Josephine’s Restaurant Tagaytay

Josephine’s Restaurant Tagaytay

“Behold Tagaytay’s glorious vistas while perched on top of Josephine’s lookout perch and experience first-hand the cool climate, clean fresh air, and verdant hills that go on for miles – the perfect setting for that perfect feast. Enjoy life’s happy first times only at Josephine Tagaytay.”

A Real Life Experience At Josephine’s Restaurant Tagaytay

Outlets of restaurant chains in Metro Manila have now overrun Tagaytay City that choices for a meal in the cool mountain ridge (believed to be a volcanic caldera, or the lip of a volcanic crater) city is like choosing from among mall tenants.

Thankfully some unique (by which I mean they are stand-alone, usually local) restaurants remain, although most of these have fast turn-over (I once asked my husband to drive from the rotunda all the way to Alfonso and back looking for a particular local restaurant, not realizing that a Metro Manila chain has taken its place).

It is actually great to just descend on the unassuming nipa huts along the main road and have bulalo (slow-cooked beef shank bone-in, including the marrow, in clear soup). Most of the pre-cooked offerings are homely and showcases the bounty of that area of Cavite.

But sometimes we prefer dining on a grander scale. Sonya’s is a good first choice, but it requires prior reservation, a hurdle when the trip to Tagaytay is on a whim. For Filipino cuisine and when we want more leeway in our ordered food, we usually go to Josephine’s Restaurant, an institution that has withstood the test of time, and changing appetites.

I fist learned of Josephine’s through a friend, a full-blooded Kabitenyo(a), many, many years ago. From then on I have been taking friends, and now family, to the restaurant for reliably good meals.

There is another outlet at Kawit, with an attached resort, but the food there does not compare to what is served in Tagaytay. And of course, the view, and ambience, is different, although that is compensated for by a landscaped surrounding mimicking a fish pond.

In Tagaytay the view is part and parcel of the dining experience. Josephine’s is a prime spot. It sits close to the edge of the ridge, so it has 180-degree unobstructed expanse framing Taal Volcano and Taal Lake in splendor.

Like most Tagaytay restaurants, Josephine’s is all glass walls, with water gently cascading down a stone wall by the entrance. But for a better view, perhaps while waiting for a table or for the orders to arrive, or maybe after a heavy meal, park benches are placed outside for lounging in the back patio. There is also space for open-air parties, and wedding receptions are common at Josephine’s.

I once went there with a group of friends for dinner on a full moon. The experience was so enchanting, so straight out of a dream which you are not likely to forget. Out on the benches at the back of the restaurant everything was bathed in a silvery glow, the moon reflected on the two craters and the placid lake. I could almost hear the tingle of moonlight.

Source:
http://bucaio.blogspot.com/2008/07/josephines-restaurant-tagaytay.html