Eating healthy in Manila can be difficult. Look around and you’ll spot food parks, burger stands, and steakhouses corner after corner. Enter all-day breakfast and unconventional dessert trends, resisting temptation has almost become a hard-earned talent.

But thanks to the brave souls who constantly push for a healthy lifestyle, gone are the days where vegans are told to sit down and eat whatever is green on the plate (usually in the form of a side dish). Healthy options have now entered the foodie scene. More and more restaurants now offer purely vegetarian delicacies.

Say hello to Little India Healthy Cuisine—one of the game changers that continuously advocate healthier living serving Indian vegetarian food. Tucked away in Teacher’s Village, Little India Healthy Cuisine is the product of Raj’s and Mona’s goal to address the need for variety in the local food market. We chatted with both to know more about their business and how it came to be.

What is Little India Healthy Cuisine in a nutshell?

Little India Healthy Cuisine is a place where one can have a taste of homemade style Indian vegetarian food at an affordable price, in a very simple and clean premise.

Can you tell us when and how you started the restaurant?

We established Little India Healthy Cuisine in 2014 with the help of our friends. My expertise in international business and passion for Indian culinary coupled with Mona’s social development expertise shaped the idea to venture into the Indian vegetarian food business and promote a healthy lifestyle to our customers.

Little India offers authentic Indian vegetarian foods, which is known for its unique preparation and great blend of natural herbs and spices. We, at Little India, avoid the use of any artificial or chemical colors, flavors, preservatives and additives. As much as possible we try to use more and more organic vegetables and other natural ingredients.

We want Little India to be an ideal place not only for vegan and vegetarians, but also for those who are looking for authentic Indian homemade taste.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

We are vegetarians and we want to provide more options for food enthusiasts. The need of vegetarian food is not yet addressed properly. We want to prove that vegan foods are also tasty and the vegetarian food scene still has so much more to offer.

Compared to other restaurants in the neighborhood, what makes Little India Healthy Cuisine unique?

Probably, it is the only place in the Philippines where one can have purely Indian vegetarian foods. Meat and meat related products are not offered and allowed inside the restaurant.

With the burgeoning Manila foodie scene, what do you think you love most about the big metro?

Manila has a metropolitan culture and the purchasing power of people is high. Filipinos love eating which is of course good for us in the food business. Manileños are more open to try new food too. In other words, they are food adventurer. In general, Filipinos are polite and humble.

Little India Healthy Cuisine is open everyday from 11 am to 10pm at 24-F, 2nd Floor, Malingap Street, Teacher’s Village, Quezon City. Make sure to drop by in case you find yourself up North.

Go green and discover more healthy options around the Metro by downloading the Be app, your independent neighborhood and events guide through this link http://onelink.to/j3f6vu.