In the past month, much has been said about the nuances when a restaurant calls itself 'pet-friendly-'.  If you are not chronically online and may not be familiar with where this issue stems from, just look for 'Balay Dako Issue' on Facebook and you will pretty much have a sense of what's happened. But in summary, Balay Dako, one of the well-known restaurants in Tagaytay labels their themselves as 'pet-friendly' except when it comes to Aspins (or local dogs aka Asong Pinoys as they're coloquially known). There was a whole discussion saying the Aspin was considered a large dog and therefore not allowed to come in, but at most he was medium, and to add to that--Labradors and Golden retrievers were actually allowed. So at the end of the day, it came to the discussion of discriminating between dogs with breeds and Aspins which the restaurant received heavvy flak about. So there's the downlow, but today I wanted to focus on the opposite and go with a restaurant that is completely the opposite--Steak To One PH. 

I haven't blogged in a while and for me to come on here and vouch for this restaurant may not mean anything to you, but it means a lot to me. The Philippines is such a horrible place for strays and dogs in general--for some reason we have a general disregard for snything that's not human. Actually with the recent drug war, you can also say a lot of people in here have even less regard for human life but that's a topic for another time. So when I see restaursnts like Steak To One, I would do my part and spread the word about the business.

Majority of restaurants in Maginhawa are not as spacious as regular retaurants given the density of establishments in the area and this is no different, however they have a loft which makes it roomier. If you have your furbaby with you upon entrance, they just ask that you make sure they're in a diaper. If the place is not busy, you can get seated immediately but we were a party of 8 so we had to wait for about 9-10mins before we got seated. They also have a small nook dedicated to their advocacy of supporting strays, rescuing abandoned dogs etc. You can buy stickers and other pet products to support the strays they're taking care of at the moment. 

During our visit, the local steaks were all not availablle so it was a pretty limited menu for us. Majority of us got the USDA Choice Ribeye (P699.00) and you can have your choice of sides and gravy. Some sids are premium which emans you have to add an extra P50, and for the premium gravy you have to add an extra P80. I also got an extra bone marrow (P120.00) on the side which I think is priced very reasonably. The other only steal option we tried was the Filet Mignon (P650.00) which my sister had with creamy pesto pasta and a side of bone marrow as well. For the parentals we ordered Wagyu cubes salpicao (P290.00), Double Fried Chicken Tenders (P350.00), Truffle Parmesan Fries (P250.00), Mozarella Sticks (P150.00) and Chicken Skin (P145.00). For the size, the steaks were reasonably priced although the quality could've been more consistent. I always have my steak medium rare and the piece that I got had too much "litid". It took me a while to chew on some pieces because if it's medium rare you can imagine what the the texture would be like. 

However, the highlight of our visit was the pet menu. It's not extensive but what a treat to have a menu specifically for our furbabies, am I right? We got Chewy a Pawrger Steak (P250.00)--it had rice, mixed veggies and ground beef patty, everything without seasoning so really perfect for our furbabies! My beagle is extremely food driven and we don't feed her rice, but once in a while is okay I think. She thoroughly enjoyed the meal and finished every bit of it. The human food wasn't the best but would I come back? DEFINITELY. I know bringing pets into restaurants can be annoying to some people, but having a place inclusive to is is rare so I;m keeping this gem!

Wolfgang seems to have been a buzzword since 2023 ever since people started finding out how costly it is to dine at this steakhouse. Prior to my visit, I had known my sister went here before and racked up a bill of P28k+. So coming in, I already had an idea what the price point would look like and what food I would order. I didn't want to go on in blind and emd up with a bill higher than what I could afford. 

Compared to places where we would usually dine as a family, we were celebrating my sister's birthday so we thought a little lavish meal would be okay. She's been requesting to go back, but this time with us. Enough of the backstory and let's get into the food. 

From when we got to the door to when we got seated, we were assisted by their wait staff who also immediately offered a place for my bags and other belongings. It was a basket with woven cloth and my bag felt like royalty actually having a place to be put in given I've always had to just strap it on my chair when I dine out. I noticed and fancied this detail as it's the first time to have such attention be given to my bag. 

Will I go back? As mentioned, if it's under the circumstances of hosting friends, sure. But would I include it in the list of restaurants on my rotation? I think I've had better steak for that price. I wouldn't discourage anyone in trying it though, if purely from an experience standpoint. Just plan out your meals ahead of time if you're on a budget so you won't get any bill shock as everything in totality would still include taxes plus service charge. It was still a nice event for the family so all in all, we had a good time. Check out more of our dining experience below. 'Til next time!

 It's been a extremely tedious to try and blog while vlogging a the same time. There's a difgferent art to writing and telling stories through a written platform, but lately with all that's happening--socially. politically--doing my content through video really has been the best way to go. But when it comes to getting all the information out there, blogging is still the way to go. 

If you're on Tiktok, you probably have been seeing the same videos as me and I've been seeing a lot of yacht cruise videos! First saw it on Kathryn Bernardo's birthday photos and I did a couple of inquiries after but thought it was too expensive. Thankfully duting the time we decided to visit, we were celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday so we kind of had a reason to splurge a bit. 

For the rentals, a minimum of a 2-hour booking is required and a one-time terminal/port fee of P1,500. There are a lot of yachts to choose from but specifically for us, we got the La Banca yacht which is P6,000/hour. There are also specific island destinations you can visit based on the duration fo the package you're selecting. 

The rental doesn't include food so we brought our own snacks and water but the good thing is, there's no corkage fee so bring in as much as you can consume. They also have partner restaurants just in case you don't want to bring it yourselves. You can order from the restaurant and have it delivered to the yacht directly before you leave. 

Time is very strict for the booking because they do make about 5-6 trips a day. If you're late, time already starts running even if you're not there. During the trip, you can do fishing, swimming and snorkeling once you arrive the island destination. Pick-up and drop-off is at the Subic Bay Yacht Club. 

There were only 11 of us and the yacht capacity was 20pax. Even fi there were 20 of us, it would still be super spacious. It also has a full kitchen that includes a functioning stove, microwave, water heater and a refrigerator. It has one room with a huge bed that can comfortably fit 5 people and it has it's own toilet and bath. There's also another standalone toilet and bath just beside the bedroom. 

As mentioned, you can fish, swim and snorkel. If you're fishing, you have to brign your own equipment and bait. Same goes for snorkeling, you have to bring your own goggles. For our destination we went to Grande Island and the water was crystal clear! There weren't a lot of fishes when we were swimming but we saw a couple when we were about to leave so not sure if it's because we're too early lol. Our schedule was 7AM - 10AM, we didn't want it to be so humid because we had kids with us. 

Personally swimming around while eating and drinking was a really fun event. My niece and nephew just learned how to swim and we were teaching them to kind of take it on their own at sea--and they did have a lot of fun--I did too. 

If you don't know yet, I moved to the province in 2020 to better align my life with how I actually want to live. That province is Malolos, Bulacan and as much as I love living here because we don't get as much pollution, we have a bigger space and we just overall have better quality of life in here--one slight inconvenience is that we don't have as much choices when it comes to restaurants compared to Manila. One of the things I constantly look out for would be Japanese restaurants as a person who has a slight obsession with sashimi--Salmon to be specific. 

And while there are a couple of places I usually order from, can say the quality is a tad mediocre and not really something worthy of my happy dance. Nonetheless, they satisfy my cravings so I'm not complaining. HOWEVER, and that's a big however, I discovered a new Japanese place that's not really in Malolos but pretty close and I'm so excited to share it with you. As a probinsya girl (now), who doesn't have a lot of access to GREAT sashimi, this excites me okayyy. Haha

Mt Fuji Japanese restaurant is located in Guiguinto along T12 Polo land. The place is huuuuuge. I've been in the area before because beside it is a warehouse of repossessed cars where my husband and I did our bidding. Anyway, the place is extremely spacious. They have indoor and al fresco dining available and they have private function rooms if you're a big group who want some privacy. The wait staff were very friendly and they know their food. The wait time upon ordering is relatively fast given the number of people--it was quite impressive to be honest. 

Okay y'all know I'm a sashimi addict and this is always the highlight of my visit in all Japanese restaurants. I ordered the Sashimi Moriawase which is like a sashimi buffet containing 5 different types of Sashimi. The plate had Tuna, Salmon, Octopus, Lapu-lapu and Scallops. I think it was supposed to have shrimp but it wasn't available so they swapped the shrimp with scallops instead. It was my first time having scallops sashimi and holy cow, it was DIVINE. It almost dethroned my Salmon but it isn't quite comparable. They both have different flavor profiles but equally excellent in taste. 

Overall, it was an amazing experience. I'm so glad we've leveled up the choices of sushi and sashimi we have here in the ~province~. At the moment I get delivery from my usual sushi places about 2x a week but now, I think I see myself here at Mt Fuji on a daily basis.  

A couple of weeks back as restrictions were lifted, we decided to take a break from our WFH situation and spend a nice and quiet weekend in Tagaytay. We really didn't book/reserve anything in advance aside from our AirBnb because we weren't sure about restrictions so when it came down to where we had to eat, we were doomed. We went to the usuals--Balay Dako, Antonio's but both were booked to the brim. We headed to Sonya's because the place still comes highly recommended online. I'm pretty sure their menu had changed because we weren't as satisfied with the food as we were before. I believe it's their pandemic menu, but the service was terrible :( We left the place feeling full but not satisfied. 

As we were driving home, we thought we'd have coffee. I searched googled and most of the recommended places were again more of the popular ones. But this cafe came up in one of the blogs I was reading. It was a little far from the usual busy district so we thought, hey why not. We're so glad we did because this place is a dream!