Many times had I been to Tagaytay but never had I visited this secret garden until recently.
While most were enjoying their holidays at home or out of the country, here Jason and I were having a quiet dinner in the heart of a city quite close to home. A lot suggested that daytime was ideal to visit Sonya's Garden and they could be right, but dinner couldn't be more romantic than going here at this time.
From the elliptical road in Tagaytay, it took us around 40 minutes to get to Sonya's Garden. It was a bit difficult to find and despite many directions given to us we can't help but feel lost at one point or another and mutter under our breaths if we were there yet. And there the windmill appeared out of nowhere signaling our turn. A few minutes after, a sign greeted us... we were FINALLY there.
Bright Christmas lights strewn all over the arc blinked before our eyes giving us a glimpse of a promising night.
[caption id="attachment_99" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Sonya's Garden"]
[/caption]As we entered the restaurant, we were delighted to see that we almost had it all to ourselves. Though there were guests, a solemn and homey atmosphere was kept.
[caption id="attachment_100" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Inside Sonya's Garden"]
[/caption]We need not pick our choice eat for dinner since they provided an Eat-All-You-Can set meal for only Php610.
To start off, we created our own salad, organically grown and freshly picked from their own garden. It was harvested lettuce and arugula topped with mango, broad beans, eggs, cucumber, pineapple and corn drizzled in either Sonya's Secret Salad Dressing or Balsamic vinegar.
We also had bread with various homemade dips and toppings such as basil pesto, white cheese, anchovies, bruschetta tomato toppings, mushroom pate etc. My personal favorite was a mix of bruschetta toppings and mushroom pate. *smacks lips*
[caption id="attachment_102" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Garden Salad Greens"]
[/caption]Complete with a bottomless freshly squeezed dalandan juice that complemented our oh so fresh salad and might I add was also refreshing to our parched throats.
Before we attacked our salad, we just wanted to show off who was the better salad designer and the MASTER SALAD STYLIST... dun den dun..
Here was his..
[caption id="attachment_110" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Salad from a Fine Arts graduate known to master design and style.. Did it measure up? =p"]
[/caption]And here was mine...
[caption id="attachment_111" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="My Salad design... Maybe I have a future in food styling.. Ok.. maybe NOT."]
[/caption]Ok so maybe I was a bit RESERVED with my style.
For our main course it was my all time love - pasta. We got to create our own pasta as we were provided with 2 kinds of sauces - sun dried tomato and chicken cream with mango. Our toppings were ratatouille, salmon belly, shitake mushrooms, black olives and grated parmesan cheese. It was a pasta feast to remember since it was again eat-all-you-can! :)
[caption id="attachment_104" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Eat All You Can Pasta"]
[/caption]After we took our fill of pasta, (we didn't have another bowl by the way. We were already full then from our 2 rounds of salad =p) the meal wouldn't be complete without the sweets.
It was glazed sweet potato, banana and jackfruit rolls with sesame seeds and a sinful homemade chocolate cake from Panaderia. We also had tarragon tea to sip and warm our satisfied tummies.
[caption id="attachment_105" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="Banana & Jackfruit rolls with sesame seeds, Sweet Potato and Homemade Chocolate Cake"]
[/caption]Sweets are my weakness so though I was already full by then, I made it a point to fork every bit of potato and banana rolls down to the last.
It might be quite a while before we visit Sonya's Garden again so better not leave any bit I might regret that I didn't eat :)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sonya's Garden
Barangay Buck Estate, Alfonso, Cavite, Philippines
(near the vicinity of Tagaytay City, Philippines)
Mobile No.: +63-9175329097 / +63-9175335140 / +63-9175231080
Email: info@sonyasgarden.com
hmmm the venue was really nice but the food was over rated.
ReplyDelete[...] (Photos courtesy of Cone Tabat, Laye-Anne Morales, Lagalog, and Tastebudthrills) [...]
ReplyDeletethanks for the tag :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! I'd appreciate the food though if there had been more taste to it. It was kinda "international standard" for me. :)
ReplyDelete