Curiosity almost killed the cat....

Been a while since last post....well...(insert lame excuse).

Now that i've got that out of the way....

Last Aug 12 was my wife's birthday. She wanted an out of town getaway to celebrate it so we opted to go somewhere close and ended up in Tagaytay. We stayed at this fairly new resort called Pina Colina which was recommended by officemate, Djong Tan-Pernas.

There were no guests checked in that time so we practically had the place to ourselves. Too bad it was raining that day so jumping in the pool was out of the question.

The place at the time does not have any resto (altho they do serve breakfast) so we had to go out to have dinner, after which we headed straight back and just chilled in the room together with our daughter and my dad-in-law.


The next day i went out to get some brewed Barako coffee and had breakfast at the resort. After which we took a swim in the pool -which was still all to ourselves-

We checked out at about 12noon with a vague idea on where to have lunch.

I suddenly remember this Greek Tavern that i always see whenver i go to Tagaytay and was always curious as to how that resto is. Everyone seemed ok with the idea of having lunch there since it wasn't that far of a drive from the resort.

The place was called Manos Greek Tavern and wee were the only customers there at that time, which made me wonder a bit on why coz everytime i pass by the place, it's practically empty. Then again, it's been open for a few years now so i'm guessing it's just coincidence that i don't see anyone actually eat there.

The look inside the place is quite refreshing due to the white and blue motif.

We asked the server what was their specialty and decided to just focus on those for our orders.

 As always, we thought about what our 1yr old daughter would eat here. Since she likes soup, we ordered her a bowl of Kotosoupa. It's chicken broth with rice, onion, carrot, celery, egg-calamansi sauce and olive oil. It's almost like arrozcaldo but with bits of chicken meat instead regular cuts. Serving is quite big and hearty and we ended up sharing the bowl. We enjoyed this since the taste actually matches Tagaytay's cool climate.

 The first time i had Mousaka was at Cyma and I basically love it. It's like beef lasagna but with bechamel sauce and eggplant/zucchini instead of lasagna pasta. Honestly, i wasn't that impressed with this one. It was really bland and nothing to counter the richness of the bechamel. I got "umay" halfway without really being satisfied.

 We also ordered Grilled Lamb Shoulder. I was a bit disappointed with this coz the meat was a bit dry and tough and chewy like gum. I enjoyed the fries that came with it tho.

Last was Beftekia Scaras, which was a favorite according to the server. 2 pieces of grilled minced beef made with red wine, olive oil, egg and milk. This almost saved the day for me until i got "umay" after a few bite-full and sort of noticed that the texture was more bread than meat. I'm not really sure how this dish as actually made but i'm pretty sure that the ratio of meat must at least be more than bread. Amidst that, it was still flavorful and it's also served with those yummy fries.

Overall, i wasn't really impressed with food we ate that day. I left somewhat with sigh. I'm still giving this place the benefit of the doubt with the thought that that day could've been an off day for the cook. Besides, the Kotosoupa was really enjoyable especially the (yes i'm mentioning it again coz it really is) yummy fries =)