CafeVegis: Vegetarian Café

CafeVegis: Vegetarian Café
by Nicole


Craving for something new, affordable, fresh and GOOD-FOR-YOU food? Then head now to the newest vegetarian café in town - the CafeVegis in Quezon City!

Opened just last August, CaféVegis is located at Moomba Plaza, Mother Ignacia corner Roces Ave (map). If you´re the type who has already exhausted all the restaurants in the neighbouring Timog, and now looking for a new and interesting restaurant to dine in, then CaféVegis is the place!

When we got to this café, my folks and I were the only customers (twas raining like cats and dogs that day so very few people were out). I know that´s not so good for any business but I was quite pleased about that because I am not fond of crowd! HA HA!

I love how spacious this café is! Very child friendly (proven and tested because my 5 year old brother who´s like a tornado was with us and he was running around and did not break anything nor tripped over something! :)))

CafeVegis

Some photos of their menu. Honestly, I wanted to order EVERYTHING! Look at how scrumptious and affordable their dishes are! ♡

Menu

For appetizer, we had this salad with raspberry dressing. Not to exaggerate or anything but THIS IS THE BEST TASTING SALAD I´ve ever eaten in my life! The serving was huge! This one was good for three people already. 

CafeVegis´salad
Php 125.00

We can´t help but gush about how awesome the raspberry dressing was! Total YUUUMMM!

Salad with raspberry dressing

While we were having the salad and waiting for more food, one of the staff gave my brother some cookies. :D

Oatmeal Chocochip Cookies
3 pcs for only PHP 18.00!

Here comes the main course!  Boy oh boy oh boy! We were extremely happy about the salad and when we tasted their main dishes, wow! Guilt-free aaand REALLY GOOD!

Vegetarian sisig (left) and buttered lemon salmon (right)

Finally a guilt-free sisig! This sisig has tofu, gluten, turnips and some more ingredients! I can eat tons of this ha ha! This is my second most favorite!

Vegetarian Sisig

Remember this is a vegetarian cafe so there's no meat here. All these fake meat are gluten. :) SO YUMMY! It was so cool that they actually taste meat!

Beef Salpicao
Php 165.00

This looks like a real liempo but of course it is not. It was so interesting how even the "fat" tasted like the real liempo fat!

Grilled Liempo
Php 175

CafeVegis has an on-going promo. Buy any pizza and get 3 milkshakes for free! The pizza that we ordered was the Garden Pizza. Its toppings were olives, tomato, basil, and mushrooms! My folks and I loved it because you can absolutely taste the toppings. While I was eating it was like that scene in Ratatouille where Remy was eating strawberry and cheese and then there were colors, shapes, music... D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Although, I was not that impressed with the crust.

Garden Pizza
Php 275.00

Now for the dessert! I'm not a dessert person ergo I am not fond of sweets but I can never resist a cheesecake! I must say, their cheesecake is loooove! Though the crust needs a little bit more of butter or something to make it more intact. But anyway, my folks and I liked it so much because it's not too sweet and it was huge! One serving is already good for 2 people!

Blueberry Cheesecake
Php 125.00

It was awesome eating at this café because we felt like we were dining in a pseudo fine dining resto. I was sooo pleased at how they gave us separate plates for every dish! We were sooo full! My pop said after: "nakakabusog at nakakalusog!" :D

 I really don't have a favourite restaurant but since eating here in CafeVegis, no doubt I have one now! I can't wait to go back! And by the way, they also sell vegetarian stuff - like gluten (finally! My mom will now be able to cook vegetarian kare-kare), vegetarian sausages, and all sorts of vegetarian frozen stuff like the veggie version of fishballs and squidballs. They have noodles, dried mushrooms and many other vegetarian merchandise too. They also sell breads - with and/or without eggs :D


CafeVegis
Address:  Moomba Plaza, Mother Ignacia corner Roces Ave
Telephone number: 374 5598

Visit them on their Facebook for more photos :)


Don't forget to join our ongoing giveaways:
1. Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range + Giveaway
2. The Bellevue Pastry Corner + Buffet Giveaway

Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range + Giveaway

Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range + Giveaway
December 9, 2011
By Tiffy and Nicole

Gandiva Cafe (pronounced gandeeva) is the first archery pro shop in the Philippines that's geared towards health and fitness. They offer not only a chance to learn (and do) archery, they also serve vegetarian/vegan food (they have both!) in their cafe. They're really into organic ingredients and they buy it locally.

Their 18-meter range. Tonight, however, the targets are much closer to cater to noobz like us!

They also sell some merchandise. Btw, FREE wifi access for only one drink order!

For vegans, they serve pastries that contain no milk/eggs. I believe that they also have pastries containing milk/eggs for the lacto-ovo vegetarians.

The National Yoga Club of the Philippines also gave a demonstration. Apparently, Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range will also be offering yoga classes. 

We were served their Gandiva VG Burger (Php 198), Four Cheese pizza (Php 225 12-inch, P355 18-inch), Bacon cheese burger (Php 275 12-inch, Php 420 18-inch), and Tuna Pesto (Php 198).

Nicole and I both thought that the Gandiva VG Burger is a little too dry for our taste. Their thin crust pizza is crunchy--the Four Cheese pizza has a slightly sweet taste and their Bacon Cheese Burger doesn't really taste like bacon cheese burger. We ♥ the chili sauce that comes with the pizza. Their Tuna Pesto is good--the taste is not too strong, perfect for those who aren't too keen with herbs. Funnily, the fake meat that came with the pesto, although made from soy, tasted a bit like spam (or there might be something wrong with my tastebuds). 

Their bestsellers are the Tomato Basil Pizza (Php 220 12-inch, Php 350 18-inch) and the Veggie Supreme Pizza (Php 275 12-inch, Php 420 18-inch)

The menu is promising although I think that they have a lot to improve on if they want people to start going veggie!

We were able to chat with Chef Lali Balagtas and let us tell you--she is one of the bubbliest person we both met! When we learned her name, Nicole suddenly went, "Are you related to that Balagtas?" Chef Lali was puzzled, "Which Balagtas?" Nicole continued, "You know! The one who wrote Florante at Laura!" Chef Lali burst out laughing--actually, we both did! No, she's not.

Chef Lali actually hasn't eaten any sort of meat or fish her whole life. This is because her whole family's vegetarian and she was raised as one. Her mom eventually let them decide whether or not they want to start eating meat or keep being a vegetarian. (One small boo-boo: one time, she accidentally ate pasta that contained anchovy even after specifically requesting for it to be removed.) She's lacto vegetarian so she still eats cheese--something that she can't give up. 

Marti Bismark (left), holding a compound bow, explains how it differs from a recurve bow (held by Romnick Balmeo), which is the only bow permitted in the Olympics. The compound bows are more often used for hunting.

Earlier this evening, I was very fortunate to be seated at the table beside that of Tim Bismark, a consultant for the archery range, who passionately talked about his love of archery. Archery, according to him, is an ancient art form that helps man understand focus. An archer for 5 years, he has previously suffered two strokes before. Archery was, according to him, one of the reasons for his faster recovery. 

Nicole has a natural flare for archery! She hit the bulls-eye twice.

Archery Range and Equipment Rental:
Range Fees: Php 150 per hour
Equipment Rental: Php 200 per hour
Instructor's Fees: Php 250 per hour
*They also have a lesson package for Php 6,000 that includes 10 2-hour sessions.

They are open from 9 AM to 9 PM. Friday nights, as well as Saturdays and Sundays are usually busy times for the archery range.

We all got Gandiva shirts.

Now the exciting part: I will be giving away my haul for the night. My haul includes a Gandiva shirt, a Gandiva tumbler, a small bottle of Lavender & Vanilla organic room and linen fragrance, a small bottle of sportspray all-around antibacterial sports gear deodorizer and disinfectant, and a 150-gram pack of 100% pure cocosugar. (I wonder if Gandiva can sponsor a free hour for the winner? PLZ OH PLZ)



This giveaway is open only to Philippine residents--or nonresidents if you're sure I can maybe give it to you some day when I end up in your country? :)

Here's what you have to do:

1. Like Manila Foodistas on Facebook (it's also in the sidebar)
2. Follow us on Google Friend Connect (in the sidebar, just click JOIN THIS SITE--you can use either your twitter/google account/yahoo to follow).
3. Like Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range on Facebook
4. Leave a comment with your Facebook/twitter name and the Google Friend Connect account name that you used.

(BONUS! +3 raffle entries) On the Disqus form below, click the "like" button and share on either Facebook or Twitter. Please make sure that the Facebook post is set to public. !In your comment, please say that you did the bonus.

You can join until December 16, 2011 (12 MN) and we'll announce the winner later that day (and email you too)! :)

Visit Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range and get your free 6-arrow trial.
Gandiva Cafe and Archery Range
Address: 7th floor One Corporate Centre Bldg.,
Julia Vargas St. cor Meralco Ave., Ortigas,
Pasig City, Philippines
Landline number: (02) 638-8711 Fax #: (02) 571-9999
Mobile # (63) 9175854451 (63) 9175854459
Website: www.gandiva.com.ph
Email: info [a] gandiva.com.ph

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