Cabanas Dine and Bar — Restaurant in Tagaytay

HIT AND MISS!!!

LOCATION. The place is on the ridge side of Tagaytay-Nasugbu Road. If you are coming from Calamba or Aguinaldo Highway before reaching the Tagaytay rotonda, you would have to drive more than a kilometer and make a u-turn heading back to until you almost drive back towards rotonda. There will be a tiny ally on your right shared by multiple dining restaurants set up on huts or planks along the ridge.

PARKING. Most of the open parking is reserved for another restaurant named Brewed Awakening. We had to move our car several times so park nearest the signage towards the dining area of Cabanas Dine and Bar. At most, they would have about 4-5 tight-fitting parking slots permission for lot for an area they no longer own.

COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS. A staff will ask you to log on their record book, take your temperature and have an alcohol in case you want to spray. No safety barriers on tables and they don't implement sitting wide apart to maintain social distance.

PET-FRIENDLY. We were allowed to bring our pet and asked to have him on diapers. Very reasonable. Glad we enjoyed family time with our fur fam. The pet friendliness did came quite extreme. A very pregnant stray cat was in the dining area, and at one point up on the seat reaching for food at the table.

FOOD AND PRICE. The bilao barbeque meals and some refreshing fruit platter would have been nice but both were unavailable so we just went for their best sellers pancit pusit, sizzling bulalo, sisig bagnet, laing bagnet, and 2 orders of rice. The sisig would have been a good beer match for its spiciness. The sizzling bulalo was flavorful but it was a shank cut near the joint, meaning it had so much bones and too less meat. The laing was bland perhaps cooked with powdered coconut milk, and the bagnet was like a flavorless crispy pork cut into strips for texture. The pancit pusit is okay but not the best we have tasted in the area. Their version was like a creative twist to the Korean chapchae since the pancit pusit's noodle base is the springy vermicelli noodles (sotanghon) and usual chapchae toppings of bell peppers, cabbage, carrots, onions, and even grated boiled egg. Unlike our usual pancit, this one was not served with calamansi. The rice servings were big -- we were told it was a serving for 2-3 persons. Since we dined as a family of 5 adults, we ordered 2 rice platters but we could hardly finish one platter. Price was reasonable. With just service water to down our meal, our food order of 2 rice platters, 1 sizzling bulalo, 1 laing bagnet, 1 sisig bagnet, and 1 pancit pusit cost almost P1800 (inclusive of service fee)

SERVICE. The ladies at the registration area and the one who took our orders were very professional and polite. We were initially seated at the secluded table near the rest room but we found it too warm as the polycarbonate roof made the seating area too warm. We were moved to the Al fresco dining hall near the entrance. The table assigned to us was near the speakers blasting loud music (we came at 9am on a weekend). We requested the female crew taking our order to lower to music volume so she could hear us as we order. She did as requested but a male staff complained. After a short while, the same male staff blasted the music back up then left the service area. We didn't want to spoil our time with the rude staff behavior so we just move further inside the hall near a non-working speaker where we won't be as bothered with the loud music. Since the table we transfered to was long, we sat one seat apart (a must for safety protocol!) but the another male staff pulled the half of the table while we are seated without any explanation nor expression of courtesy. All of this happened when our group of 5 and another diner of 2 persons were in the dining hall and there were about 7-8 more empty tables since we were there early in the day.

Never coming back...

We came here after seeing an IG post promoting it and it did NOT meet our expectation! The restaurant truly gives a nice view of the lake and the staff were pleasant however we encountered a lot of hiccups.

1st of all they have limited parking for their customers so we had to park behind their other customer. Other restaurants were kicking us out of their vacant spaces. We were surprised that Cabanas had the smallest one.

2nd issue is their unhygienic washroom. They don't have enough water to flush it seems the owner cannot invest in a water pump as water barely drips in their public restroom. I understand that public restrooms in a tourist spot can be messy but this is a business with a pricey menu plus service fee so at minimum they should atleast maintain their washrooms.

3rd, as it is our first time, we asked for their reccomendations and followed it. It was two surf and turf platter (around 2500 each) 1 lechon belly, and 2 bullalos. The time it took to prepare our food was long so I was disappointed with being served food with cold temperature. The serving sizes were said to be large but the crabs had thin meat, the lamb racks were dry and lacked seasoning, the bullalo beef was soft but soup could have been better. The skin of lechon belly was tough to chew and the cuts had huge portion of fat and barely any meat.

4th, they were blasting a Bon Jovi playlist at 11am lunch time??? It didnt suit the mood at all.

The view of taal was nice. They were kind to take our photos.

Overall, 2 out of 5. We had to compensate the experience by having another...

Waited for an hour from 7:38pm to 8:35pm for our food! Only ordered 1 dish and rice for my kid who fell asleep on the table hungry! Our food never came despite 3 follow ups. After 45 mins of waiting, we noticed they've been serving the last 2 groups that came in with big orders! We were seated in front of their bar coz there wasn't any cozy available table when we walked in and my son's nanny was chilling. Told them what we noticed which they couldn't deny coz the served tables were just a few meters away. Told them if they can't serve in 5 mins to cancel our order and I'll just pay the bill. It took them another 10 mins and another ff up from us. Then, they were insisting the food will be cooked in a few. Which means it took them 1 hr to cook sizzling bulalo??! Told them to cancel it and for my drink to be transferred to a take out cup then after 5 mins the waiter came back and said they don't have a cover for the cup! Told them to keep it! I can't believe that people can starve a kid to sleep for bigger profits during Christmas season! Napaka heartless and inconsiderate po ninyo. Nakita na ng staff ninyo that my son was patiently waiting for his food, you still denied to really work on our order. One of your waiters even lied that we were just waiting our turn. When in fact, the other waiter told us our food was about to get cooked palang after more than 45...