The family was at
Taal Vista Hotel till around 1:00PM, when we began to feel hungry and my oldest sister Cely agreed to try out eating at Sonya's Garden.
It was a last minute decision, which could be a problem. To eat at Sonya's, one must make a reservation first. Sonya used to be either a client or an employee of PNB, and I had heard of her garden from office mates. The cellphone number to her place though was given by my friend Rachel who does not work at PNB. I made the reservation using my cellphone while we were boarding the van. Being everybody's first time going there, I texted Sonya's to ask for directions ... and this is how you get there:
Going to sonya's garden ... From tagaytay rutonda head towards the direction of batangas. After passing Splendido and Royal Tagaytay Estate n Sunrise Hill - make a right on Buck Estate 2km
Sender:
Sonya's G
+639175329097
Sent:
21-Jan-2006
13:25:09
We realized that Sonya's is not in Tagaytay, it is actually in Alfonso, Cavite. Because of the distance from Taal Vista Hotel to Sonya's, the restaurant had enough time to prepare a table for our group of eight (the family plus the driver).
Sonya herself decided that my dad eats for free (maybe because we were a big group and he is a senior citizen in a wheel chair), so my sister only had to pay for seven people.
We stayed at Sonya's for about two hours ... that time included eating lunch and checking out the garden.
The garden was charming.
There are many benches and chairs tucked here and there for guests to sit in.
Some resting places were actually the size of a queen size bed.
Lunch at Sonya's consisted of bread and salad first, then pasta, then dessert. For both the salad and pasta, the dressings/sauces/toppings are served, giving the guest leeway on what combination s/he prefers. Fresh fruit juice was served with the meal, and tarragon tea was served with dessert.
Every guest at Sonya's gets to eat the same stuff. The only choice is whether to order roasted chicken or not. It seems that the idea was Sonya's is a house always open to guests ... and guests can only eat what the host has prepared to serve. To add to the informal atmosphere, the china are never matched... which actually takes some planning if they want to make sure that no china used by any one guest is matched.
While waiting for the older folk to finish lunch, my brother, niece and I took a fancy to the comfort rooms. They are unisex restrooms and the one near our table was rather large.
Above is the sitting room inside the restroom.
My niece and I checked out nearby Sonya's Country Bed and Breakfast. It's two or three cottages where guests can sleep. The garden was also pretty inside and with the cottages and the garden, the effect was European. We decided that the others should see this, but when we came back with my sister and brother in tow, the gate was closed.
Since we liked the bread and the pesto spread, we bought some from Sonya's bakery before leaving.
Sonya's accepts credit card payments by the way.
