Since opening its doors in July 2014, The Wholesome Table has been serving its customers their usual comfort food, but made with better ingredients.
The restaurant’s owner, Bianca Araneta-Elizalde, told GMA News Online that her business is simply an extension of her lifestyle. They serve food the way they would have it at home.
She came up with the business idea when she found herself always having a hard time looking for food outside that matched their standards.
“Every time that we would eat out, we would always ask, ‘What are we eating? What’s in this food?’” the mompreneur said. “But every time we would travel, it was so easy to find stuff. This was the norm when we would travel.”
According to Bianca, in her “second home,” San Francisco, it is a norm that they use healthy ingredients and organic vegetables, even for those that aren’t marketed as “healthy” restaurants.
“You kind of at least have a little bit more assurance that you are eating less toxins. We couldn’t find that here. There weren’t enough of that here. There were healthy concepts. There were vegan restaurants, vegetarian restaurants, vegetarian dishes, but they were still made with pesticide-ridden vegetables,” she said.
The Wholesome Table’s motto is: “Eat consciously. Live consciously.”
For 10 years now, they have been serving diners and patrons wholesome, locally sourced meals that delight the palate and nourish the body.
They use meat from grass-fed cows that are raised without artificial hormones and antibiotics; their poultry and eggs are all free-range and raised organically; and they serve wild-caught seafood.
Except for their cheese, which comes from natural and organic sources, they do not use any other processed ingredients, and they also do not use bleached or bromated flour.
The restaurant also does not use high-fructose corn syrup or any artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, additives, or preservatives in any of their food and drinks, and they avoid shortening and other sources of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats.
On top of all that, all of their sauces and condiments are natural and made from scratch.
Among Bianca’s favorites from their menu include the Poke Bowl (P540), which comes with raw salmon, wakame, Ifugao brown rice, Japanese mayo, ebiko, furikake, togarashi spice, pickled ginger, and romaine.
She also takes pride in their Blueberry Cheesecake (P330), which is her own recipe. It comes with a gluten-free crust and a generous amount of blueberry preserves.
“I would love to do a twist on the brand, maybe another related concept. I’m open to it right now. My creative juices are flowing. My team inspires me to do something new,” Bianca said.
“We’re also working hard on the farm,” she added. “We started it pre-pandemic but had to close during because everything just stopped and it didn’t make sense to do it back then. Now we’re ready. One of the challenges we’ve always had at The Wholesome Table was suppliers because we were organic. We used to often lack a supply of certain vegetables because of the standards we imposed. I always wanted a farm that’s going to fuel the restaurant and it’s going to be even more than organic—it’s going to be biodynamic. Everybody will be eating produce and products from the farm, maybe even be able to buy from it.”
The Wholesome Table is located at Central Square, 30th St. Bonifacio High Street, Corner 7th Ave., Taguig.
They also have a branch in Makati at Salcedo Village at The Infinity Tower H.V. Dela Costa, Corner L.P. Leviste Street. —JCB, GMA Integrated News
