Lunch at Antonio’s, Tagaytay 2012

My dear friend, Ariel who’s from San Francisco came home for a short vacation last January. He’s the one who brings me to all the good restaurants whenever I go to San Francisco. This time it was my turn to bring him to my favorite restaurant in Tagaytay and possibly in the Philippines.

There’s something about Antonio’s that charms me. Aside from the excellent food I just love the ambiance of the place. I just don’t like the heat and flies during the summer. We went there last January when there was still a nice breeze.

I ordered a carafe of dalandan juice for Ariel. Their dalandan juice was intense in flavor and they use dalandan ice cubes so the juice won’t get diluted. However when we asked for extra ice plain ice cubes were given.

dalandan juice P600/carafe

The previous times (here and here) I ate at Antonio’s I wasn’t impressed with their bread. This time the bread reminded me of Chef Philippe’s crusty roll which was crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside. Rochelle and I are sad because Chef Philippe has shut down operations.

crusty roll

Each course comes with soup, salad, entree, dessert and coffee. The price of your meal depends on the entree you choose.

That day the soup was cream of chestnut soup which I found a bit too salty and didn’t really have a chestnut taste.

cream of chestnut soup

Normally I don’t order appetizers anymore but since there were 4 hungry people in our table I ordered the triple mushroom crepe.

triple mushroom crepe P355

The crepe was perfect for sharing. I don’t think I can eat the whole crepe by myself for breakfast or lunch even though it wasn’t that big. It would have been too rich.

One of my favorite restaurant salads, meslun (assorted young salad leaves) with bleu d’Auvergne crumble, glazed walnuts, dried currants, cranberries w/ raspberry vinaigrette is the perfect combination of sweet, salty, sour, crunchy and chewy.

Antonio’s farm fresh mesclun salad with raspberry vinaigrette

Sisters, Rochelle and Chris, ordered two different dishes and shared it. The kitchen did a good job of plating the lamb chop and roasted duck breast in one plate. Rochelle said the lamb chop was a tad well done otherwise the flavor was excellent.

I tried a bit of the pan seared foie gras that came with the roasted duck breast infused with truffle and goji berries and loved it! It was thick and generous and just darn good. I think that was the highlight of the entire plate.

herbed roasted rack of lamb (P1,800) and roasted duck breast (P1,500)

Ariel and I had the beef fillet with wild mushrooms and gravy. He had it with my favorite pumpkin sage risoni which is actually pasta that looked like rice. I had an arugula salad with my steak.

Just like the two times I had this steak it was just perfectly cooked. The sauce was so flavorful without being overly rich. Even Ariel was impressed. I love this steak so much it’s hard for me to order something else even though I vow to try something new each time I go to Antonio’s. Why mess with a sure thing?

grilled beef fillet wild mushroom & pumpkin sage risoni P1,850

Each time I go to Antonio’s they have a different dessert menu. Some of the popular ones were still there though.

Antonio’s dessert menu January 2012

Rochelle was too happy with her poached pear. She felt the pear wasn’t cooked long enough for the port to infuse fully in the pear.

poached pear in port wine with vanilla ice cream

I’ve tried Royce’s chocolate covered potato chips before and didn’t like it. The salty potato chip and the sweet chocolate confused the flavors for me. I’d rather eat them separately. But since Ariel has never tried it that’s what he ordered. After eating all the chips he agreed with me. The mango coulis as a dip was interesting though.

chocolate potato chips with mango coulis

Chris had the safe and popular dark chocolate soufflé. She was happy.

dark chocolate souffle with cardamom creme anglaise

In my opinion I had the best dessert. I love anything chocolate with orange so as soon as I saw the words ‘mandarin orange coated with chocolate’ I knew it was the perfect choice.

mandarin orange coated with chocolate

I thought it was orange segments covered with chocolate. Instead it was strong, intensely flavored orange sorbet coated with dark chocolate. The chef recommended I use my fingers and that’s what I did. It was a beautiful mess. Lick, lick, lick… If they can only box this up and sell it in supermarkets I will be first in line to buy it.

French press coffee

It was the perfect meal, the service was ok, the food good as usual. Nothing to complain about except this pesky fly who wouldn’t give up. It was with us from start to end. We gave up shooing it and gave it the remains of the mango coulis. Enjoy fly!

After lunch we took an unguided walk to the breakfast place which opens on weekends only. During the week you can order from their breakfast menu while seating at the main dining area.

Breakfast at Antonio’s

They used the same bricks for the walkway. I wonder where they got these bricks with so much character. They looked really old to me.

They could have made the place look different but they kept the charm of the main house.

Only the furniture was different. Even the floors were covered with machuca tiles.

back entrance

Antonio’s
Barangay Neogan
Tagaytay City, Cavite
telephone: (046) 413 0975 or (046) 413 1054
cellphone: (0917) 899 2866
Email: antoniosfarm@yahoo.com
website