Sonya’s Garden

A lot of friends have been recommending Sonya’s Garden so I finally decided to take the long trip to Tagaytay together with my girlfriend, Mich, and my younger sister, Faith. It was a rather long drive especially since the South Luzon Expressway is still kinda messed up due to all the construction work being done. I was really hoping that the food, location, and over-all dining experience would make up for the drive and the cost of the gas and the food.

QUICKIE FACT SHEET
Name: Sonya’s Garden
Location: Tagaytay City
Type: Fresh Salads and Pasta
Price Range (per dish): P610 for set menu

Find out how Sonya’s Garden fared against yours truly after the jump.

When we finally reached Sonya’s Garden, it honestly felt like we were no longer in Tagaytay. The sun was a bit hotter than usual and the place is actually waaaaay past the Bayan and after Antonio’s. It’s actually near the border of Batangas already. After we parked and went it, we were led to the actual restaurant by one of the receptionists and seated in a table. This is the first part of this trip that I didn’t like. You’d think a waiter would come and give you a menu but apparently at Sonya’s all they serve is a set meal. We waited for more than 10 minutes before a waiter came by and asked us if we wanted to start with salads. Advice to the management – please include in your service chain to inform your customers on what to expect. Not everyone is a regular.

Okay, on to the food review. After 5 more minutes of waiting, the waiter came and served us Dalandan juice. I know that this may sound a bit exaggerated by OMGWTFBBQ this is the best Dalandan juice I have ever tasted in my life. LOL. I can honestly down gallons of that drink (and end up sick) and be happy. The juice is fresh, sweet, and the flavor just overwhelms the taste buds. After the juice, the waiter came in again with a huge platter and started to set the table with our first course, salad.

If there’s any word to describe the quality of food here at Sonya’s it would definitely be FRESH. I’m not a hot fan of greens but the salad looked so good that I had to taste it myself. As you can see with the picture, there’s a variety of things you can put on your salad. That’s actually the “dining experience” at Sonya’s – you make your own Salad / Pasta. I have to give it up to them at this part since the salad and the dressing really tasted okay. It didn’t blow me away but at least I felt an urge to eat it.

After the salad, the waiter came in again, took the bowl of greens away, and set down a basket of fresh bread and various spices and ingredients that you could use for your own sandwich. Except for the anchovies and the white cheese, nothing really stood out. The bread was… well… okay. It was fresh and chewy but come on, at the end of the day it’s just bread with “palaman”. At this point I was already asking myself why I paid more than 600 bucks per plate for this place. I was informed that the next dish would be the main course – pasta. It’s a do-it-yourself spaghetti that comes with several sauces, spices, and toppings.

You have a pick of two main sauces – chicken cream or your usual tomato paste. I was able to try both and it was okay. Nothing spectacular, but not bad either. The main viand here would be the fried Salmon. I was also a bit disappointed since they overcooked the Salmon. From what I remember, Salmon isn’t supposed to be crunchy right? And the oil pretty much drowned out the taste of the fish. Man… at this point I was really starting to think of other restaurants that I could have used my money on. P600+ is already a buffet for Brazil Brazil, Saisaki, or even Tong Yang. Up next, dessert.

It’s a good thing that they served dessert because that was the only redeeming part of the meal. Their chocolate cake is simply divine. My main problem with it though is that they give you such a small slice. It’s funny that the dishes I didn’t like the served in huge platters yet the ones I like came in small plates. Other than the cake, they also served tea and fried turon. Note that the turon was also overcooked and I had a hard time eating it.

SUMMARY

Rating Card
1 – Waste of money
2 – Satisfactory – just okay. Nothing special
3 – Wow, something to remember.
4 – OMGWTFBBQ I WANT MOREZZ PLZZ

FOOD QUALITY: 2
DISH PRICES VS QUALITY: 1
CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1
RESTAURANT CLEANLINESS: 3
RESTAURANT OVER-ALL RATING: 1.75

Call me a carnivorous dinosaur, but I really didn’t enjoy Sonya’s Garden. Combine the cost of the food plus the gas to go there and also don’t forget about the effort of actually driving all the way to Tagaytay City. All of that isn’t justified with the dining experience at Sonya’s. I love the fact that they serve really fresh food – in fact I saw waiters carrying baskets of greens picked from their gardens at the back. What’s killing the experience is that there’s no variety. This place would probably be heaven on earth for environmentalists and vegetarians but the average joe won’t probably appreciate it.

Note that I’m reviewing the restaurant here. I was thinking of trying their spa services but I decided not to since the dining experience didn’t live up to my expectations. For now that’s it. I’m not going back there for a long while for the food. If ever I do go there it will probably be to try the spa.