Good Food Farm in Laguna: A Carabao Farm Where You Can Eat and Swim

On the way home from Santa Cruz back toward Liliw, the road splits. Stay right and you head to Liliw, go left and it’s Magdalena. Right there at the fork is a place called Anihan, and we pulled in for lunch.

I’d been told it was mostly Filipino food with a fusion twist. That’s usually enough to make me a little suspicious. I like the OG food. But it was new, none of us had been, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even here last year. So we parked and went to look around.

Pulling into Good Food Farm

The sign at the gate says Good Food Farm, and parts of the place are still under construction. There’s plenty of parking under the mango trees, and off to one side there’s a paddock with half a dozen horses grazing, so it really is part farm, part restaurant.

The banner out front reads Anihan Sustainable Gastronomy, by Chef JR Royol. There’s a second one advertising day tours, so you don’t even have to eat here to come poke around.

An Event Space for Rent

You follow a walkway in because it isn’t obvious where you’re supposed to go. First thing you hit is this open pavilion with a fountain and really nice floors. It’s the kind of space you’d rent out for an event. I’m no planner, but you could fit a good 100 people in there, probably more.

Walking the Grounds

Past that there’s a whole cluster of signs, a spa, gardens, a lily pond. There’s a breeze coming through, which I appreciated, because it was hot.

Inside: Air Conditioning and a Balcony View

Then you get inside, and thank goodness, there’s air conditioning. Our table had a little balcony off the side, and that’s where the place opened up for me.

I looked over the railing and there were pools down there. Not one, a couple of them, tucked into the hillside with thatched huts all around. Turns out there are rooms too. This was more than a lunch stop.

A Farm Built on Carabao

Here’s the thing that makes this place what it is. The meat is carabao, the water buffalo. Anything creamy or milk-based comes from the carabao too. So the whole menu is built around this one animal.

Which naturally sent my brain somewhere it shouldn’t have gone. I made a mental note to Google whether the milk is coming from a female carabao. Because if it’s male, I don’t want to know. Well, no. I do know. That’s exactly why I need to check.

Down to the Pools

We’d already ordered, so while the food cooked we went down to look at everything I’d just been staring at from above. People were swimming, renting out the little spaces, hanging around. There’s a net strung up for badminton, and off to the side someone had a fire going, barbecuing. It smelled incredible. I wish you could smell it through the screen.

Cabanas at the Foot of the Mountain

Down by the water are little cabanas with rocking chairs, and you’re sitting at the foot of the mountain here, so the water runs fresh and cold.

Touring the Overnight Rooms and Rates

Since people can stay the night, I went to see the rooms, and this is where it got good.

I overheard the rates: 8,500 pesos on a weekday, 9,500 on a weekend, for up to eight people. Divide by roughly 55 pesos to the dollar and you’re looking at about $155 to $175 for a hut that sleeps eight. That math hits different when you think about splitting it.

The rooms themselves are all dark wood, towels folded into swans, tall stained-glass windows. One of them had a bathroom with walls made out of river stones. Another, an eight-person unit, had a set of stairs leading up to the shower. The couple’s rooms are smaller, tiled instead of stone, but you get the idea. There’s even a mini fridge and a mini split to keep it cool.

There was a couple’s room that ran 6,500, so just a bit less. Honestly, might as well get the bigger one.

Spa, Fishing, and Horseback Packages

Beyond the rooms, there’s more to do than eat. The spa runs a package around 1,750 pesos, roughly $30, with a steam room as a separate add-on you can do before or after your massage. There’s a fishing package, horseback riding, and if you just want to walk in for the day and use the amenities, you can do that too.

Bread, Kesong Puti, and Carabao Milk

Back upstairs, the food started coming out. First was bread with kesong puti, a soft white cheese, and yes, it’s made from carabao milk.

The bread is good on its own, buttery, a little salty. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I loaded enough cheese on to really taste it, but the bread carried it.

Then the iced coffee showed up with a little pitcher of carabao milk on the side. I tried the milk straight first. Tastes like regular milk, already sweetened. Pretty good, even on its own. I poured it into the coffee and, well, it changed the color more than the taste. If you like your coffee tasting like coffee, that’s a win.

Sandwiches, Salad, and Camote Chips

The rest of it came out as a spread. Sandwiches, one corned beef but made with carabao, one ham, one with chips, all homemade down to the mayo. There was a salad they called malikad, which they told me means backwards salad.

We also got camote chips, sweet potato, drizzled with a vinegar mayo. Simple, but I kept going back to them.

Kare-kare and the Final Bill

The main event was the kare-kare, which here is made with carabao, so they were calling it caracare.

I’ll give you the honest review. The carabao meat has a little bit of a gamey aftertaste. Not much, but enough to notice. If you’ve had goat, you know that stronger aftertaste, or lamb. Carabao is milder than that, but it’s there. Still good. We also had a beef steak, and dessert, all of it solid.

There were about ten of us eating, and the whole thing came out to around 7,700 pesos, roughly $140. For that many people and that much food, that’s not bad at all.

Final Thoughts

The food was good, the setting was better than I expected, and by the end everyone was talking about maybe just staying the night. That’s a strong showing for a place I walked into skeptical about the word fusion.

If you’re driving through this part of Laguna, it works as a lunch stop, a full day with the pools and the spa, or an overnight in one of those huts. One thing I didn’t catch until after we ate: the whole place is run by a non-profit, Rise Against Hunger Philippines, and the proceeds go toward feeding programs.

For anyone curious, Good Food Farm sits in Bungkol, Magdalena, Laguna, just over the Liliw border, and the restaurant side is Anihan Sustainable Gastronomy under Chef JR Royol, the first MasterChef Philippines champion. You can find them on their website, on Instagram at @gffmagdalena, and on Facebook as Good Food Farm - Magdalena and Anihan. The overnight huts are bookable on Airbnb.

More of the trip is coming. This is part of the Philippines 2025 series, so if you missed the start, go back to flying into Manila, and stay tuned for the next one.

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This post is based on our travel vlog. Watch the full video below for all the moments, reactions, and footage from the day.