Regina Troy Barrios

Green Mondays at Westin Manila x Kindred Cafe

Article (news)

If you have been to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/westinmanilahotel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Seasonal Tastes at Westin Manila</a>, you’ll know it leans into wellness, with wholesome dishes and plant-based options that are genuinely enjoyable to eat. This June, the hotel&#x27;s Green Mondays series spotlights one of Davao City’s most influential plant-based restaurants, which will be handling a dedicated station on the buffet.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1780262660859Saharah Lara Casteel, founder of Kindred Cafe.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Saharah Lara Casteel at Westin Manila | Photo: Westin Manila</div>Launched in 2024 under the hotel’s Eat Well program, Green Mondays is a monthly series that invites standout plant-based concepts from around the Philippines to cook at the One Dish Wonders live station during the Monday lunch buffet. The goal is to make plant-based dishes compelling in their own right. Now in its seventh edition, the series has found a guest that strengthens that case more than most.Saharah Lara Casteel founded <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kindredcafeph/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kindred Café</a> in Davao City in 2019, following her first plant-based concept, The Vegan Dinosaur. At Kindred, her guiding idea has been simple: plant-based food should be exciting, satisfying, and worth coming back for.Trained at Le Cordon Bleu, Casteel has worked with the About Life Group for years, helping build a stable of sustainability-minded food concepts—from Matcha Bar and Croft Bulk Foods to Kinn &amp; Friends, Mylk, Kisom, and The Vegan Dinosaur. Matcha Bar has since expanded beyond Davao, with branches in Siargao and Metro Manila.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1780262764519Summer Salad Rolls.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Summer Salad Rolls | Photo: Westin Manila</div>What sets this Green Mondays collaboration with Kindred Café apart is its sourcing philosophy. In Casteel’s kitchen, Davao’s identity as the Fruit Basket of the Philippines is not a slogan but an operating principle. She buys directly from farmers, bypasses supermarket supply chains, and runs her café without single-use plastics.She is also a committed zero-waste practitioner, which means ingredients move intelligently across the menu. &quot;In a lot of our dishes, the flavors will be different, but the ingredients will be the same,&quot; she says, &quot;to maximize every part of the produce.” Nothing is purely decorative. Nothing is wasted.The philosophy becomes easier to understand when you look at the menu. Guests can start with the Tofish Mango Salad, where crisp greens, sweet mangoes, corn, edamame, and tofu &quot;fish&quot; fillets come together in a bright chermoula dressing. The Summer Salad Rolls wrap mango, avocado, beetroot, corn, carrots, and mixed greens in whole-wheat tortillas, finished with tahini and spirulina gomashio.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1780262929878_Tofish_ Mango Salad.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Tofish Mango Salad | Photo: Westin Manila</div>For heartier appetites, there is the Mushroom &quot;Scallops&quot; Pasta, where king oyster mushrooms stand in for shellfish, tossed with tagliatelle in a creamy sauce made from almond milk, cashew mozzarella, and nutritional yeast. Even the Taters &amp; Nuggets lean into comfort-food territory, pairing fries and plant-based nuggets with Thousand Island dip and pepitas parmesan.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1780262952138Mushroom _Scallops_ Pasta.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Mushroom &quot;Scallops&quot; Pasta | Photo: Westin Manila</div>Casteel is realistic about what she hopes diners will take away from the experience.&quot;It&#x27;s a privilege,&quot; she says of plant-based eating. &quot;Not everyone has the time or resources to go fully plant-based. But if we can replace one meal with a plant-based meal, that&#x27;s already a step forward.”That may be the most persuasive argument for Green Mondays. There are no lectures and no impossible lifestyle overhauls. It offers you just one meal, one really good meal that, perhaps, will make you think differently about the next one.<div>Green Mondays featuring Kindred Café takes place every Monday this June at Seasonal Tastes, Westin Manila. Follow <a href="https://www.instagram.com/westinmanilahotel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@westinmanilahotel</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kindredcafeph/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@kindredcafeph</a> for updates and menu details. Have you tried a plant-based dish that genuinely surprised you?</div>

Seasonal Tastes is turning its Monday lunch buffet over to Kindred Café — the zero-waste, plant-based café that's been quietly winning over Davao City since 2019. Here's why you should book a table before June is over.

Seasonal Tastes is turning its Monday lunch buffet over to Kindred Café — the zero-waste, plant-based café that's been quietly winning over Davao City since 2019. Here's why you should book a table before June is over.

Delicious Plant Based Dishes Added To Westin Buffet

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Delicious Plant Based Dishes Added To Westin Buffet

Troy Barrios

Published May 30, 2026 05:35 AM PHT

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Updated June 02, 2026 01:01 PM PHT

Read More:

westin manila

kindred cafe davao

saharah lara casteel

green mondays westin

seasonal tastes

plant based dining philippines

vegan food manila

sustainable dining

zero waste restaurants

davao food scene

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