As much as everyone wants to eat healthy, the busy and diminishing land in the Metro makes it hard to get good food which came from quality ingredients. A lot of us is still confused on how to pick the best ingredients that will make our home dishes healthy and at the same time tasty. Good thing that restaurants like Santika Naturals still upholds to the tradition of farm to table concept of dining.


Santika Naturals is a humble vegetarian located at Kamagong St. They offer dishes that are not only healthy but came from ingredients that you can be sure came from the mountains of Benguet. It was just this year that I found that the freshest and affordable produce can be found in Baguio (or the mountains of Benguet, to be exact). I was glad that restaurants, like Santika Naturals maximizes the bountiful crops of our country's mountains.



I was invited for a Zomato Foodie Meetup at Santika Naturals  to try their exemplary vegetarian dishes and at the same time meet the people behind Santika. Here are some of the vegetarian dishes we tried during our foodie meetup:





I love zucchini pasta, and this Herbed Pesto Pasta was scumptious. The herb and parmesan gave life to the zucchini pasta. The Cream Cheese Chicken Pasta was a novel choice because it reminded me of a light Chicken Parmigiana, without the heaviness of the cream/cheese.



For people who doesn't want to go all vegan or vegetarian, Santika have an interesting selection of filling poultry dishes like the Chicken Honey Mustard, a healthy twist of a Filipino favorite, Adobo, Chicken with Parmesan and Bechamel sauce and the appealing Greek Platter.



As for full pledge Vegans and Vegetarians, Santika Naturals gave a creative twist to some Filipino dishes to meet the requirements of the lifestyle. Among of those dishes, we get to try the Vegan Platter and Vegan Afritada. The afritada had a prominent eggplant taste which I find a bit unusual for my palate.


The meatballs were fascinating because it felt like I was eating meat without its overwhelming taste. Little did I know that it was a combination of beets and herbs. I remember the first time I tasted beets, it was disappointing. I crossed it off and included to the list of food I did not like eating. But the Vegan Meatballs at Santika was different. I was actually munching them like real meatballs.


As for desserts, you may think that vegetarian or vegan desserts are no fun. But their choice of desserts are same as to normal people with sweet tooth. It is also sweet but the ingredients came from natural sweeteners which less likely to mess up your blood sugar levels. The Vegan Tiramisu has achieved the bitter sweet taste of the normal tiramisu while the Mango cheesecake was delish. They substitute yoghurt to dairy which added a tangy taste. No cheese aftertaste, just pure tangy bliss.



I am happy that I am now able to try vegetarian restaurants and meet inspiring entrepreneurs via Zomato's foodie meetup. Vegetarian dishes are something that I want to try making at home, but it appears to be complicated, specially if the ingredients are a bit foreign for me. After chatting with the people behind Santika Naturals, Eating vegan is a whole lot easy and fun. You can be assured that their dishes are all fresh and at the same time delicious. And their dishes are mainly made of the produce available locally.


What vegetarian dishes have you tried? 

Share your experience at the comments below!


Santika Naturals
1137 Kamagong Street cor Chino Roces Ave., Makati City
Open daily from 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM
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