Leslie's Restaurant

Had a little get together with my college friends last December at Tagaytay. After a night of fun and laughter, we parted ways as we head back to Manila. I was with Mark and Ian and we decided to have lunch on our way home, and Leslie's Restaurant topped our list.

There were already a lot of diners when we arrived but we were still lucky to get a seat at the far end of the restaurant, overlooking the Taal Volcano and Taal Lake.

I was with two boys, with huge appetites, who both agreed on having Crispy Pata and Bulalo for lunch. So to balance out our meal, I decided to order Chopsuey. As usual, because of the number of diners, it took a while for our orders to be served. Diners may enjoy the view and have their photos taken while waiting for their orders. But since it was lunch time, the sun was scorching hot so we decided to just stay put. Here are our photos while patiently waiting for our food. :p

As soon as the food arrived, I took a quick shot of them and the boys started to dig in.

Ian, Kriska, and Mark

This Crispy Pata was definitely a hit! Dip it in the soy sauce-vinegar-onion mixture and flavors will definitely burst in your mouth as you chew. With golden brown skin that's so crispy and meat that's very tender and flavorful, who could resist this mouth watering dish?

Crispy Pata - Php 399.00

Another hit was their Bulalo. There are a lot of restaurants in Tagaytay which offer Bulalo, and I must say that Leslie's offers one of the best tasting Bulalo! The veggies were cooked just right, not too soggy, and the beef chunks were very tender. The hot soup perked up our tummies with the distinct taste from the beef and sweet corn. We also loved that the soup was refillable! :D

Bulalo - Php 450.00

To balance out our meal, we also got an order of the Chopsuey. I love that the veggies were also not too soggy and still maintained that crunch. There was also a generous amount of squid, shrimps, and mushrooms on the dish.

Seafood Chopsuey - Php 195.00

It's as if I just can't get enough of Leslie's that I went there just a couple of weeks after my last, this time with my high school best friends. Most of them just actually flew back from abroad and were so much craving for Filipino food, and so Leslie's was a perfect place to satisfy their cravings.

We came to Leslie's for late dinner at around 10pm but there were still a lot of diners. We still had to wait for a few minutes since there were already a bunch of people in the waiting list.

The balik-bayans took charge of the orders, so I'm sure you already knew what we had. :p Just like with my last visit, Cripy Pata and Bulalo were also present on our table, plus an order of the Crispy Pork Sisig. Good thing that we had a lot of catching up to do so we didn't mind the serving time although we had to follow up our orders a couple of times.

As always, the Crispy Pata and Bulalo were a hit during our dinner. There were more pork skins on our Crispy Pata plate which we all enjoyed!

Crispy Pata - Php 399.00

The breeze in Tagaytay was very cold that our Bulalo soup easily got cold too. It was as good as before, although the beef chunks were a little tough that time. But we were still thankful for the refillable soup! :p

Bulalo - Php 450.00

We were supposed to get a vegetable dish, but since there were already some veggies in the Bulalo (as what the balik-bayans insisted), we did away with being healthy and got an order of the Crispy Pork Sisig. This dish was equally delicious! I loved that it wasn't too oily. The crispy pork skin and chunky onions added texture to the dish.

Crispy Pork Sisig - Php 250.00

Chrissi, Arriane, Jonathan, Kriska, and Majoy :)

Whenever I go out of town, I make sure to dine, as much as possible, in restaurants which of course cannot be found in Manila. I've already been to Tagaytay countless of times with different sets of people, but I must admit that if there's one place that I'd love to keep coming back to because of their good food and great ambience, it's Leslie's Restaurant. I just hope they would improve more on their service, maybe add more waiting staff to attend to customers, since their place is always packed with diners. :)

Overall, I can say that I enjoyed both of my dining experiences at Leslie's. Most of the time, it's really not about where you're dining at and what you're having, but it's who you're dining with. :)

LESLIE'S RESTAURANT, Tagaytay