Food lovers enjoy discovering holes-in-the-wall eateries, shady restaurants in town alleys and even quiet cafe with no signs in a neighborhood corner. These rendezvous are far from the madding crowd and provide invaluable privacy; most often they offer treasured recipes to these devoted gourmets.
Everybody loves Tagaytay for its cold weather, perfect ambiance and being not so distance from Metro Manila. It boosts of so many awesome sights, entertaining adventures and most of all its prominent restaurants like Sonya’s Garden, Bag of Beans, Antonio’s or LZM and others that the rich, famous and well-to-do families spent their much needed break.
Do you know that there are more? Here are some other restaurants you haven’t heard about that can give you great surprise, it will be worth your efforts to check them out.
BALINSASAYAW
Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway, Tagaytay (before Mendez Crossing)
Balinsasayaw is an ideal destination for traditional Filipino dishes and boodles in its al fresco huts.
Balinsasayaw is actually Tagalog for a swiftlet, a bird native to El Nido, Palawan and is most famous for producing saliva that makes bird’s nest soup.
Highlights include excellent quality of cocktail, wine and beer. Outdoor seating facilitates experiencing the most breath-taking scenery. Ambiance is so serene that will enhance romance for lovers. This is the best place to celebrate any important event.
BUFFY’S
Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road, Tagaytay
If you love dairy products and are an avid on pasalubong, Buffy’s dessert cafe and pasalubong shop is your destination. It sells 100% all-natural, fresh, creamy and healthy carabao’s milk and other dairy products including ice cream, yogurt, cheese and pastillas.
Buffy’s supplies one of the best Carabao’s Milk I’ve tasted. Their milk is fresh and very creamy. Most foodies raved about the Blueberry or Strawberry Yogurt flavor, but the Chocolate Flavor is the most popular.
Take sample of Buffy’s menu and you will ask for more. They really are gustatory delights to the young ones and young once.
CONCHA’S GARDEN CAFÉ
Cliffhouse, Emilio Aguinaldo Highway, Tagaytay City
Gemma Escueta-Sembrano’s lifelong dream to satisfy her passion for baking and cooking found its fulfillment in Concha’s Garden Café. She was able to convince three friends to invest in a restaurant that realized all features of her dreams.
Located inside Mother Earth Gardens, Concha’s café is named after her grandmother from whom she acquired and learned in cooking skills.
Concha’s Garden Café serves delectable home-cooked Filipino dishes.
DON LIMONE GRILL
4870 Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo-Mendez Crossing East, Tagaytay City
Tucked away in Tagaytay is Don Limone Grill that is a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant serving ‘fine food and spirits and great cheesecakes’.
Don Limone Grill is the best place for gourmets who love fine and excellent dining. It is a gem that is off the beaten track and has an ambiance that is distinctly European. It is accessible but private in the middle of the Tagaytay city. Diet watchers have no need to worry as Mediterranean diet is healthy, including its fabulous menus using olive oil, the freshest fruit and veggies that are weight-friendly.
This place is the brain-child of husband and wife, Allen and Betty Tadayon who shared a passion for Mediterranean and Italian flavors. They created bestselling dishes like the Hummus en Fuego, Steamed Mussels Puttanesca, and Chicken Espetada (skewered chicken). Allen, being a native New Yorker, had to include cheesecakes–more than 8 unique variants of them.
THE DINING ROOM AT GOURMET FARMS
Kilometer 52, Aguinaldo Highway, Buho, Silang
Delights you find here are: Wine and Beer, Serves Organic Food and Free Parking. As a forerunner in the agribusiness, Gourmet Farms Inc. is focused on organic farming. Their produce sold in the market is fresh plus their exquisite beans.
Enter their huge farm/estate where guests in the Dining Room can partake of their organic menu using ingredients fresh from the fields. For take home items, they have leafy greens, delectable dips and sauces, as well as trademark coffee blends.
Menu served in their Dining Room is Mediterranean-inspired that is reminiscent of its predecessor. The Salad bar has greens freshly picked from the farm with an array of salad topping choices and a generous selection of gourmet dressings. The pizza and pasta dishes use sauces concocted from Gourmet Farms’ central kitchen, innovatively presented and prepared. Its menu also covers new favorites from the Dining Room’s Executive Chef Ico Molera.
Partake of these wide array of foods that are not only delicious but also nutritious.
MILAGROS PRIVATE KITCHEN
1640 Maglabe Drive, Brgy. Guinhawa South, Tagaytay City
If you prefer intimate get-togethers, Milagros Private Kitchen is your place as it provides a unique and private outdoor dining experience in the comfort of a venue that private.
Personalized menu is highlighted Filipino dishes created with the family recipes from Malabon, bottled gourmet and homemade products are available.
You have to make a reservation at least 3- 5 days in advanced. The place can accommodate only 16 guests that aims for a cozy and intimate ambiance.
NANAY CIRILA’S KAPENG BARAKO
Mayor’s Dr, Tagaytay City
An all-day Filipino and English breakfasts are served in Nanay Cirila. It includes full list of appetizers, house specialties, signature dishes and desserts. The main attraction is Nanay Cirilas’ Kapeng Barako, which started way back 1955.
Nanay Cirila is supported by her daughter-in-law and through their combined efforts fulfilled their dreams of opening a cafe. The Café is open from Friday-Sunday only. Its service is strictly by reservation with pre-orders.
NURTURE WELLNESS VILLAGE
Pulong Sagingan, Barangay Maitim II West, Tagaytay City
Formerly known as Nurture Spa, Nuture Wellness Village is a DOT-accredited resort and wellness retreat house for ‘ecotherapy’ or healing by and through nature. The customer experience is enhanced by its Filipino-themed décors, spa treatments and excellent cuisine.
For discriminating health-conscious guests, they can even pick fresh herbs and greens from their garden.
Nurture has created healthy and delicious cuisine including delectable non-vegetarian and vegetarian dishes which can compete as one of the best restaurant in Tagaytay city. As part of the Locavore movement, most of our ingredients are sourced from the resto’s own gardens or from close by farms guaranteeing their freshness.
QIWELLNESS LIVING SPA, RESTAURANT AND TEA ROOM
E.Aguinaldo Highway, Brgy. Maharlika East, Tagaytay City
It is a three-in-one destination: an Asian fusion teahouse, a bathhouse and spa. It’s architecture is reminiscence from the style centuries ago. Its cuisine is not only limited to food but touches the healing practices of China. The establishment is a combination of modern design, culinary techniques, and advances in wellness.
Its clients will experience unique taste in dining and wellness while enjoying grandiose sceneries it is overlooking the ridge of Tagaytay Lake and Taal Volcano.
Menu offered in the tea house is la carte as well as a ‘yin & yang’ degustation menu that varies with the season. The tea house menu is by reservations only. The Yin Yang degustation menu is multi-course that changes seasonally, over spring, summer, autumn, and winter, inspired as it follows China’s four seasons.
THE RED BUS MOBILE DINER
Nasugbu Highway, Tagaytay City
It’s a pleasant novelty to eat in a red bus. The Red Bus Mobile Diner is a cool and fantastic American food truck diner serving your fave fares.
Enjoy their sumptuous offerings of off-the-grill gourmet burgers, burritos, fajitas and milkshakes from a classic 1970 VW Kombi.They offer Gourmet Burgers, Burritos, Tacos, Fajitas, Milkshakes Tex-Mex cuisine in a nostalgic diner- style theme of antiques, vintage, and re-purposed novelties.
This awesome burger and burrito joint is owned by lovely couple: Dr. Jose and his lovely wife, who is a Dermatologist. Surprisingly, the passion of Doc Jose is cooking; although he is a practicing physician. He has mastered the skill of flipping burgers and making burritos that encouraged him to put up a business like this.