The Highlands Golfer’s Lounge

For our last meal in Tagaytay before we headed back to Manila, we had lunch at Golfer’s Lounge inside Tagaytay Highlands clubhouse. The meal was Florence’s birthday treat to us.

Golfer’s Lounge was the open air, casual all-day dining restaurant of Tagaytay Highlands. They served mostly Filipino food with some international selections.

We naturally ordered tawilis which was fresh water sardines native to Batangas. You can eat the whole fish, bones and head included.

pritong tawilis P220

The bulalo came in a large bowl and we all got a generous cup each. It was quite flavorful but it’s far from the best in Tagaytay. For my foreign readers, bulalo is soup made from beef shank with bits of bone marrow floating in the surface. It’s one of the most popular dishes in Tagaytay but it can be found in Manila too.

bulalo ng Mahogany P580

I have a confession. I’ve never eaten sisig before this meal. Somehow eating pig’s ears, cheeks and liver never appealed to me. I don’t know what made me try this sisig but it was a revelation. I loved the salty, oily, crunchy mixture specially with rice. I think I ate half of an order. My friends tell me there are even better sisig out there. I can’t wait to try them. Where can I find the best sisig?

sisig Kapampangan P280

The kang kong was good, the over cooked and hard lechon wasn’t.

kang kong sa lechon P180

Sorry I don’t eat ampalaya (bitter gourd) but my friends wiped out this dish.

guisadong ampalaya sa hipon P180

The kare kare was just ordinary. I could hardly find any ox tail. Wishful thinking on my part. Well kare kare is supposed to be ox tail peanut stew right?

kare kare P280

Deep fried pork knuckles or crispy pata is our favorite Filipino dish and this was pretty good with crunchy skin and very tender meat.

crispy pata P680

The fried beef rib was the only leftover we had despite it’s small size. It was hard and overcooked. A big challenge to our teeth and jaws.

pinalutong na tadyang ng baka P280

Some of my friends shared some Filipino dessert. The ice cream was supposed to top the saba con hielo but they ran out of vanilla ice cream that’s why the ube ice cream was served separately.

Debbie was the only one to order the banana cue split and I’m so thankful to be sitting beside her. What a smart idea to combine caramelized bananas with ice cream and langka (jackfruit) to make a truly Filipino style banana split. It was soooooooooo good! The burnt caramel coating on the bananas were just perfect with the ice cream.

banana cue split P150

Bananas and langka cooked in syrup and served on top of crushed ice and doused with milk and topped with ice cream. A very refreshing dessert. But I’d rather eat fresh, sweet langka from Tagaytay.

saba and langka con hielo P150