Going to Tagaytay with more than a dozen people will never be an easy feat but if you are celebrating something special, it was worth it. It’s almost the end of January 2024, our family had not been out to a family outing for a long time, the weather was perfect which happens only in January at least in the Philippines, and except for two more members who were not able to go with us because of their work schedule, everyone was available and was excited.
So, from Manila to Tagaytay, thanks to Skyway, we travel only around two to 3 hours max, to and fro. Skyway toll fees though are exorbitant, but we can’t really have a choice as we don’t want our drivers to get tired.
We dropped by Lourdes church to say thank you for our safe travel and for our birthday boy too.
Then we headed straight to Balay Dako. It’s a popular Filipino restaurant in Tagaytay City and we have already eaten here twice so we know that the food will be delicious. The restaurant also has a beautiful view of Taal Volcano although the food here and the ambiance is the main reason why we went here. The place has very high ceiling, spacious tables and seats. The gentle, cool breeze also made the restaurant such a comfy and homey place to eat with the whole family.
( inside it is yummy and creamy coconut flesh with ube halaya )
Our total bill came to around P856/pax. For this tag price we had the following:
1 Crispy pata (hubby’s favorite), 1 hot nilagang bulalo (which I mistakenly ordered because I initially wanted to try their sizzling bulalo), 1 halaan soup, 2 calamares fritos, 2 pork sisig, 1 whole fried chicken, 2 cheesy dynamites, 2 chicharon bulaklak, 1 kare-kare gulay, 1 pinakbet, 1 pancit canton, 16 cups of rice, 3 iced tea carafe, 1 small coconut crumble which served as our birthday cake. They have huge serving plates so we also still had a lot of left-over take outs.
Usually, families go to buffet restaurants for birthday celebrations, but if not for location, dining in and choosing food in the menu can be less pricey.
We did not choose the set menu for 10 persons (Balay Dako has those) because we did not find a set that has all our desired dishes. And I intended not to include desserts because I know that after having your stomach full of the ulam and rice, you won’t want to have desserts after. Even though I have to say that Balay Dako’s ice cream are really yummy.
I was also able to buy some Pinoy delicacies from Balay Dako’s deli.
After lunch and some more chicka and photos, we headed to the nearby hotel restaurant Belissima inside Escala. We had pastries and coffee there and then ice cream for the kids. It was a laid-back siesta so we can share some stories as the place has less people, it was more quiet in there since it was already past lunch time. And of course, that’s where we really had a nice view of Taal Lake all on our own. There was a guest saxophone musicial who played that afternoon and he played a birthday greeting for my husband, how sweet.
It was truly a fun birthday celebration, a very lovely weather that day, just a perfect day for all of us. And I hoped I gave you some useful tips for you to have a great celebration with your family too.
