy the salad more.

• Other toppings

Fruits, raisins, walnuts are great ingredients to our all-organic salad.  The walnuts are not roasted or fried and they came from the U.S.!  Everything is just so fresh, healthy and pure!

• Dressing

I’m not exaggerating when I say that SugarLeaf has the best selections of Salad dressing!  We tried each and every one of them.  Each actually has a distinct taste and it felt like we were having 5 different salads altogether.  We tried Passion Fruit, Orange Mango, Raspberry, Lemon Balm and Live Kefir.  My favorite has got to be the raspberry!

If you’re like me who can’t get enough of the dressing, SugarLeaf sells them too!  The restaurant has a mini store inside that sells the organic veggies, kefir drinks, salad dressings and other healthy products.

If I don’t get you to try out SugarLeaf with this post, then I’ll surely be sad.  As I wanted to share how delicious SugarLeaf’s Organic All-You-Can is.  I was eating for 2 hours and I even lost track of time.  If I didn’t have a scheduled meet with colleagues to the Ultimate Taste Test 6.0 event that day, I would have stayed and sampled more of the delicious and healthy SugarLeaf salad.  It’s THAT good!  You also pamper your body that way as it’s packed with nutrients and vitamins.

I was practically asking the owner to open a branch in Makati near my workplace.  I seriously want to eat healthier and I know SugarLeaf serves food that is good for our body.  I wish they can fulfill my request in the future 🙂

Wait, I’m NOT yet done.  Do you know that AwesomePH will offer SugarLeaf’s Organic All You Can at 50% off from September 12-23, 2011?  You have to watch out for that!  Php 199 for Php 400 worth of unlimited SugarLeaf all-Organic Salad with complimentary soup of the day.  You surely don’t wanna miss that.

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SugarLeaf
G/F Health Cube Building, 226 Wilson Street, West Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines 1502
(02) 385-0387