van gogh is bipolar

i sought van gogh isbipolaron a day that i received potentially horrible news. i was with 2 friends, but jetro, owner and resident cuckoo, seemed to intuitively know who needed a bit of comfort. he was very attentive and considerate.

i consider it a privilege to enter his asylum as he calls it. there is peace amidst the chaos. the food is love on a plate, i swear if you could eat love that's what it would taste like. halfway through the meal you let go of sadness and anger. even a trip to the restroom can be cathartic, with all the "confessions" on the wall.

please do not try to walk in and expect a table to free up for you. vgib's food is not meant to be wolfed down and it is prepared upon order. people linger, talk between courses, make their own tea, try the different hats on display. that's why you need to reserve first (09228243051). i suggest you like their facebook page as well so you know when jetro is away and the shop is closed.

take your shoes off before entering, and follow the house rules posted on a board on the wall. leave your baggage at the door. :)

eating at van gogh isbipolaris a unique experience. from the friendly volunteer staff welcoming you, to dining on the menu of the week which in this case is a vegetarians delight. i found the experience enjoyable even if the price for the meal is somewhat high but i learned that the proceeds they get from the food also helps sustain the charitable work they do here. in the afternoons from 3pm to 5pm except tuesdays, they invite people to care for the homeless. volunteers are welcome to spend time with the homeless, talk to them or do activities with them. you can also donate clothing, toys and even food bec they also have a feeding program. all this is done out of love and this serves as a good reminder to be selfless from time to time and give back to society.

it was my first time to eat at van gough isbipolaryesterday.

service:

i love that the owner himself was very hands-on. he was out there talking to all the customers. he was very accommodating and pleasant. to our sever, me and my friend are both very honored to be the first yolk-breaking customers that you served.

food:

the food was very interesting. if your palate is not that adventurous then this might not be your cup of tea. it was my first time to taste those kinds of flavor combos in food and i fancied it. it is not typical. it is not what i'm used to, but at the same time, i enjoyed it. it was something that gave me a good feeling even hours after eating it.

experience:

i love the alice in wonderland feel. i love that things are not what they seem here. although i was not used to using the utensils that they had ( i almost gave this a rating of 4 actually because i had a hard time using some of it xd) and i didn't get to see any fairies, everything was really chill- especially in the shadow room. the light room was also nice, but i like the shadow room the best. you won't know what kind of food they're going to give you but they will give you a piece of paper where in you can write down what food you're allergic to and what kind of food you prefer. it is good for people with food restrictions.

overall, was i satisfied? yes i was. will i go and eat here again? yes i will. i enjoyed all the surprises and everything that i experienced for the first time. it made me really happy. :)

dining in van gogh isbipolaris a gastronomical healing journey that should be experienced at least once. the menu changes a lot since it's heavily reliant on what's available. notable dishes though were the salmon which was well-cooked and the chicken with a really delicious marinade! both were juicy and went perfect with black rice. nothing out of the ordinary but it was cooked well. i chose the alcoholic dessert where you take a single shot inspired by absinthe with a chaser of rich, dark chocate. it was an explosion of flavor. the wide selection of mood healing tea is also worth noting! i got to try four different types. the lifeservers were really great too! i came out feeling refreshed.

not just a café, not just a restaurant — but a mood-healing sanctuary. that perfectly sums up van gogh isbipolarwhich is located in the ever popular foodie destination, maginhawa.

i've been wanting to visit this place for years and finally had the chance to do so last weekend. van gogh isbipolaris owned by artist jetro rafael, who was diagnosed withbipolardisorder and uses culinary adventure as a form of healing.

we arrived at the place at exactly 12nn for our reservation. you'd need to take off your shoes before entering the place, and upon entrance, we were greeted by all sorts of weird, quirky and whimsical objects. even the feel of the place was like falling onto the rabbit hole.

we were greeted by lawrence, who was our attendant for the day. he was very cheerful and friendly and felt like he could be my baby brother. you'd instantly warm up to him. haha! he gave us a black guide book and a checklist for our food preferences (where you have a choice for the heat level of your food, if you're a vegetarian, pescetarian or carnivore, and you can list down any food allergies), as well as their ala carte menu. we opted for the experience set meal for p999/head. it comes with soup, appetizer, drinks, mains and dessert. not bad, eh?

now back to the black guide book, this is where all the magic starts. ✨ inside the black guide book are different self-healing rituals you can do. first, choose your own teapot and make your own mood-healing tea based on your current mood. they have a mood meter for your reference on what tea leaves to choose from. the process of making my own tea is a relaxation in itself, bakit pag sa bahay at nag-steep ako ng lipton tea bag hindi ganito? lol, jk. 😂

i'm not going to list down all the mood-healing activities so as not to spoil those who haven't been to vgib yet. but i'd like to highlight the activities that i enjoyed — the dark room, where you can write down your deepest, darkest thoughts and secrets. the garden, where you can sit down, breathe, think and relax. oh, and it has a swing! ♥️

now let's go to the food! their menu is always shifting and mostly depends on the mood of the owner.

✨ soup — virginia woolf tears
it's a veggie-based hearty and slow-cooked broth using just natural ingredients. perfect to soothe and comfort your weary-stressed soul. yas! they had me at "comfort your weary-stressed soul". charot! but kidding aside, what i loved about this soup — aside from its unique name — is that it's uncomplicated (unlike your relationship status, charot again!) 😂 it's very flavorful with just cabbages and cashews as its main ingredients.

✨ appetizer — axl rose's organic egg shot
this one was personally prepared by lawrence for us. it's made of organic egg submerged in hot water for 5 minutes, then the egg white is separated from the yolk. the yolk is then put on a shot glass, sprinkled with organic sea salt with wild honey mustard, and jägermeister. organic egg is a known stress buster especially when eaten raw, and jägermeister is a type of herbal liqueur which includes 56 herbs, fruits, roots and spices.

before downing the egg shot, lawrence told us to never take a shot without saying "cheers!" in a different language. the boyfie and i toasted to "kampai!" and downed it! damn, bruh! this one is for the adventurous soul! i'm an adventurous foodie anyway so it was no biggie for me, but i gotta admit i was a bit weirded out. in a good way, of course. 😂

✨ drink: courtney love's potion
— my courtney love's potion of the day was fresh coconut water with a slice of dalandan, topped with mint and edible flower. it was served in a tall glass and the drink was just too pretty!

✨ mains: personalized happy or calm dish
— consists of lamb chop with cordillera black mountain rice, and different sorts of veggies and fruits, all in one huge plate. this dish was super filling, i loved how perfectly cooked the black rice was! it wasn't grainy and goes down smoothly. and the lamb chop was 💣 — the meat was tender and very flavorful. plus, i liked that they included fruits and veggies in the dish, it was a nice combination of salty and sweet.

✨ dessert: mel gibson's darkest sin
— for dessert, lawrence gave us a choice between wholesome and sinful. we initially chose sinful for the bf and wholesome for me so that we can try both. but he suggested that for first timers, sinful dessert is recommended. who am i to argue? sinful it is!

this sinful dessert is a shot which is mainly absinthe liqueur with wild honey and homemade melted dark chocolate with walnut as chaser. lawrence prepared this drink in front of us, he poured the absinthe on a glass bowl and lit it on fire to dilute the alcohol volume and sprinkled cayenne pepper which created a "firework-like" effect, it was too entertaining! 😂💯 (fun fact: absinthe is vincent van gogh's favorite drink and he was high on this when he painted his most noted masterpiece, the starry night.)

again, in true vgib fashion, we toasted to "cheers!" in a different language, this time in german — "prost!" i felt the burn of the alcohol from my throat all the way down to my stomach. the melted dark chocolate was indeed the perfect chaser, it washed down the bitter taste of absinthe.

van gogh isbipolaris truly a gem. the experience was one for the books! the saying "good food is good mood" holds true in this mood-healing sanctuary. no wonder first timers are intrigued and regular patrons keep on coming back.

this is a place not meant to be rushed, you need to linger and savor the experience. i instantly felt lighter afterwards. ♥️ i will be back! and for those who still haven't been here, i suggest you reserve a table, pronto! ✨

we had a free dinner for two at vincent van gogh is bipolar last april after winning in a raffle hosted by we want workshops. so, this is a long overdue blog post, bear with me please (hehehe). we want workshops took care of everything, we just needed to set the schedule and show up. "bipolar, apparently, is a description of a person who has a manic depressive illness -- someone who feels very happy at one moment and then suddenly becomes depressed."

me, my girlfriend and her bestfriend went here last july 7th for her birthday and since she wanted to go here for the longest time. i also want to go but sadly i didn't had the time before. so on to the review.

place = 4/5

i really love the ambiance of the place. it's very different and since we went inside barefoot, i really felt at home. i apologize that i've forgotten the lady who assisted us but she was very polite and so were the other people there. try to call just to be sure you have a place since some people tend to stay for awhile just like we did (note: there were nobody yet when we went there so we had the place for ourselves for a few hours). they also have a word of the day for "cheers",

ours were

the only thing that i didn't like was the fridge where you put the shoes, it smelled different.

price= 4/5

some people may say that it's pricey but for me it's totally worth it. some people that you are just paying for the experience but i could say differently. the food tasted fresh and you have like an explanation for the food you are about to eat.

taste=4.5/5

i have forgotten what the names of some of the food that we ate so i just looked it up from other food reviews.

we chose "experience and calm diet" (what do you expect, of course i'd choose meat).

hot tea (holy water if i remembered correctly) = 👍

when we got inside and sat down. we were served a hot tea. it tasted a little like a mango, a little sweet.

soup

the soup was okay. it's like rice porridge with lots of vegetables (cabbage i think), since i don't really like vegetables, i had a little trouble enjoying it.

axl rose’s egg shot

the appetizer is an egg yolk mixed with tamarind sauce/drink, i didn't like it that much since i don't like tamarind but it's still good.

courtney love's potion = 👍    

it's our drink and it's great. it had some fruits in it but it still tasted great. as per jetro, it would be better to drink using the glass instead of the straw as they have a paper straw and it might affect the taste of the drink.

main dish = 👍

since the main dish varies depending on what is fresh and jetro as well. i didn't find the name so i will just describe it as much as i can.

it was a chicken breast (i think) with black mountain rice with different kinds of fruits and vegetables on the side. the chicken was cooked well and it was delicious. the black mountain rice was great too and i was joking that i'd want more of the rice. the fruits were fresh as well. i at least tried all of them even though i didn't like some. the vegetables i had to give to my girlfriend.

mel gibson's darkest sin + yogurt = 👍

for our dessert, it was a shot of absinthe flambeed with sugar i think then served with dark chocolate. i took the shot and ate the chocolate. i think i might have drank it the wrong way as i didn't tasted the absinthe that much.

her other dessert was the yogurt with dark chocolate. she said she liked it too.
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all in all, van gogh isbipolaris a great place to stay at and definitely worth the visit.

tried it here waaay back october 2015 for a school project and interviewed the owner. hmm, i must say.....i will never ever forget this place

we went here after school. i live in pasay so yup, we braved the traffic and rushed to maginhawa and prayed that it would still be open by the time we find it. we kinda had trouble finding it since it was sort of hidden. it was my first time in the maginhawa area then so you could imagine how lost i felt.

all these aside, my experience in van gogh isbipolarwas a m a z i n g in all aspects: the service, the vibe of the place, the food, the cleanliness, etc.

my friend and i got:
- sweet marbled potatoes for our hot appetizer
- a dish that consisted of salad, black rice and chicken w/ sauce on the side for his main
- linguine pasta w/ salmon strips for my main
- some ice candy for his dessert
- some ice cream (ginger, i think??) with dried mangoes on top for my dessert

and everything was plated attractively & pleasingly. but what's really interesting is that the owner mentioned something like having different dishes depending on the cook's mood?? it's that cool.

the place was decorated in a way that each side/part of it had a different feel (you should really go there to see it for yourself) i also loved the bathroom. it was so clean, relaxing...and just wow

they also had a "make your own tea" section which is a super plus because duh, tea is life.

the owner we interviewed was very warm and welcoming. he told us about how van gogh isbipolarcame to be and we were just amazed because it wasn't just buolt for fame or whatever reason there is for people to put up restaurants...but to heal and to comfort those who need it

if given the chance, i would definitely go back to vgib

i've written a blog about it - not a food review, but basically to just share my experience when i tried vgib. i know that it's been a while since the last time i've visited, and i'm sure that there were already a lot of changes and improvements. nevertheless, i am still waiting for the opportunity to be back in the resto for another great experience! prost!check my wordpress blog at jerichoswalls : van gogh isbipolar– more than just a place to dine.

with courage and passion, we went to maginhawa street for the first time just for us to eat a lot and try different food chains/shops. at first, we planned to go at least three stores. one of our plan was to go to nook cafe to try their signature beverage. but unfortunately, we couldn't due to unavailability of space/tables. so, my friend and i walked and looked for other restaurants that we could dine in.

we didn't know where was van gogh isbipolaruntil my friend discovered a vacant lot and she was too curious to get in.

it was magical. we didn't know that the place we came through was vgib site. we were too happy that we almost celebrated outside.

we thought that the place was abandon until we discovered an old cabinet. on that cabinet there is a written phrases and we saw the signage "van gogh is bipolar." we were too amazed.

we came in without shoes. the owner said that we need to take it off. and orange the cat will be the one to take care of our shoes. as we came in, we saw a weird place. it was creepy at first because we need to do some rituals like tasting virgin coconut oil and baking soda and wearing hats.

amusement. that was the first thing we felt. after doing some rituals, the waitress/staff let us choose our food. the menu was written on the mirror, t'was weird because i only saw that kind of writings in horror movies. like you'll use lipstick or red marker. creepy.

going back, the food was blast. all of their specialties were organic and healthy. i ordered mashed potato and citrus juice which are bomb! my friend ordered fresh slice of fruits and apple cider juice. it was a little bit pricey but worth it.

the staff and chefs are accomodating and friendly yet somehow creepy (just my thought).

i also talked with one of the owner. she said that the cafe is really intended for people who suffer from stress or depression. because, also them experienced that case. the owner is bipolar.

i've learned a lot of things in this restaurant. i also suffered from depression before when i was a high school student. and i think this restaurant will not only provide food but also a way to relax and escape from darkness.

it was one restaurant visit i’ll never forget and live to share for a very long time. van gogh isbipolargoes beyond food and incorporates a full experience of self healing as well. its self service and they give you a handbook on what to do. still the personnel around you doesn’t leave you behind especially for first timers like me. i got to pick my own hat, my choice of tea and even write a letter to my ‘beloved’ on top of a picking your food.

i got to visit van gogh isbipolar(vgib) with my date in sikatuna village, quezon city recently and i would say that this restaurant visit is something i'll never forget and would rave about to people for a long time. van gogh isbipolargoes beyond food and dining services, as they encourage their customers to experience self healing while inside their restaurant.

here at vgib, customers must do self service. their staff would first provide you with a handbook that will guide you on what to do while inside their restaurant. in spite of the "self service" rule here, their personnel would assist you, especially if it's your first time in their resto. here, i got to pick my own hat and tea, and even got to write out a letter to my "beloved one," aside from trying out their food.

i had my serving of delicious hot soup, which is for me, the best item on their menu which i had the chance of getting my hands into. aside from their pescetarian and vegetarian meal offerings, i opted to have something with meat. so i had one of vgib's entrees, which has red rice, veggies, flower petals, and well-marinated chicken.

besides eating, there was this sort of ritual which we had to do in vgib, and it involves drinking two cocktail shots. one has an egg yolk in it while the other one was just pure alcohol. just before having them drinks, i muttered "nostrovia," which is a russian word for "cheers!" and had a toast with my date.

vgib also has a museum. to add to that, they also have this eccentric, dark room which happens to be a comfort room, ant it surely looks creepy. i even told vgib's staff that their loo just scares the hell out of me.

this lovely experience at vgib was ended with a hug from their personnel. i felt very much at home at vgib, given the warm accommodation their friendly staff has provided me. i was fascinated with a lot of things at vgib, and i hope that by reading this blog of mine, you get to be encouraged to also visit this place.

cheers to self healing! :-)

one of the pricier places on maginhawa that delivers. great food, whimsy, mystery, art and great food. 

i've been lucky enough to experience this place since it first opened up until what it is today and it hasn't ever disappointed.

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van gogh isbipolaris now open in the afternoons for mood enhancing teas. it's great for lazy afternoons with a good book.

also, the courtyard has been transformed into an artist work space where you can read, write, paint and be creative. you can use the space even without purchases, but you're definitely going to want to try out the teas.

van gogh isbipolaris a quirky little reservation-only restaurant along the famous maginhawa st. i fell in love with the restaurant when i saw its al fresco dining portion. it's the perfect place for a date or for a private get-together with friends. billowy, white curtains with haphazardly placed throw pillows and low tables that allow you to sit on the floor while you eat.
the dining experience is unique and i thoroughly enjoyed it. we had the larry flynt's cabbage experience. the name is apt because it isn't just a dish -- it's an entirely new experience! everything on the plate is edible and you can wrap everything from flowers to salted eggs in the special cabbage, add their special black sauce, and pop it in your mouth.
courtney love's drink of the day was extremely good, too. i can't quite pinpoint what its components are but it has a cool, fresh taste with hints of honey.
i also had mel gibson's darkest secret which is a two-part dish. the first is a flaming shot of absinthe from czech republic (green fairy) followed with a spoonful of sticky, hot, dark chocolate. yum yum yum.
the yogurt tacos were also really good!
it's definitely a place for friends or your date but, not for your family! haha. i highly recommend this restaurant :)

i didn't know what to expect when my friends invited me to eat at van gogh is bipolar. when we arrived at the restaurant, the owner, jetro, welcomed us and guided us to our table. he explained to us the concept behind the restaurant so that we would have a better appreciation of the dining experience. the ambiance is very artisanal, reflective of the owner's background as a painter. the restaurant is filled with his paintings and various items that jetro acquired during his travels.

the food was enjoyable. i like that the dishes served have a special meaning behind them. jetro explained how every food in the dishes has a positive quality for the mind and the body. i like the wide variety of tea available in the restaurant. customers could choose which flavor of the tea best fits their respective moods. the herbs used in the dishes are fresh and flavorful since jetro plants and harvests them outside the restaurant.

overall, dining at van gogh isbipolaris a unique and interesting dining experience. it doesn't fit the mold of conventional restaurants that most filipinos frequent. the owner's presence definitely helps the customer appreciate the dining experience more. people should try this restaurant out.