The Happy Garden Café at the Sunshine Place celebrates the joys of eating. Salads are Dazzling (figs and caramelized orange with aniseed dressing) and Gorgeous (quinoa with panko-crusted mozzaballs, pistachio and maple tahini dressing); pastas are Serene (palabok noodles with shrimp sauce topped with smoked fish, prawns, pork crackling) and Enthusiastic (mushroom stuffed pasta cooked in Alfredo Sauce); and sandwiches are Extraordinary (Chicken with sundried tomato) and Magical (brisket slices topped with caramelized onion and mushroom gravy served with salted egg yolk fries).
It is, as its name implies, truly a happy place with comforting food that makes you feel good and happy about what you eat and yourself.
Since it opened in 2015 at the Sunshine Place, which is part of SM’s Felicidad Sy Foundation, Happy Garden Café has been a haven for the health conscious and organic dishes lovers; an oasis in the bustling city of Makati with its charming interiors surrounded by flowers, greeneries and inspirational books.
Its mission is to bring the freshest produce from the best farms in the provinces to Manila, and serve food that looks good, tastes good and is good for the body and mind. Moreover, the menu is especially created for seniors who wish to enjoy a lovely meal without breaking their diets or the doctor’s orders.
“It’s time for seniors to take care of themselves. Before it’s always their children, and their partners,” café owner, Annabel Tanco of the Bizu Group explains. Here, seniors can find food that answers the question—“What is good for me?”
The idea that food and diet can help the body heal itself is a concept a thousand of years old. We’ve heard it from Hippocrates in one of his famous quotes, “Let food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be food.” Ten years ago, Annemarie Colbin stood at the forefront of the food revolution with her book, Food and Healing, in which she says that what you eat determines your health, your well being and the quality of your life.
Happy Garden Café is all about making conscious choices in our diets to maintain balance and vitality. And with the recent update of Happy Garden Café’s menu, everyone can choose to be happy about what they eat, and joyful about themselves.
The menu gives you some happy and healthy choices. For starters, be Comforted with soft yolk scotch eggs wrapped in homemade sausage, breaded and fried on a bed of arugula drizzled with sweet chili sauce. Follow this with foods that are Thriving and Pure—pumpkin soup with cocoa cream and blue cheese croutons, and harvest salad with pumpkin goodness, mixed greens, roasted pumpkin and Brussel sprouts, cranberries, pecans, apple slices served with pumpkin yoghurt dressing, respectively.
Your meal will be Complete with freshly made brown rice pasta with lamb bolognese sauce, Grateful with truffle mushrrom pizza with cream cheese, truffle cream topped with oyster mushrooms, buttoned mushrooms and mozzarella cheese glazed with honey and kale; and Happy with a sandwich made from baked Vietnamese pork balls served with sriracha mayo, jalapenos sesame-carrot slaw and salted egg yolk fries. Pizzas are homemade from Italian caputo flour, while pastas are freshly made.
Other great food choices: Humble, cauliflour rice with Korean beef bibimbap; and Immortal, Malagos chocolate champorado danggit tuile, Davao cacao rice porridge topped with chia seeds, dried cranberries, and almonds.
Guests can begin their day and feel Energized with Filipino breakfast options—beef tapa, pork tocino, pork longganisa, and fried bangus served with garlic rice, tomato with white cheese and pesto. Or Ecstatic, Fulfilled, and Optimistic with various eggs benedict versions with smoked salmon and smoked ham; or Soulful and Blissful with delightful French omelette sets. Other breakfast sets are Euphoric (homemade muesli, yogurt, and blueberry compote, and Radiant (rolled oats, cinnamon, dried fruits and a light bowl of fresh fruits).
Fresh juice blends are also available: Red juice—a mix of beets, turnips, carrots, ginger, stevia, fiber; and Green juice—a mix of kale, green apple, lemon, celery, ginger, stevia, fiber).
Bizu has always been known for its wonderful desserts, and here, you can take a pick from the cutest flower pot carrot walnut, banana and chocolate cupcakes that are gluten-free and non-dairy. Gluten-free cakes are also available, as are take-home gifts Bizu’s Macaron de Paris and the Honey-sweetened peanut spread, peanut crunch & salted coco caramel by First Harvest.
Happy Garden Café is on the ground floor of Sunshine Place at #56 Jupiter St., Bel-Air, Makati City and is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m,, Monday to Sunday; and is also available for events and private parties.
For more information, contact 261-0115. Follow and like Happy Garden Café on Instagram @happygardencafe or on facebook at facebook.com/HappyGardenCafe.