Earth Kitchen has long been a favorite food haunt in the White Plains community, and recently this popular restaurant has branched out to BGC to feed diners wanting healthful, organic, and hearty eats that also give back–Earth Kitchen strongly supports local farmers and indigenous communities while championing local natural ingredients and food from scratch.
Better here means natural, good, and healthy, without having the need for genetically-modified organisms (GMO’s), chemicals, synthetic fertilizers and other harmful inputs. Almost everything that comes out of the kitchen is made from scratch: pasta, ice cream, tortillas, risotto, and soups are all made from scratch, ensuring ingredients at their finest and freshest.
Earth Kitchen's approach to their food is simple yet it works: nourish the diners with good, clean food, and nourish the local food community with staunch support. The brand's dedication in supporting local communities and farmers — the core of being 'locavore' or pursuing food that are locally produced and grown — fostered a partnership with Got Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization. The indigenous communities they support become sustainable as the restaurant sources ingredients and produce straight from them. By dining at Earth Kitchen, the demand for organic and natural produce increases, which helps livelihood of marginalized communities, encouraging local farmers to produce better food.
How does Earth Kitchen translate their 'healthy, local, sustainable' tagline into edible elements? It manifests in many delicious ways, not strict to a certain cuisine nor a particular diet; it has managed to balance its menu mix with friendly (read: not intimidating or too fanciful) offerings hearty, healthy, vegetarian, and light — a formula long loved by patrons of the brand ever since it first opened its doors in White Plains. To start, there's the Fresh Mushroom Soup (P200), a four mushroom vegetarian soup bowl that's not too photogenic, yet every spoonful brimming with that warm and soothing earthiness of mushrooms, a combination of organic (naturally-produced) shiitake, button, milky, and abalone mushrooms. All current soup options at Earth Kitchen are vegetarian-friendly. Vietnamese style Shrimp Spring Rolls (P220/Regular, P315/Large) is also another simple, fresh, and satisfying order for appetizer, every roll stuffed with shrimp, organic shiitake mushrooms, peanuts, herbs and greens, and peanuts. The flavors become as summery as the rolls' colors once dipped in the tangy-sweet, lime hoisin sauce. For a gorgeous plate of greens that begs to be Instagrammed, order the ultra-photogenic Watermelon and Rocket Salad (P300), a vegetarian salad with bursts of color from organic arugula, edible flowers, pili nut, and homemade kesong puti. Tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, this colorful dish is armed with lots of textures and flavors to boot–it's not only a looker, but definitely also a tummy-pleaser.
Earth Kitchen is also popular for their different kinds of street tacos — healthier (less greasy and fresher ingredients!) takes of them — that come in either two or three pieces per order. Best-selling among the lot is the Beef Bulgogi Soft Tacos (P210/2pcs, P310/3pcs) which has tender boneless beef ribs with kimchi rice giving it just a little tease of heat, then topped with salad greens and nori. If you love flavorful rice, then a must is to try their Risotto Negra (P350), a favorite of many but perhaps none of the hungry that get conscious with squid ink issues getting in the way of impressing a date. But the risk of having funny inky lips is worth it (if your date laughs it off, hey, plus points) because this dramatically colored rice dish sings happy flavors. Topped generously with local scallops, the risotto has great consistency: deliciously creamy.
The restaurant's selection of pasta (always fresh and homemade!) include different kinds of fettuccini, spaghettini, linguini, and ravioli dishes. The Earth Kitchen Ravioli (P400) is a delicious vegetarian pasta of camote tops, white cheese, pili nuts, pomodoro sauce, basil and parmesan cheese. This simple-looking three piece ravioli order may have skipped the meat, but absolutey not on the flavor, with much flavor and lipsmacking tangy-sweet sauciness that makes it stuff of comfort food (a vegetarian comfort food for meat lovers like myself, how about that).
One of the first assumptions of people when hearing 'Earth Kitchen' for the first time is that their approach to healthy food is only vegetarian — cues from their verdant branding and garden-style casual interior at the new branch can give off that vibe. But carnivores, just like vegetarians, are more than welcome here. And some of the meaty dishes may take you by surprise, just like a couple of items I had for lunch: beef and bacon. Their plate of Beef Kebab (P410) comes with tzatziki and a kebab of grilled vegetables, and you can choose to have organic Ifugao rice pilaf or three pieces flour tortilla and organic mixed greens to pair with it. The boneless beef ribs served in a skewer was surprisingly so tender, letting you enjoy every beefy chunk without much effort in chewing (so juicy!). Then, there's the Braised Bacon (P580) – two slabs of bacon sporting a meat to fat ratio that gets my thumbs up, on top of red cabbage and marble potatoes. The big porky chunks don't look it, but they were incredibly fork-tender, making each bite all about meaty succulence and flavor of slow-cooked bacon.
For desserts, Earth Kitchen keeps it simple: they offer homemade ice cream which uses carabao's milk. Ice Cream (P110/scoop) in the restaurant come in assorted flavors like Pastillas and Coffee, and they also offer a Flavor of the Month (P110/scoop). The most ordered ice cream here is Goat's Cheese (P270), two scoops of goat's cheese ice cream with wild honey, dried figs, and cashew nuts. For chocoholics, try the Tablea (P200), a pleasantly sweet (not too sugary) homemade carabao tablea ice cream, served with chocolate chip cookie crumble.
—
Visit Earth Kitchen's new branch located at the upper ground floor of C2 building, Bonifacio High Street Central (beside Geisha), they are open daily from 10am to 10pm. Like Earth Kitchen on Facebook (/TheEarthKitchen), follow on Instagram (@earthkitchenph), and visit their website (earthkitchen.ph).
