#date place

Located in Maginhawa, tucked behind stores of random, hand-made things and cute little restaurants, Van Gogh Is Bipolar is definitely a hidden treasure. While the restaurant has actually been around since 2009, couples and friends alike continue to frequent the place. Everything about the quaint little restaurant is aimed towards improving the moods of its clients. Calling it anything less than a sanctuary would be lying, to be honest.  Entering the place, Katee and I were warmly greeted by the owner, Jetro, and promptly shown to our table after taking off our shoes. Despite being Sunday noon, Katee and I were pleased to know that nobody else was in the restaurant. We were given a piece of paper with meal options on it, with meals ranging from prices of PhP 777 to PhP 3,500 as a package deal meal for couples. Katee and I decided on the PhP 777 meal. Unlike most conventional restaurants, Jetro cooks what he feels, but still gives you a choice between meat, pescatarian, or vegetarian. Our meal course option included drinks, entrée, and dessert, which to be quite frank, is more than filling despite not having appetizers. 

The restaurant itself is self service, meaning they call your name and you go get your orders when they’re ready at the window counter directly linked to the kitchen. While waiting for our food, we were called to retrieve a juice called “Courtney Love’s Love Potion”.

The juice itself tasted somewhat like “dalandan” mixed in with oranges and mangoes. Inside the glasses were aphrodesiacs like grapes and strawberries. Being quite a picky eater and having sensitive taste buds, I think it’s safe to say that the juice was very delicious. If they sold it at the supermarket, I wouldn’t think twice buying it even if it were a bit pricey. 

Aside from that, Jetro encouraged us to look through the booklets provided, and perform various “self-healing ceremonies” scattered around the restaurant. One of these included using a dropper to drop their homemade coconut oil in our mouths, known for reducing risk of cancer, according to the booklet. Other than that, were were asked to select any silly hat we wanted, and keep it on for the remainder of our stay.

After wandering around the restaurant, we were called to retrieve our entrées. 

Katee’s choice got her a dish of black mountain rice topped with strawberries, cashews and mangoes, with slow roasted lamb as the protein. The lamb was very tender and flavorful, with the meat sliding right off the bone. No difficulty chewing it at all.

For pescatarian, black mountain rice, mangoes and cashews as well, but the protein instead being salmon belly, cooked quite nicely, with the skin crunchy. The meat itself wasn’t dry at all and you could definitely taste the juice still in the salmon.

Despite thinking we were the only two in the restaurant dining, apparently, Katee also had company in the form of a very docile and curious cat, affectionately called “Mads”.

Not to worry. She didn’t try to eat our food or bother us at all. They seem to be very well groomed and behaved, accustomed to humans encroaching on their self-healing sanctuary. (:

After the entrées followed two choices of dessert: Sinful or Wholesome. Being the devil that I am, I went with Sinful, with Katee choosing Wholesome.

Katee’s Wholesome dessert included home-made coconut ice-cream with nuts, strawberries, and a Filipino dessert called “leche flan” mixed into it. 

My dessert was a little more complicated. It was a shot of absinthe mixed with brown sugar, set on fire, and paired with a spoonful of dark chocolate topped with nuts. The chocolate was to be consumed after taking the extremely strong shot. Stings like Bacardi 151, but thankfully doesn’t taste horrible like it.

After all that, we decided to calm our stomachs with some tea, which comes with the meal package, actually. Being a self-service restaurant, we picked out a teapot for ourselves, and prepared our tea as well.

The tea leaves are homegrown, and the pot we chose had a strainer. There were different selections of tea flavors, with labels referring to the moods you would want to feel like; “Soothing” and “Chill+Happy.” You could choose to put honey in your tea, and a shot of that would cost you only 10 pesos (: . After brewing that, we decided to head out into the small garden outside the restaurant.

Katee and I sat under a pseudo bunkbed/study table while sipping our tea to finish off our wonderful stay at Van Gogh is Bipolar.

‘Till next time~ -WR

Directions to Van Gogh is Bipolar

If you’re familiar with Maginhawa near UP, it’s actually just in the area. The place itself is marked on Google Maps so you could use GPS to try and find it. Make sure you stay on Maginhawa road. It's tucked behind a bunch of other shops, but a good landmark would be to look for signage for Blacksoup Cafe - Artspace. 

As the place isn’t open regularly like restaurants and is usually open according to Jetro’s whim, it’s wise to contact them. Check out their Facebook page,

Van Gogh is Bipolar