Story has it that Eve (or Tita Eve, as most people would call her) migrated to Baguio and built an organic garden to nourish her cancer-stricken husband with organic food everyday. She opened her home for lunch (by reservation only) to share the delicious and healthy food with others.
It was our final day in Baguio and we decided to have our lunch there. It was a last-minute late lunch reservation but I’m glad she accepted it. We were able to try Eve’s Garden (which is like Sonya’s Garden but in Baguio, and more focused on healthy, organic food), but we did not have the pleasure of meeting Tita Eve herself.
Here is our Eve’s Garden experience…
Awesome Baguio Experience Series:
- BAGUIO’s PANAGBENGA Flower Festival
- MAMA’S TABLE: Chef Vicky Tinio Clemente’s Private Dining
- STRAWBERRY FIELDS Forever…
- BENCAB MUSEUM Experience
- CAFE SABEL @ BenCab Museum
- HILL STATION & Mt. Cloud Bookshop
- HAPPY TUMMY & Wright Park
- Hotel Elizabeth and Bliss Cafe in Baguio
- CAFE BY THE RUINS Breakfast!
- EVE’S GARDEN Organic Lunch
BAGUIO: Your Awesome Journey to Baguio Food Trip (Infographic)
Eve’s Garden is only open by reservation for lunch from 11.30am to 2.30pm. You have to reserve at least a day in advance and order your main dish.
The dining area has a garden dining set-up with paintings of bountiful harvest lining its walls. The gentle breeze of the Benguet mountains provide natural air-conditioning. 🙂
The set meal at Eve’s Garden costs P650/person (and P300/child — take note, their serving size is half also). Strictly no sharing.
We recommend reserving this family table that overlooks the garden and the mountains (below).
The dining hall is on the street level, and the garden sprawls like rice terraces all the way down.
★ Freshly squeezed pineapple juice with lemon, mint and sage, sweetened with Muscovado sugar.
The set menu starts with a serving of refreshing pineapple juice, which tasted really good after the long 30-minute drive down Naguilian Road from Baguio City.
The kids get half serving of the juice. Better drink water first to quench your thirst, and then enjoy the juice to prepare you for the healthy meal ahead.
★ Soup made with a base of onions and squash with seven herbs, garnished with parmesan cheese, croutons and yogurt.
The squash dominated the soup; nevertheless, we loved its homemade taste (you can tell how healthy it is!). Eat it with the croutons and cheese for added texture and flavor.
★ Salad Platter made of 6 to 8 lettuce varieties served with carrots, turnips, walnuts, raisins and a caesar-type dressing made from organic flax oil, olive oil and sunflower oil prepared with seven fresh garden herbs.
The centerpiece of the set meal is an abundant serving of organic vegetables with edible flowers and their signature dressing. It was really a lot–you can get full by finishing all of it. I must admit it was a challenge to eat the flowers.
I think most people don’t finish it, so they have a nice plastic doggie bag for you to take home the vegetables and to preserve them a little longer.
For the main dish, you have to specify your order when you reserve. Here are the main dish choices:
★ Grilled Chicken Breast with pesto fettuccine served with whole wheat buttered fingers.
The chicken, served with pasta and bread, was perfect for the kids. Like the juice, this was a half-serving for them as well.
★ Grilled Tenderloin soaked in sake, strawberry, wine, honey and herbs, served with organic red rice, corn and turnips.
We liked the tenderloin marinated well in their signature sauce.
★ Steamed Norwegian Salmon with caper dressing, served with organic red rice, corn and turnips.
The best (and healthier) option for me was the salmon with lots of capers. It was perfect with the organic red rice!
Choice of ★ Coffee or Ginger ginseng with mint tea and a homemade dessert.
The coffee was really good as well.
The only thing we did not like was the dessert. 🙁 I hope they can come up with a yummy dessert that would be a fitting end to the entire healthy, organic meal.
After lunch, the boys toured and played around the gardens.
The garden goes down, down, down…
You can see the different kinds of lettuce. We wanted to know what’s happening in the garden but our tour guide did not know anything about it.
Tip: Ask for Tita Eve to show you around the gardens and request it in advance.
Overall, it’s a great healthy dining experience, especially for those looking for that authentic Old Baguio charm. It’s a bit far from Baguio City itself, though, so you have to really integrate it in your itinerary.
Here is a suggestion for a one-day, D-I-Y Old Baguio experience tour:
Strawberry Fields in the morning, Lunch at Eve’s Garden, Visit BenCab Museum after lunch, have a Cafe Sabel Merienda, and finally end the day with a Mama’s Table Dinner.
(Note that you have to reserve in advance for Eve’s Garden and Mama’s Table.)
EVE’S GARDEN — “Experience Healthy in your Meal”
132 Upper Lamtang Road, La Trinidad, Benguet
For Reservations Only
Lunch Only from 11.30am to 2.30pm
Mobile: +63920 947 6264, +63 917 506-6264.
★ – Happily Recommended 🙂
Related Blog Posts on Baguio:
BAGUIO: Your Awesome Journey to Baguio Food Trip (Infographic)
Flavors of Baguio: Discover Baguio, One Bite at a Time!
- C BOUTIQUE HOTEL ‘s Flavors of Baguio Food and Heritage Tour
- SOLIBAO: Baguio’s BEST Filipino Restaurant since 1972
- ROSE BOWL: Baguio’s Home-Grown BEST Chinese Food since 1945
- TAM-AWAN: Baguio’s Artist Village by Chanum Foundation
- HILL STATION: The BEST Restaurant in Baguio (Revisited)
Awesome Baguio Experience Series:
- BAGUIO’s PANAGBENGA Flower Festival
- MAMA’S TABLE: Chef Vicky Tinio Clemente’s Private Dining
- STRAWBERRY FIELDS Forever…
- BENCAB MUSEUM Experience
- CAFE SABEL @ BenCab Museum
- HILL STATION & Mt. Cloud Bookshop
- HAPPY TUMMY & Wright Park
- Hotel Elizabeth and Bliss Cafe in Baguio
- CAFE BY THE RUINS Breakfast!
- EVE’S GARDEN Organic Lunch
Awesome Baguio Experience Series II:
- THE CHEF’S HOME in Baguio – A Must Eat!
- OH MY GULAY @ Vocas Artspace, Session Road, Baguio
- FOREST HOUSE Bistro Cafe (Our First Time)
- O’ MAI KHAN Mongolian Barbecue & Hot Pot
- LE CHEF AT THE MANOR @ Camp John Hay, Baguio
- BAGUIO is not Complete Without CHOCO-LATE de BATIROL?
- LE MONET Breakfast Buffet – The Best in Baguio?
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Full Disclosure: Nothing to disclose. We paid for our meals. We are not connected with the establishment and any organization promoting it.
P.S. As for the story about the beginnings of this garden, I don’t know if it is true. Would you know?
P.P.S. Here are the driving directions to get to Eve’s Garden:
From Baguio City Hall, go down from Baguio via Naguilian Road. You should pass the following landmarks: St. Vincent Church, Cooyesan Mall (on your left), Cemetery, Jun Labo, San Miguel Depot, St. Joseph Church, Irisan High School, and PNP Station.
After PNP Station, you should see a 10-meter cement bridge and a blue and white structure to your right (picture above) and a sign that reads Baguio Bawang boundary to the left of the road going up. Turn right here after the bridge.
If you are going up via Naguilan Road (instead of coming from Baguio City), you should turn left when you see the dog above.
Eve’s Garden is 2km away. Just follow the road and you should see the sign and parking space above.
when I went to Eve’s Garden (and had the exact same meal except we didn’t get a choice of entree–we just had the dry chicken!), Eve’s husband told us the restaurant started as a hobby. They originally bought the property as a vacation home, but he said Eve wanted to start a restaurant because “She’s from Pampanga, and you know, they like their food.” Although Eve’s family is from Pampanga, they had a strawberry farm in the area and that was one of their reasons for settling there.
They did serve dinners when they first opened, but he told us their very first guests at the restaurant overstayed their welcome and were there until 5am, so they decided they would open only for lunch to avoid that problem! Another funny anecdote–sometimes they tell people they’re all booked, when in fact, they just want to take a break for the day. 🙂
He also told us that they were planning to open a bed and breakfast. We were there in 2009, and he had said it would be just a few years, but I guess they haven’t gotten around to it yet?
I do remember something about some health problems, but I can’t remember what, exactly. I’m pretty sure her husband had heart problems, not cancer. And maybe her daughter also had some health problems? And there was something special about flax seed oil–that was the oil used in the dressing for the salad. I think Eve felt it was like a cure-all.
I’ve eaten there in the afternoon. Curious, because I think that they told us that the best time to dine there was in the afternoon/ early evening because you can see the city’s twinkling lights. It’s a great place for kids. I went there with my daughter and they let her play with the animals, and then there was a performance -one of the traditional Cordilleran dances.
Also, the salad I ate didn’t have that many flowers in it. It had about 2 or 3. I agree with you about the taste, it was a bit weird.
Thank you for sharing this anecdote on Eve's Garden.
Anton
Hello, Sir Anton! Great blog post as usual po! More power! \m/
Hello, Maam Rona Y, with the way you describe it po, i think you’re talking about Mother’s Garden in Quezon Hill. Go rin po to Eve’s Garden. I’m sure they’ll fill your salad with flowers (for photo op *hihi). (“,)
When we went to Eve’s Garden in 2010, Maam Eve’s husband gave us a lift back to town after the meal. He asked us where we heard about their restaurant and was pretty surprised that news about them was going around (ABSCBN recently did a segment on the place and Robin Padilla and his wife ate there too). He said they didnt like to advertise or even want to expand their business. Maybe they scratched their 2009 plan of a bed and breakfast?
Anyhooo, it’s still a good restaurant and a good experience for everyone visiting Baguio. Have a wonderful day, all! =D
We specifically booked for lunch on our last day in Baguio since this place has been highly recommended by my sister and her family. Got lost a bit…but it was well worth the trip. We were informed by Eve that the meal served to us is highly mineralized. There was not much of the rice and bread nor pasta servings, yet eating all of the food served to us was quite hefty (despite the absence of the usual carb foods). That is why it was also surprising that the meal sustained us during our trip back to Manila, a full 6 hours before we started to feel hungry. I liked everything served till the last drop (yes, even the dessert…it’s a matter of preference). I was even asking if they had extra dessert that I could bring home but sadly, they made just enough for the day’s guests. It is for us to better understand how eating healthy is a must for everyone. Would definitely be back when I go back to Baguio. Thank you for sharing your blog that has brought us to Eve’s Garden.