Café on the Ridge: Ykaie’s 6th Birthday

Café on the Ridge is Taal Vista Hotel’s restaurant where you  can enjoy Continental and Filipino dishes while enjoying a great view of the Taal Lake and Taal Volcano. This is where we decided to have Ykaie’s birthday lunch after checking out of Estrellas de Mendoza in San Juan, Batangas.

We passed by SM Lipa and bought Ykaie her birthday cake so she can blow out a candle. She had a Hello Kitty Theme. We dressed her up in a Hello Kitty dress and the gifts she received from us are also Hello Kitty-themed. She was ecstatic!

Guess what she chose from the menu to be her birthday meal? Her favorite pasta of all time, of course! The menu says  Penne with Roasted Garlic (₱355) but it’s penne pasta tossed in pesto sauce, olives, capers and roasted garlic. Pesto is Ykaie’s #1 favorite pasta sauce.

This pizza flavor piqued my curiosity. It’s Pizza Pampanga (₱425), thin-crust pizza topped with tocino, longganisa, kesong puti, salted egg and mozzarella cheese. The combination of toppings was surprisingly good! It was like having a breakfast pizza.

My MIL, Mama Lucy, ordered Spaghetti Carbonara (₱250). Since she is on a low-salt diet, I requested this to be prepared with very little salt. It still tasted great despite it being low salt.

If we to eat the chocolate cake we brought, there’ll be a ₱500 corkage fee. Since we only wanted to sing Happy Birthday to Ykaie and for her to be able to blow a candle on her cake and make a wish, we didn’t have to pay any. This is our table. Sis doesn’t want to be in the pictures, so she took ours.

We also shared Fried Calamares (₱265) served with tartar sauce for our appetizer. This came in the middle of the meal, though.

I thought the  Grilled Center Cut Pork Chops (₱365) looked good plus it’s my peanutbutter♥‘s favorite. Ykaie wanted to try it too because she loves pork chops. Two big pieces of perfectly cooked pork chops served with apple sauce is enough to share. It comes with fresh garden vegetables and a choice of baked potato or rice.

Ykaie with Lola Lucy and Lolo Sony

Rome ordered the Chicken Inasal (₱290) which I didn’t get to try. He said that the chicken is marinated inasal-style and was really good. I trust his taste…

My FIL, Papa Sony ordered the most appealing item on the menu: Sizzling Bulalo Steak (₱330) . Tagaytay is also known for serving good beef and bulalo so we kind of already know this will be good. The beef shank is rockin’ tender and served on a sizzling plate, smothered in rich gravy sauce.

Kakay, my nephew who says he doesn’t eat pork anymore, ordered the Sizzling Bangus (₱235) , pan-seared bangus served in a sizzling plate in fish steak-like sauce.

This photo was taken before we went in the hotel. This is situated in front….. at ayaw namin mag-pink!

After our satisfyingly delicious lunch, we went outside and took photos….

It was indeed a Happy Birthday for Ykaie. Hopefully, we can go back for a staycation with my peanutbutter♥ next time.