Food Trip @ Halo Cafe

Barkadas have another choice for an eat-out gimik: Halo Café. It is named so because of the kind of food they serve – light and healthy. This cozy little place is located at the Cubao Expo in Araneta Center. Here, diners can enjoy vegan dishes like the veggie burger and veggie burger steak, veggie medley lettuce wraps, and eggplant & cheese wholewheat tortilla. Halo also offers pasta dishes, so if you’re adventurous enough, you may want to try the spaghetti with malunggay pesto. They do not serve red meat; only chicken and tuna. Their line up of beverages are must-try. There’s the bohol coffee, bohol tsokolate, wheatgrass cold tea and Halo’s house specialty the tarragon tea.

What I have tried (together with friends) so far in Halo’s menu are:

(a) Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Olives – this one I highly recommend. I like how the tomatoes and olives blended and created a slightly sour sauce which suited my taste bud very well.

(b) Spaghetti with malunggay pesto – this dish is for the brave and adventurous. Although the malunggay sauce may look like your regular pesto, there’s more than slight difference in the taste since it is impossible to totally remove the bitter taste of the malunggay. Hey, but this is really healthy! Remember that malunggay is a better source of vitamin C than citrus fruits.

(c) Veggie Medley Lettuce Wraps – a little salty for my taste but still good. Look forward to discovering the taste of banana and ginger combined.

(d) Chicken Pastel – hmmm… this is different from the usual pastel dish because this one is not baked. It was okay. Still healthy, I guess, because it uses white meat (chicken skin not included).

(e) Wheat Grass Cold Tea – a drink that you MUST try when you eat at Halo. The wheat grass they use is freshly cut from the plant box they keep outside of the café.

(f) Eggplant & Cheese Wholewheat Tortilla – I think the wholewheat tortilla made the difference in this appetizer. And the eggplant? The eggplant always goes well with anything!

(g) Tuna Steak – one of the best-tasting in the menu. Loved the way it was cooked.

(h) Tarragon Tea – a highly recommended after meal beverage. Halo uses a mixture of fresh and dried tarragon leaves. You will enjoy its natural sweet flavor and fragrant aroma. I think it has a calming effect on the drinker because when I had a cup at Halo, I was able to sleep immediately when I got home. Maybe I should start growing tarragon in my backyard.

Here’s a peek at some of the food we tried:

(1) veggie medley lettuce wraps (2) vegetarian burger

(3) eggplant and cheese wholewheat tortilla (4) spaghetti with malunggay pesto

(5) wheatgrass cold tea (6) wheatglass plant box

Food prices range from fifty pesos to a little more than a hundred pesos. Really affordable.

For a list of Halo Cafe’s offering, click here.

A few snapshots of Halo’s interior: