Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: Healthy Food in Manila

If you’re looking for healthy food in Manila, look for it at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I will go into more details about that later – and I’ll tell you about the health benefits you get from shiitake mushrooms!

Just so you’re wondering, nope, shiitake mushrooms are not hallucinogenic. Sorry!

Anyhow, allow me to share a relevant anecdote with you first. After attending the menu tasting of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 26th Bistro in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), I came home to a distressed boyfriend who had been waiting for me for hours. He had a leg infection which had apparently spread from a one-centimeter lesion to cellulitis that affected almost the entire circumference of his thigh.

It was an unfortunate coincidence. Just when I was planning on blogging about a healthy lifestyle to help prevent disease, my exercise-phobic, soda-loving, fastfood-craving boyfriend was suffering from an infection that was possibly related to his predilection to hyperglycemia.

Pardon the deluge of medical lingo. But I digress. If anything, this whole ordeal proves the point of my experience at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf: healthy options, especially when it comes to food, cost so much less in the long run.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Offers Healthy Food Options

Is it just me, or is it a challenge to look for restaurants that offer healthy food? I’m surrounded by fried chicken outlets and burger joints that offer fast service and 24-hour delivery.

It’s not helping my dream to eat healthy 24-7. But with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf just across the street, I get to eat healthy greens for breakfast. (Try their Chicken Caesar Salad – it’s to die for. And even if the dressing packs calories, I don’t mind because I get all the extra roughage, which I wouldn’t get if I ate fastfood!)

Here’s the clincher: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, is launching a new and improved menu for their bistros. I got the chance to visit their bistro on 26th and 5th in BGC and I have to admit, I fell in love with their store once again!

Photos courtesy of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

But I think I fell harder for their food. Take a look at my two top picks of that night’s food offerings!

Hanging Tender Steak with Potato Gratin & Marsala PhP475

Tiger Prawn & Shiitake Mushroom Linguine PhP395

There’s more food to drool for – but that’s not all. In my next blog post, I will explain why many of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s menu options are healthier than your regular fastfood. I’ll be explaining how lentinan (found in some of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s offerings) fight cancer.

I’ll also explain how picky The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf can get when it comes to their coffee. Curious? Go ahead and read about why Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s menu offers healthy food!