Category: Restaurants

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

Melo’s will always be a household name for steaks.  It’s known to be the place that serves the best Angus Beef and Wagyu Beef.  I’m just glad that I was able to finally dine at Melo’s recently.  The prices are a bit steep so I don’t think it’ll be the place that I’ll go to often.  However, when I’m craving for authentic yummy steaks, Melo’s will always be the number one choice.

If you want to celebrate something special like an anniversary, birthday, mother’s/father’s day or other special occasions like a date, Melo’s is the perfect place to bring your special someone 🙂  With the steaks being served at Melo’s, you’ll never go wrong.

My friends and I enjoyed our food and of course, each other’s company 😀  My long drive to Melo’s Alabang was worth it!

While we expect Melo’s to have great steaks, they actually serve delicious breads too!!  I was able to finish the complimentary bread quickly.  I always appreciate freshly baked bread!

I must admit we ordered a lot.  It was too much for a party of three.  I had to take my leftovers home which is great!  I get to experience good food in another day 😛

• Iced Tea (Php 80)

• Watermelon Shake (Php 110)

• Oyster Rockefeller (Php 400)

I’m not fond of oysters but Melo’s version was just heavenly.  The oysters were just full of flavors.  The cheese was sooo delightfully good!  Presentation was great too!  The oysters were baked with hollandaise sauce and topped with bacon, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.  Perfect way to start a great meal ahead.

• Creamy Pasta Farfalle w/ Mushroom & Truffle Oil (Php 490)

Bow-tie pasta!  So cute!  As the name implied, the pasta was creamy served with decent amount of mushrooms.

• Wagyu Rice

When I saw this wagyu rice, I immediately remembered Hainanese chicken.  What Singaporean restaurants do aside from serving hainanese chicken, they serve hainanese rice.  It’s also the same for Melo’s Wagyu rice.  You can feel the same goodness from Wagyu steak.  This is a must-order!  We ordered Wagyu steak but this rice was just too good to resist!

• Grilled Lambchops in Cranberry Mint Sauce (Php 840)

With 3 lamb chops in this dish, it was perfect for the 3 of us.  I’m not fond of lambs but this was just too good to pass up.  The meat was very tender and if you put the mint sauce into the lamb, lovely!

• Melo’s Special Menu (Php 1,915 each)

It may looked like we had a complete meal already but no, those menu items above were just side dishes to our main orders.  Our trip to Melo’s won’t be complete without having their authentic wagyu steak!  As they say, Wagyu is the source of what is known to be Kobe beef.  It’s raised in Australia.  Wagyu has grades ranging from 1-10 according to its marbling.

Melo’s special menu that night had 2 items.  We ordered both so stay tuned for the mouth-watering dishes shown below.  Both wagyu steaks are grade 8.  The special menu is inclusive of soup of the day and caesar salad.

Soup of the Day

Classic Caesar Salad

My friend ordered 4oz of Tenderloin Wagyu Grade 8 Red Morel Mushroom Cabernet Toasted Garlic Sauce.  He requested for it to be cooked medium rare.  Melo’s recommendation is to order steak as medium rare or medium as the steak will tend to get dry if cooked well done.  I still prefer well done though.  I’m really scared of blood 😛

I ordered the Filetto Tartufato Grade 8 Filet Mining red foie gras and truffle oil sauce.  As I’ve always preferred, I had it cooked well done.  Honestly, I didn’t feel the steak to be dry.  It was still as tender as ever!  The foie gras was just too good, so yummy and so tasty!  After having tasted Melo’s very own Wagyu steak, I can now say that Melo’s is definitely the home of wagyu beef.

I have to take a picture with one of the yummiest steak I have ever eaten.  If you haven’t tried Melo’s then you are missing a lot!  Go try it!  I certainly enjoyed my meal and I’m sure you will too! 🙂

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Melo’s The Home of Certified Angus Beef
41 Precinct, Westgate Center, Alabang, Filinvest, Muntinlupa City, Philippines
(02) 771-2288

Corniche Restaurant at Diamond Hotel has been successful in their series of food festivals.  I’ve actually heard lots of good feedback about it.  So I’m glad that I was able to finally try it last tuesday with their current offering, Selamat Menikmati: A Culinary Journey of Indonesia’s Best.

From August 16 to 28, 2011, Diamond Hotel features the rich flavors of Indonesia’s cuisine.  The hotel buffet showcases authentic culinary specialties from three of the best chefs in Indonesia.  Sous Chef Ovan Prahoro, Chef de Partie Asep Marthy and Chef de Partie Agus Setiadi flew here to Manila to recreate Indonesian’s best dishes at the Corniche Buffet.

It’s such a perfect time to sample those yummy authentic Indonesian dishes created by the master chefs from Bandung, Indonesia as it’s also the celebration of Indonesia’s national day.

It was really exciting as I haven’t tried eating at Corniche Restaurant and I also haven’t tried authentic Indonesian dishes.

As I entered the restaurant, I was in total awe with the design they put up for the Selamat Menikmati event.  The beautiful lamp in each table and the awesome Indonesian figurines in each of the food stations were so nice to look at.

Some servers even dressed up like an Indonesian.  I had to ask him to take a photo with me.  I couldn’t resist it.  Isn’t he adorable?

While the buffet has the usual favorite food items that we love like sushi, roast beef, chinese food, I had my eyes only for authentic Indonesian food.  It was a rare opportunity to have three master chefs staying here in Manila for 2 weeks just to cook us their masterpieces.  I can always go back for our old-time favorites.  Last tuesday, I was all for Indonesian dishes.

• Appetizer Station

Together with salads, pizzas, breads, cold cuts, cold seafood, there were 2 Indonesian dishes that I had try out.  You can differentiate the Indonesian dishes from the rest as the label of the dish has a different color and of course, there’s the Indonesian name.

Gado Gado (Mixed Vegetable Salad with Peanut Sauce) — Rujak Buah (Mixed Fruits with Sweet and Sour Sauce).

• Roasting Station

This station is definitely my favorite.  It has all the dishes that we wouldn’t wanna miss having in a buffet.  Food like roast beef, lechon, peking duck and lamb.

A chef is of course manning the station as he had to cut the meat whenever we want to get one.

Featured dish: Kambing Guling (Grilled Whole Lamb)

• Grilling Station

Beside the roasting station is the grilling station.  This station probably has the most Indonesian dishes displayed.  All the main dishes plus rice and noodles can be found there.

Nasi Begana (Steamed Rice wrapped in Banana Leaves), Perkedel Kentang (Deep Fried Mashed Potato), Soup Kimlo (Mixed Vegetables and Fish Ball Soup), Mie Tektek (Stir-Fried Noodles)

Ikan Bumbu Pemol (Steamed Fish with Yellow Sauce), Opor Ayam Suir (Shredded Chicken with Coconut Curry), Tongseng Kambing (Lamb Stew with White Cabbage), Tempe Mendoan (Butter Coated Soya Beancake)

This has got to be my favorite!  Look at how beautiful the presentation is.  This is Sate Ayam and Sapi which is skewered grilled chicken and beef.  You must get this when you visit the Corniche buffet at Diamond Hotel.  Hurry as you only have less than 2 weeks left to try this!

• Dessert Station

Last, but definitely not the least, is the Dessert Station.  You’ll see the usual chocolate fondue, the beautiful cakes that Diamond Hotel is known for and some other mouth-watering desserts on display.

Aside from the Sate, the Indonesian desserts were such a delight.  I was enjoying Urap Jagun Manis (Sweet Corn with Grated coconut), Lapis Surabaya (Layered Sponge Cake with Strawberry Jam) and Dadar Gulung (Stuffed Pineapple Roll).  Most of us enjoyed the pineapple roll but I liked the sweet corn the most 😀

I truly enjoyed my first experience with Indonesian food.  Indonesian cuisine is diverse and has many different influences.  You can actually notice that some of the food are actually similar with our food and some other cuisines.  You must try it!

Take note that you only have till August 28 to try out Selamat Menikmati: A Culinary Journey of Indonesia’s Best.  For only Php 1,588 per person, you can enjoy all the Indonesian dishes I mentioned in this post plus a chance to win roundtrip tickets for two to Jakarta, Indonesia.  How cool is that?

While you’re enjoying the Corniche buffet, you might see Sous Chef Ovan Prahoro.  Go for it and say hi, he’s such a friendly master chef.  We had a great time chatting with him during dinner.

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Selamat Menikmati: A Culinary Journey of Indonesia’s Best
August 16-28, 2011
Corniche Restaurant
Diamond Hotel, Roxas Boulevard cor. Dr. J. Quintos Street, Manila, 1000 Philippines
(02) 528-3000

I rarely go to Tiendesitas area.  Tiendesitas is famous for their pet shops and tiangges (bargain stores).  The place also has tons of food places.  However, Bistro Mateo caught my eye because of it’s ambiance.  I’d rather eat in a secluded place where I can hangout with friends and enjoy the food than in an open noisy area.

The place has this Spanish theme into it.  Apparently, Bistro Mateo serves Spanish-Filipino food.  I had high expectations.

The 2nd floor has a mini bar where most people hang out for some drinks.

Customer service was superb.  The server that was assigned to our table was so accommodating.  He was patiently waiting for us to choose our orders plus he was sharing what the dishes were to help us decide.  It wasn’t hard calling the servers as well when we had additional orders or wanted to ask for water refill.

I felt Christina and I ordered too much to eat for just the 2 of us.  Anyway, it’s always nice to try out something new.  I wasn’t impressed with the food in Bistro Mateo as I feel the dishes weren’t extraordinary.  But hey, the food are so affordable!  With the ambiance of the restaurant, I believe we are getting more than we are spending.  So it’s all good 🙂

We tried the following:

• Fresh Pineapple (Php 85)

I rarely drink fresh pineapple.  My order was surprisingly good!  I have to learn how to make one on my own in the future.  For now, I know that I like the drink.  I’m glad that Bistro Mateo put sufficient amount of pineapple that it didn’t taste like water 🙂  Yummy!

• Special Hot Chocolate (Php 50)

Hot, thick and dark — that’s Bistro Mateo’s special hot chocolate!  It wasn’t my order.  It was my friend’s.  If only they offer white chocolate expresso, then I would have ordered it in a heartbeat 😛

• Sopa de Mariscos (Php 170)

I liked this seafood soup.  Bistro Mateo was very generous with their serving that both of us were already full when we finished the soup.  We ended up taking home a lot of left overs of the other dishes haha!  Anyhow, it was a good start for a decent meal.  If you want to order soup in Bistro Mateo, then this should be your order.  It’s worth it!

• Tokwa’t Baboy (Php 90)

Tofu cut into cubes with crispy pork and onions immersed in soy-vinegar sauce.  I like that the restaurant used crispy pork rather than normal fatty pork that other restaurants’ use.  It had the right amount of spiciness, yumyum!

• Paellita (Php 155)

Bistro Mateo’s pride is their paellas.  Surprisingly, their paellas are pretty cheap (less than Php200 for an order).  We ordered their paellita which is flavored rice with seafood, meat and vegetables.

• Bistek Tagalog (Php 260)

Unfortunately, I didn’t like the Bistek tagalog we ordered.  The pork was a bit tough and the dish was super oily 🙁  It had great flavors but the pork was a bit disappointing.  I hope they presented it better too.  Other restaurants serve it in a sizzling plate.  The effect could be different if they presented it beautifully.

• Tortang Talong (Php 125)

from all the dishes that we ordered, Bistro Mateo’s Tortang Talong was my favorite.  It’s basically an eggplant omelette that can be served with either ground meat or crab meat.  We have chosen crab meat and I really loved it!  It was just a small simple dish but it was very nice.

• Churros con Chocolate (Php 105)

I saw other customers enjoying their churros order in their table and I got a bit curious.  When I checked the menu, it says there that it’s Bistro Mateo’s specialty.  I had to try it out as I felt I might not able to go back to Bistro Mateo anytime soon.  Well, the churros was what we expected it to be.  A pastry served with chocolate sauce.  The sauce wasn’t too sweet which is good.

• Coffee Jelly (Php 55)

I like their coffee jelly as you can really taste real coffee in every scoop.  However, I really wish they used vanilla ice cream instead of whipped cream.  I really don’t like eating too much cream in a dessert.

• Buko Pandan (Php 75)

Bistro Mateo’s buko pandan is basically the same as their coffee jelly.  It’s Php20 more expensive which i I think is because of the real bits of buko on top of the dessert 😛

As I said earlier, Bistro Mateo serves affordable and decent food.  With its big space and good location, I’m sure it’ll stay.  Service is a great reason for a restaurant’s success and Bistro Mateo has that.  Hopefully, the chef can get a bit adventurous and work on improvising new unique dishes and improving current menu.

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Bistro Mateo
Tiendesitas at Frontera Verde, Ortigas corner C5 Ugong, Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 631-4367