Feel-Good Food at Chimara Feel Good Kitchen

It was around August when I received an invitation via email to try out Chimara Feel Good Kitchen. Not finishing the entire email, I searched over the net to check the restaurant's whereabouts, only to find out that it's in the Philippines. Glad that they accommodated my request to have it rescheduled in time for my vacation. :)

Fast forward to October 28, Friday, together with my family, we sampled Chimara's offerings. I've learned that Chimara reinvented itself from a pure-vegan restaurant to a “feel-good kitchen” with its newly-opened branch in UP Town Center. They embrace healthier options and shares their passion to their customers with a simple concept: “eat right, feel good”.

It's all our first time in UP Town Center and we kind of had a hard time locating the restaurant. The moment I entered the restaurant though, I felt refreshed. The earthy colors of the interiors with touches of greens were just so refreshing. They also have nooks with random feel-good stuff.

When I broke the news to my family, I felt the urge to remind them not to expect anything since we will be sampling healthy food. I'm into healthy dishes, yes, and my family is too, but I just thought that I had to remind them to have their expectations set.

You see, whenever people encounter a restaurant that offers healthy food, more often that not, they veer away from it thinking they won't get their money's worth as they will only be served with pricey meals that are not satisfying.

But that is totally not the case with Chimara. They offer various protein choices in a variety of carb options which can be mixed and matched to suit any type of lifestyle. You can go for Cold and Fresh or Hot and Savory depending on your mood.

We got there in time for dinner so we all opted for the Hot and Savory dishes. Mommy chose the Tofu Cheese Pesto pasta. Chimara's protein-loaded take on the herby favorite uses their original pesto recipe with quezo blanco-topped tofu. You can opt to have this dish if your mind needs re-energizing for that much needed protein boost. It is also rich in vitamin E which is good for the skin.

Mommy liked this one. I also felt the same. The pesto flavor wasn't overpowering and I loved the subtle sweetness of the soft tofu. The cheese added just the right amount of saltiness while the crushed cashew nuts added texture to the dish.

Tofu Cheese Pesto (Panini: PHP 170, Rice: PHP 180, Pasta: PHP 180)

I already knew that Daddy would opt for the Faux Beef Salpicao since he loves meat. The faux beef was specially marinated and sauteed in aioli sauce and topped with a generous helping of garlic, which is typical with all other beef salpicao. This is perfect for vegetarians!

Not sure if he knew that it wasn't beef but veggie meat, but Daddy loved this dish. He specifically pointed out how the beef was tender and flavorful. I guess it just goes to show how Chimara's faux beef can pass as real meat!

Faux Beef Salpicao (Panini: PHP 170, Rice: PHP 180, Pasta: PHP 180)

Chimara's Faux Beef Salpicao can pass as real meat! Tweet

Daddy is also not a fan of brown rice especially since it has that distinct taste which somehow overpowers the dish, but he didn't utter any complaints with Chimara's brown rice and finished it all off. So I guess it also tasted just like white rice.

I opted for the Spicy Tuna Pomodoro pasta. Judging at how everyone else were enjoying their dishes, I guess mine was the least impressive. I found it a bit too sour, well that's how all Italian-inspired dishes are anyway. This would be a hit for tomato lovers. I loved that it had generous tuna chunks and it wasn't as spicy as I expected, though.

Spicy Tuna Pomodoro (Panini: PHP 180, Rice: PHP 190, Pasta PHP 190)

Chino and Jaoey went healthy and had a high-nutrition balanced meal option—Soy Ginger Chicken—which can be paired with either rice or pasta. Chino got it with rice while Jaoey had its pasta version.

Chimara's take on the the Asian favorite, the dish has soy ginger chicken breast with snow peas, carrots, and peanuts, drizzled with soy ginger sauce. Chino seemed to be enjoying his rice meal.

Soy Garlic Chicken (Panini: PHP 180, Rice: PHP 190, Pasta: PHP 190)

Mommy and I were both skeptical at how Jaoey would embrace this dish since we thought it might be a little ginger-y. I even kept on offering my pasta to him since I thought he'd like the red sauce more, since what he had smells and looks like the peanut sauce used for satay. But when Jaoey started to dig into his pasta dish once, he surprisingly dug in for more. He didn't even let me taste it. Haha!

Soy Garlic Chicken (Panini: PHP 180, Rice: PHP 190, Pasta: PHP 190)

We were all surprised when he got his plate all wiped out! Jaoey, being a picky eater who only eats fried chicken and pork, having finished everything in his plate is a revelation of how good the Soy Ginger Chicken pasta dish was! Congratulations, Chimara!

He loved the dish! He just had one complain though—there should have been more chicken chunks! :D

Aside from the healthy dishes and munchies, they also have juice infusions all made from the freshest ingredients. We had a pitcher each of the I am Super (a concoction of apple and romaine lettuce) and the I am Wise (a combination of mango, tomato, and apple). Both were refreshing but I enjoyed the latter more.

All Hot and Savory dishes with rice or pasta come with a side order of Tofu Chips, which by the way was so good! We also got to try their other healthy munchies like the Hearty Pop and Fruit Chips. We were also given some bags of it for take away.

We all had a feel-good dinner. Chimara is a proof that healthy food doesn't have to be boring and pricey! Good job, Chimara!

Chimara is a proof that healthy food doesn't have to be boring and pricey! Tweet

Special thanks to Yen and the Chimara staff for having us and for preparing a little something for my dad's birthday (they serve the cookies at Chimara, the cupcake that they server was out of stock but they went the extra mile to buy some cake for my dad!). He loved it! The cookies were the bomb! :D

CHIMARA FEEL GOOD KITCHEN

Ground Floor, UP Town Center
Katipunan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Philippines
+63 (0)2 949 9205
chimarakitchen.com

We were guests at Chimara and our meal was complimentary, but as always, this post is sincerely written and all views and opinions are my own.

Individual food photos and photos of my dad with his birthday dessert were taken with Nikon D5100.
All other photos were taken with iPhone 6S Plus.