[Los Angeles vs. Manila #1] Inn of the Seventh Ray! Creekside Dining

This is the ONLY restaurant I love while I was on vacation and I visited Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, and Chicago. The Inn of the Seventh Ray is L.A.’s most romantic restaurant and in fact, when we were eating on a Saturday Lunch, there was an engagement proposal with the beautiful setting — 12 red roses bouquet, a carpet of petals and dining beside Mother’s flow ( in other words, creekside :). I felt that most of the US restaurants are either man-made, full of dead food (steaks, white bread, etc.), pretentious service and too commercialized. This creekside dining experience is a dining made in heaven indeed and this is a must-eat destination for all of you who will have a chance to visit L.A.

(Note to Jay of Kinabuhayan Cafe: Jay, Kubli Springs can be a lot nicer than the Inn of the Seventh Ray. You just need to have excellent food and an overall concept. Check out the photos… )

Let me pause for a bit here before we go to the rest of the review, it just occurred to me how lucky the Philippines is with the kind of world-class nature inspired restaurants that we have and I can already count seven easily…
1. Antonio’s Restaurant, Tagaytay
2. Sonya’s Secret Garden, Tagaytay
3. Nina’s Kusina Salud, San Pablo, Laguna
4. Ugu Bigyan’s Pottery Garden, Tiaong, Quezon
5. 85/15 Restaurant, The Farm @ San Benito, Lipa, Batangas
6. La Cocina de Tita Monings, Manila
7. The Prana Restaurant, Mandala Spa, Boracay

I LOVE THE PHILIPPINES! I missed it during my vacation and I’m glad to be back. I’m creating this series of [Los Angeles vs. Manila] to challenge your own mental models that the Philippines is the best place to be in. I felt like Neo in the matrix scene where he suddenly realized that all of the reality he is seeing is computer generated, and I suddenly felt that visiting the US, everything is man-made. Enjoy this series…

Health Foods @ The Inn of the Seventh Ray

The food is excellent !! The Inn prides itself with having foods and grains (mostly) organically grown from local farms. The soups are their own recipes using fresh herbs. All food is cooked in nut or olive oils. The chickens are naturally raised and range fed, and they only use natural meats, without anti-biotics or force fed hormones. Only the freshest of fish is served and they minimize the use of dairy ingredients. They use no food colourings, preservatives, refined sugar or bleached flour. Wines are from organically grown grapes and they have a selection of alcohol removed wines. How can you beat this kind of cuisine? Our total cost is only $80 for 3 people so about P1,400/person,just like eating in Antonio’s.

Whole grain bread. (free) Their breads are baked daily from organic grains and you can taste the freshness with every bite. The olive oil and black vinegar enhances the overall taste and gets you excited for the rest of the meal.

Organic Orange Juice and Special Soup of the Day. The soup ($7) was healthy and forgettable but the freshly squeezed orange juice ($4) was perfect.

Large Seventh Ray Salad. ($10) “Locally farmed, organic greens. Tossed Tenderly with a lemon vinaigrette directly from the secret files of the Master Alchemist, Saint Germain. Topped with freshly julienned vegetables and sprinkled with nori.” It taste as good as it was described in the menu.

Shrimp, Avocado and Scallop Omette. ($10.50) The combination actually works although one could argue that the taste is the same as any omelette.

Crab Quiche ($11.50). This is a winner! I don’t know how they made this but the quiche melts in your mouth and each bite is full of flavor and tastiness. I never thought that quiche could taste soo good and I’ll never eat a Starbucks quiche again.

Seventh Ray Burger! ($11.00). Have you ever heard of Seitan cuisine ? If not, you’re missing on the best food adventure ever and this vegetarian wheat meat is a vegetarian food at its finest. This burger is described as “lightly seasoned seitan, ground and charcoal grilled. Served with cheese, avocado and tofu based herb dressing on a grilled whole wheat bun.” I can eat this everyday and I don’t know if Seitan food is available here in the Philippines.

Raw Canob Ganache. ($8.00) In cinnamon with a powdered almond coconut. This is a rare healthy dessert that taste soo good! I can’t stop raving about this place.

The Inn of the Seventh Ray ambiance.

If you haven’t figure out by now, the seventh ray is violet and the philosophy is embodied in this description:
“We, at the Inn, believe in giving you the purest of Nature’s foods, energized as a gift from the sun with a dash of esoteric food knowledge and ancient mystery school wisdom tossed in for your seasoning and pleasure. It may just raise your body’s light vibration and the extra work may cost you a few pennies more, but we believe in the long run, this way of living and eating may prove less expensive.”

You’ll be greeted with this lovely doorway to the Inn.

This is my wife, Rache and son, Aidan at Mother Nature’s flow…

Look at how colorful the food is? You really feel energized just by looking and after eating the food.

We decided to take this small hut with all green plants around it. This scene is common to some of our best nature restaurants I mentioned.

This is the center of the Inn with a fountain. Sorry for using my brother as a model for these ambiance shots.

This is the creekside dining experience that is unforgettable.

MORE INFORMATION:
Inn of the Seventh Ray
128 Old Topanga Canyon Road
Topanga, California 90290
(310) 455-1311
www.innoftheseventhray.com