Sonya’s Garden Tagaytay Restaurant Review

October 16, 2016November 30, 201610 Comments

Sonya’s Garden’s full name is Sonya Garcia’s Secret Cottage Restaurant Inc. At least that’s what it says on their menu which someone handed out to us as soon as we stepped out of our car after parking. And I’m just so happy that finally, I’d be able to eat here… and during our 2nd Anniversary at that!

Amidst the verdant and flower-laden garden, with nothing but thick hibiscus shrubs and romantic hydrangeas as witnesses, the young man knelt on one knee before the lady and asked her if she would be his sweetheart. She replied with a single-minded “Yes!”

And what better way to celebrate the overflowing of the heart than with the filling of the belly? Dinner had to be served! The table was draped with fine embroidered linen and laden with freshly picked lettuce and arugula, sweet-fleshed mangoes, pineapples, and other fruits in season, and an array of dips and sauces for drizzling over salads and pasta. It was an explosion of flavors and feelings. From this proposal began the public’s love affair with Sonya’s Garden. – SonyasGarden.com

I can’t believe it’s been two years since Mahal asked for my hand from my grandfather, parents and siblings in Cagayan de Oro. Two years? Wow! It seemed like only yesterday! I can still feel my surprise when for the first time my grandfather talked to a suitor of mine. He never did that to any of my exes!

Anyway, it’s actually our 26th monthsary yesterday, October 15, which we almost forgot because we were in Eastern time zone, we had so much going on with baby Tuz’s vaccine, checkup, errands and work around the house (that got a bit flooded recently during a sudden heavy downpour) and we were so busy with so many other things (like soap making) that we didn’t have anything special planned. The weather is also not very cooperative with typhoon Karen making a landfall this dawn and another one on the way come Monday (stay safe, everyone!).

But last August, on our 2nd anniversary, when the weather was still so nice and cozy, we had a series of anniversary celebrations (in case you haven’t read about some of my posts about that yet) and we headed to Tagaytay once again. It was just a simple lunch but we super loved it because we had it at Sonya’s Garden! Continue reading →

Bag of Beans Athena Tagaytay Restaurant Review

October 1, 2016November 30, 2016Leave a comment

I used to travel all the time before the baby came. I am out of the house and exploring the country more often than I was at home. It didn’t even stop me when I got pregnant. As soon as my obstetrician gave me the go signal to travel, Mahal and I did so for almost two months straight during my last trimester hopping from one province to the next all over Mindanao and the Visayas and some parts of Southern Luzon before we finally got back home here in Manila. I’ll blog more about that soon.

But since I gave birth and had Tuz, travels were limited to once or twice a month. We’d just visit nearby places and mostly our goal is to eat. If before, we scrimped on food so we can travel some more and have more money for plane tickets and hotels, this time, since we can’t really travel much until baby Tuz completes his rounds of various vaccines, we splurge on food instead! And one of the food places nearby that we love to visit is Tagaytay, particularly Bag of Beans. Continue reading →

Ayala Malls Serin in Tagaytay – Not What We Expected It to Be

August 29, 2016November 30, 20163 Comments

So I have been hearing about Ayala Malls Serin that opened in Tagaytay 2 years ago (April 2, 2014) and the few times Mahal and I went to Tagaytay and passed by it, I kept getting intrigued by it. It looked so elegant and serene from the outside.

So that one particular day we were celebrating our second anniversary, after our little excursion to Marcia Adams and Puzzle Mansion Museum, we dropped by Ayala Malls Serin. We were waiting to get hungry (Marcia Adams’ dishes were so yummy and filling that even after several hours, we were still quite full!) so we thought of going around this prestigious lifestyle mall in Tagaytay. Continue reading →

Puzzle Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Tagaytay

August 23, 2016November 11, 20161 Comment

This blog post will be part of a series of posts that I’ll be doing about Tagaytay Must-See Food Places and Tourist Spots. And since we’ve just celebrated our second anniversary this month (Aug. 15), there’s no better way to spend it on a rainy afternoon with our baby Tuz than by heading there not just for some fancy meal but to also explore some places we’ve never been to before as long as the time and weather will permit it.

~~~oOo~~~

Tagaytay is the nearest tourist place to my home and so most of the tourist spots here I’ve already visited since I was in college (circa 1995-1999), the first one being Tagaytay Highlands with my wealthy classmates from AdMU. It was a spontaneous little out-of-town trip with a few boys and girls to celebrate the fact that classes have just been suspended that day if I recall correctly or maybe we just finished our exams and we had lots of free time to kill… Hmmm… Whatever the reason was, I remember feeling so lucky to be invited by my block mates to such a high-end place which is via membership only and I fell in love with Tagaytay since.

Anyway, I digress…

So it’s really nice when new places to visit in Tagaytay would crop up every now and then and one of those places we’ve never been to before is the Puzzle Mansion Bed and Breakfast. Continue reading →

Marcia Adams Tagaytay Restaurant Review

August 22, 2016November 30, 20164 Comments

This blog post will be part of a series of posts that I’ll be doing about Tagaytay Must-See Food Places and Tourist Spots. And since we’ve just celebrated our second anniversary this month, there’s no better way to spend it on a rainy afternoon with our baby Tuz than by heading there for some fancy late lunch.

~~~oOo~~~

I’ve been wanting to go back to Tagaytay for a long while now and I was really planning to do that on our anniversary month (We turned two last August 15). It just kept getting pushed back because of the monsoon season until one Sunday afternoon, when the weather wasn’t as bad as the last several days that we finally decided to go. Should the weather get worse once we’re there, then we can stay somewhere in Tagaytay City. But if not, at least we’re just almost an hour away from home (with light traffic).

Mahal listed a bunch of places that we can go visit in Tagaytay. Some of those places I’ve already been to so when he mentioned Marcia Adams, I immediately got intrigued and told him “I haven’t been there. Let’s try it!” Continue reading →