ANTONIO'S

4.85 out of 5 stars

It's strange that I wouldn't write about one of the top 3 restaurants that comes off the top of my head. Of how the sprawling "Spanish hacienda"-esque property reminds you of the olden days where love came in the form of prose on parchment and serenaded melodies. Where you'd drown yourself in the huge red velvet chairs, watching the sunset from the balcony overlooking the Tagaytay landscape. A place where a violin quartet wouldn't feel out of place. Yes, Antonio's has never lost its feel for romance and good food all these years. Chef and proprietor Antonio Agustin “Tony Boy” Escalante has done a great job in building up Antonio's to be a world-class restaurant, as evidenced by placing a spot in the Miele's Guide TWICE.

lower dining area

Apart from its unique and swoon-worthy setting, it is known for its set meal, which includes the House Salad, Soup of the Day, Sorbet, Entree, Dessert and Coffee or Tea. The choice of entree will determine the price of the meal, with an additional charge for appetizers ordered. It has expanded its menu to include over 20 entrees and a full page of the same number of appetizers. Martin and I decided on sharing the Steamed & Nori Wrapped Tempura Scallop, Lemon Confit (250 PhP) appetizer, while he had the Antonio's Trio (1,900 PhP) of beef, lamb and cod and I had the Barbecue Lamb Cutlets with Garlic Risoni (1,650 PhP).

upper dining area

The appetizer only whetted out appetites. It contained two huge pieces of scallop. The steamed scallop was perfectly cooked to a tender texture, giving in to the thrust of a fork, and holding its own own flavor to the tart lemon confit and chiffonade fried spinach garnish. The stark contrast of the nori-encrusted tempura scallop goes to show the various ways of cooking the same ingredient. It was leaner, meatier and was a good accompaniment to the light cilantro pesto sauce. Considering I'm not a fan of cilantro, I nevertheless enjoyed the sauce and didn't leave a drop of it on the plate!

Steamed & Nori Wrapped Tempura Scallop, Lemon Confit (250 PhP)

The salad was a delight, made fresh from their own organic vegetable farm. The mix of arugula and spinach burst with flavor from dried blueberries, radish, walnuts, beet slices and bleu cheese drizzled with a sweet raspberry vinaigrette. This was followed by a robust white onion soup, very thick and foamy and drizzled with olive oil and herbs. I didn't even have the chance to take a picture of the green mango sorbet, it was finished in a matter of seconds!

House Salad

White Onion Soup

The Antonio's Trio (1,900 PhP) was composed of Beef Fillet on Plancha with Black Pepper Sauce, Barbecue Lamb Medallion with Garlic Risoni and Crispy Cod Glazed with Kombu Sauce on Peppered Egg Noodles. Our least favorite was the Beef Fillet. It was actually quite cold and tough around the edges. By far, the best sampler was the Crispy Cod. It's crispy, but did not fall apart and wasn't too oily. The sampler dishes were small (each could probably be finished in three big bites), so it was surprising how Martin was full when he finished his platter.

Antonio's Trio (1,900 PhP)

My Barbecued Lamb Cutlets was good, but I preferred it less glazed over with oil. To be fair, it was very tender and filling with a sweet tangy barbecue sauce. I didn't have room to finish the yummy risoni pasta or the side of buttered cauliflower and broccoli.

Barbecue Lamb Cutlets with Garlic Risoni (1,650 PhP)

Too bad I didn't leave room for the panna cotta. It was a lovely dessert, using real vanilla bean generously peppered around the cream. It quivered to the touch of my dessert spoon, and was lined with a chocolate and caramel sauce. Martin's dessert was an sorbet assortment of local fruits, namely guava, mango and calamansi. It was wonderfully light and refreshing, and unlike me, he finished the whole thing in minutes.

Panna Cotta with Chocolate and Caramel Sauce

Sorbet Mix

All in all, we enjoyed our dinner in Antonio's. Although I enjoyed my first few visits a little more than this one, I can say that the restaurant has been consistent with delivering food and service above par. It is worth noting that the service was faultless, dishes coming in and out unobtrusively, waiters being called with the slightest wave of a hand and they'd easily customize food to your request. Truly, nothing is more ideal than to celebrate a special occasion with an out-of-town trip to Tagaytay, then, of course, having dinner in Antonio's. If you're one of the few that haven't checked this place out, isn't it about time that you give yourself this gastronomic treat?

Menu. Click to Magnify












Antonio's
Barangay Neogan
Tagaytay City, Cavite
(0918) 899-2866
Su, M, T, W, Th, F, Sa: 7:00 am - 9:00 pm

VERBENA

4 out of 5 stars

The only reason why I rated this 4 stars was due to pressure from Paolo when he insisted that Antonio's still tops the bar in Tagaytay. Not getting a consensus from him and other foodie friends, my lemming self shelved the star down a notch.

Chef David Pardo de Ayala is the corporate chef for the Discovery group of companies, where Verbena is located in their Tagaytay branch called Discovery Country Suites. He was born in Columbia, where he took basic cooking courses, but later specialized in CIA, NY. He then worked in NY restos like Bouley, Le Bernardin and Lespinasse, before moving to the Philippines, where he cooked for Aqua and opened the former Soleil Cafe Moderne. Being the chef who created Verbena's menu, I was excited to try this 80-seater place with Pao on our Tagaytay weekend spree.

Verbena is located right at the lobby of Discovery Country Suites, where the interiors flow into the decor of the bed and breakfast. You don't really know where the concierge area, nor the hallways of the b&b starts or ends, because the restaurant was merged into the whole lobby area. Thus, the main area of the resto is strategically fronting a fireplace, with a huge painting on its mantle. The place is elegant, decorated like a grand living room complete with the armoire and potted plants. Yet, it maintains its rustic feel, with the wooden, log cabin theme and quaint country bric-a-bracs.
Even for its rustic charm, expect five-star service. The waiter was attentive and quick to get our orders, notwithstanding the fact that we were the only customers at that time, haha (it was around 9:30 pm already, past closing). After ushering us to the balcony area (smoking section), he offered us bread and butter with a romesco dip that tasted almost like the tomato and garlic dip of Bravo!.

freebies

We were munching on our bread leisurely while we placed our orders. The menu is 2-paged short, but complete, covering appetizers, soup, salad, pasta&risotto, stews (stews, casseroles & classic broths) and main (grilled, roasted & seared). We were quick to choose from this "Contemporary Country" menu, getting an appetizer, pasta and main since it had a short description of the dish (which always helps!).

For appetizers, we had the Pan-Roasted Foie Gras (670PhP). Bernice must've rubbed off her love for it on me, cos when I see it on the menu, it leaps off the page begging to be ordered. Well, only for seared ones like this one, haha. It was cooked with pancetta, prunes and figs in a cognac sauce. And was it ever tasty! The sweetness of the fig and prunes balanced off the heavy taste of the foie gras. They were also pretty generous with the pancetta, which is a bonus. But let me go to the taste of the foie gras. It was melt-in-your-mouth goodness that I'd probably eat a lot of if it weren't so fattening. They deglazed the bits stuck to the pan with cognac, and putting it on liver intensified the taste even more. One thing I did wish for were probably more foie gras, because there was an awful lot of prunes and figs on the bottom.

Pan-Roasted Foie Gras (670PhP)

As for the pasta, we had Black Pepper Fettuccine (360 PhP). It was a pasta mixed with smoked bacon, roasted garlic and seared portabello mushrooms. I love this pasta because it was light (having no sauce, just st olive oil and flat-leaf parsley), yet filling. Garlic can be pretty sweet, especially if it's roasted as in the pasta. There were whole cloves of it, and biting into its sweetness with the smokiness of the portabello mushroom was a great combination. The bacon picked off the flavor of the mushroom, and thank god they used the deli-type slab of bacon and not those instant honey-cured ones. My only comment though was that there was a strong aftertaste from the mushroom that wasn't salvaged by putting something slightly acidic in the pasta, like maybe a hint of lemon.

Black Pepper Fettuccine (360 PhP)

We had Verbena's Sampler Plate (780 PhP), which is a combination of BBQ Lamb Baby Back Ribs, Grilled Norwegian Salmon with Arugula-Mushroom Salad, & U.S. Beef Short Ribs "Goulash." Of the three dishes, the one I expected to taste best was the disappointment of the three. The ribs did not have much of the sweet and spicy bbq glaze it touted to have, and it was awfully tough, as if it had been microwaved along with its polenta "fries" siding. The salmon was delicious, pan-fried in a wine sauce that complemented the vinaigrette of its arugula salad. Finally, our goulash sandwich was rich, tasting like a caldereta that was spiked with the spicy-sweet taste of caraway fruits.

Verbena's Sampler Plate (780 PhP)

This is definitely a restaurant to check out when dining in Tagaytay. The crabmeat and corn ravioli is highly recommended, and I would love to try it again on my second visit!

Thanks, Pao! Our posterity "I was here" shot.

Verbena menu. click to magnify.












Cafe Verbena
Country Suites, Discovery Tagaytay,
300 Calamba Rd. San Jose
Tagaytay City, Cavite
(046) 413-4567
Su, M, T, W, Th, F, Sa: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm

Mushroom Burger Royale

I think my boyfriend Pao is one of the last people to know that there's a Mushroom Burger in Manila (specifically, QC). Well, just to state the obvious, as I'm sure all of you already know this by now: there's Mushroom Burger in Manila, too!!! :D It's in West Avenue, in fact.

Lately, we've been satisfying our cravings of "MUSHROOM BURGER ROYALE" --- it's one of their specialty burgers with an egg-onion omelette in it. I know it sounds weird, but when you taste it, you'll find that it fits just right. Their mushroom burger patties have a mild flavor to it, and so do the eggs, so when you bite into it, the taste seems as if they melt into each other.

Pao has this great tip: When taking out from Mushroom Burger, drive through its neighbor across the street, McDonald's. Mushroom Burger doesn't seem to serve fries, only Oishi potato shoestrings, so tandem-ing Mcdo's fries and Mushroom Burger's burger is definitely fast food heaven.

P.S. The reason why I don't have a picture of Mushroom Burger's "Mushroom Burger Royale" is because I always gobble it down before being able to take a pic of it. Hwehwe!

Mushroom Burger
93 West Avenue
Barangay Bungad, QC
02-3751290

Places I’d bash….with pictures!

1 out of 5 stars (for all 3 restos)

I wrote in my resto list that I’d most likely bash these restaurants because of all the factors that you look into one, be it ambience, presentation of the food, the cost or the remarkable service; there is really no redeeming factor to speak of. Of course, I may be wrong now, but I wouldn’t want to go back to these places again to see if I truly am.

And off we start to number one: Gran Caffe Casanova

Bern and I tried this place only because it was near my house, being located in Corinthian Hills. It serves authentic Italian cuisine, as I see the Italian owner many times roaming around, but that still doesn’t save it for me. The prices are extremely expensive (i.e. your Hawiaan (?!?!?) pizza will cost you 385 pesos, while a 4 cheese one will cost 435. Note that this is only a small pizza that can fit two people who aren’t hungry at the most. Or how about a seafood main course Grigliata Mista di Mare della Riviera? That will set you back 640 painful ones, excluding tax!) and the place is physically stifling, a cramped room evoking Hollywood boudoir that feels out of place with its surroundings.

I got the Capelli D’Angelo al Tartufo Aspargini e Speck described as homemade angel hair pasta with truffle cream asparagus and cure ham. The pasta was average, and I was grudgingly willing to forgive paying the 400 pesos for it, if only I didn’t recently eat in La Grotta, having their tagliatelle al tartufo, a truffle cream dish that was 10 times better, fit for 2 and only cost around 300 pesos!!! (post to come)

Compared to the latter dish, this one had very little truffle essence in it, and the sauce was runny. I guess you cant expect a heavy one to pair with mild angel hair, but it’s the chef’s fault to even pair it with that type of pasta anyway! Truffle cream has a robust and rich flavor, and the best type of pairing would be with equally thick pasta such as bucatini, linguine, bow tie, or even tagliatelle (like in La Grotta, though this choice may still be contentious). I barely tasted the sauce, and there was nothing special about the ham or the asparagus --- they could be easily bought in any grocery. Even the cheese used was your kraft-processed parmesan…sheesh, they couldn’t even buy it in its original form and have it freshly shaved over the pasta.

Bern had the Papardelle Nere al Granchio described as homemade squid-ink colored pasta with crab meat in olive oil and white wine. Considering that this is a thick pasta, you’d expect the sauce to be creamy and rich, but again, the sauce was thin and runny. There wasn’t much crab meat, the red sauce looked unappetizing with the color of the squid-ink pasta, and the tomato toppings was exactly the same as the one used with our complimentary bread! It doesn’t make things any better that her dish cost 395 either.

Better alternatives: La Grotta
Galileo Enoteca

So that’s that, on to the next bashed resto: Paloma

Patty, Bern and I tried Paloma in Shangri-la, expecting it to be nice considering it lied on the same hallway as Cyma, SumoSam or Tender Bob’s (haha, plugging!)…. But it failed to meet our expectations.

Our appetizer Boquerones in Olive Oil (120 PhP) described as fresh anchovies with vinegar and oil dressing, was just okay. It was presented nicely on a wooden block with beds of lettuce, but the taste was nothing spectacular. To think fresh, raw anchovies would be exciting like carpaccio, but it tasted too salty and had a somewhat unpleasant aftertaste. I wouldn’t pay to eat this dish, even if the price is reasonable.

We also had Gambas al Ajilo (155PhP), a very typical dish in any Spanish restaurant. You’d think that the most common dish of your theme restaurant would be the best tasting one. Unfortunately, there was nothing special about it, with the small prawns drowning in oil and garnished leaves. It’s neighbor, Cyma, would carry your known eggplant moussaka, but unlike the gambas, was the best moussaka I’ve tasted thus far.

Our main dish, Paella Paloma (495 PhP for sharing) which had lobster tail, mussels, jamon serrano, squid and sausage, write better than it tastes. Our cook at home who makes paella often, can do a better job of the paella than the one in Paloma. But I guess one thing that it never fails to do is make it look pretty, as can be seen with the picture.

Finally, we had the Caramel Cheesecake (140 PhP). Again, it was presented nicely on a wooden artist’s palette. But by far, this was the worst-tasting dish of all the ones we’ve tried. The cheesecake was too rich, and the cheese component didn’t blend well with the rest of the cake. Also, the cream and chocolate sauces shaped as circles of paint did not taste good at all. We left it uneaten, which is unlike normal dessert sauces where people would usually lick it clean.

Better alternative: Segundo Piso/Terry’s Selection
(get the really yummy chistorrado --- Spanish rice similar to paella
with a capsicum sauce and melted cheese on top….yum!)

Last but not the least, we have: Massimo’s Café, Cliffhouse (Tagaytay)

Kit, Gia, Melo, Nina and I went here after Nina’s party because we heard about their wagyu burgers from a friend. Considering that this is an established restaurant in Tagaytay, you’d expect its extension in Cliffhouse to be just as good, right? Wrong!! This café aims to disappoint….their wagyu burgers (255PhP +35 with cheese, +75 with fries), the supposed centerpieces of this café, tasted like ordinary beef, and it was such small serving for its price, albeit sandwiched in between foccacia buns (they tasted stale, though). There was no good dressing for the burger, only a huge dollop of mayonnaise on the plate, and if you order the extra 75 PhP fries, it’s just those frozen fries that you buy in the supermarket.

Our other friend got the tenderloin with brandy cream sauce (295 PhP). It was two small pieces of tenderloin, a scoop of mashed potatoes and a huge side of salad that had mere lettuce and tomatoes to accompany it. The tenderloin may have been good, but I wouldn’t pay the price for it. Or if I did pay the price such a quantity, there must be something special about it. But really, it tasted like your ordinary tenderloin which was probably local beef, and there was nothing spectacular with its cooking technique, being pan-fried.

In addition, the iced tea was more than a hundred, but it tasted like that sickeningly sweet Lipton, while the dessert cakes did not look appetizing at all... the place wasn’t remarkable eating in, either. The dining table had a tile top (it felt like a bathroom), and the café itself looked too plain, as if you knew it had a lot less overhead being just a small stall instead of an establishment where you can eat even on the inside.

Better alternatives: more pricey but excellent wagyu ---- Malcolm’s Place
less pricey but more cowboy settings ---- wagyu in Salcedo Weekend Market

Gran Caffe Casanova
The Clubhouse, Corinthian Hills, Temple Drive
Quezon City, Metro Manila
(02) 638-2989
Su, M, T, W, Th, F, Sa: 11:00 am - 12:00 mn

Paloma
6th Flr, The Ledge Shangri-La Plaza, Shaw Blvd. cor. EDSA
Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila
(02) 910-4096
Su, M, T, W, Th, F, Sa: 10:00 am - 9:00 pm