Tagaytay Food Trip Part 2

I had a surprisingly great time when I did my first Tagaytay Food Trip a couple of years ago that I decided to do it again. My food trip this time around consisted of the following:

1. Breakfast at Antonio's
2. Chine
3. Mano's Greek Taverna
4. Chateau Hestia
5. Restaurant Verbena
6. Bag of Beans
7. Java Jazz Coffee

I'll have separate blog posts about the places I didn't go to during my first trip. I did revisit a few places, though. I had dinner in Chateau Hestia and this time, I ordered the Set Menu (P795). It was supposed to come with a specific soup, salad, main course, and dessert but I was told by the waiter that I could replace almost all of these items with something else on the menu. I ended up replacing the Viennese Potato soup with the Lobster Bisque, which was very flavorful and had small bits of lobster in it.

I stuck with the Hestia Garden Salad...

and the main course, the Rinds Rouladen or beef roulade filled with onion, bacon, mustard and parsley and flavored by its own sauce. This was pretty good and once again, the portion size was quite hefty.

For dessert, I had Panna Cotta, which was light and creamy and topped with their home-grown passion fruit jam. Together with coffee, this provided the perfect ending to a very good meal.

My return trip to Restaurant Verbena was a bit different since I had a friend who was also in Tagaytay at the same time and we decided to have lunch there together. We ordered the Black Truffle Risotto (~P590) which doesn't seem to be on the menu anymore (I took this trip several months ago). I love risotto and you can't go wrong with truffle oil and panchetta in the same dish.

For our main course, we decided to share a Grilled US Angus Rib Eye (P2000+). Pretty good steak. :)

I will say though that I enjoyed my first meal in Restaurant Verbena more. If I do a third food trip, I may re-order the Verbena sampler. :)

I also enjoyed some coffee and dessert in Bag of Beans, but this time in visited their place near the rotonda. I ordered their bottomless Brewed Barako (P120) and their Chocolate Mousse (P110). The mousse I had came straight from the freezer (I'm guessing they all do?) so I had to let it thaw a bit first but it was pretty good.

Next post: Breakfast at Antonio's.