Chateau 1771, with Love

For the first time in twenty five years, Chateau 1771's executive chef, Vicky Rose Pacheco, introduces her top picks for lunch and dinner set menus for Valentine's Day: "a feast of light, fresh and festive for lunch while dinner features the rare French classics."

For lunch, worth the highlight is the watercress soup with lavash bread and its relieving, sophisticated texture. A natural super food, it’s heartwarming and oozing with revitalizing nutrients. While the main course, it will give you two options, but since grilling steak is a serious business at Chateau 1771, the seared U.S. beef tenderloin with blue cheese stuffing (P1, 300+) is a hefty reward for any meat lover. Made visually appetizing with grilled eggplant, zucchini, broccoli drizzled with roasted potatoes and fragrant roasted potatoes in olive oil, rosemary, and thyme, the 200 grams of pan seared beef laced with roasted garlic bacon sauce is brimming with juices and stuffing in every slice. If a version of this kind of flavor is what you’re rooting for but shying away from meat, go for the baked fish of the day (P1, 100+)—grilled and made tender with lemon, capers, thyme, and almonds. Judging from the risotto’s heavily-packed add-ons such as squid, shrimps made tasty in chicken and fish stock then topped with butter and parmigiano reggiano as a tasty finish, the risotto is the only fitting pair for a delicately cooked main course.

Dessert is as special as it features the melon’s juicy sweetness. Called the white cloud melon sabayon, it’s a refreshing dessert, lightly sweetened with poached meringue on whisked custard with melon and amaretto.

If planning for a romantic date, fork it out with a hot French dinner affair. Inventive and made from the freshest raw ingredients, Chateau 1771’s French-themed dinner focuses on the tasty yet uncomplicated classic dishes that are hard to find. For the soup, give the Swiss brown mushroom vol-au-vent with greens, edible flowers and pomegranate dressing a try. Delicately baked and in-house made, the French puff pastry round shell is filled with a creamy mixture smacked with garlic and thyme then deglazed with wine. With Swiss browns or the baby Portobello as the star in this soup, it results to an intriguing and heartwarming full-bodied taste.

Using a prime steak cut, the U.S. Angus bone-in rib steak with café de Paris butter (P2,600+), Duchess potatoes, and grilled ratatouille is every inch an irresistible meat from its cut to flavor. A ¾ inch thick slab of meat with the bone-in, it’s meant to be smothered with café de Paris butter spiced up with tarragon, rosemary, basil, and thyme with a spike of cognac.

If in the mood to try something exotic but not exactly like it, go for the French countryside comfort--the Rougie duck leg confit (P2, 400+). Another rare find, the duck meat is cured with salt, cooked in a special Dutch oven with the most-prized duck fat giving the flavor more depth and producing a velvety piece of meat. The result? A super tender meat that almost falls off the bones!

Good meal deserves a happy ending, so try the chocolate valrhona ganache tart with gorgonzola crème brulee on the side. Marrying the slightly salty flavor of Italian blue cheese and exuberant characteristics of chocolate valrhona plus the creamy and rich crème brulee, this dessert promises a palate-tickling cross between salty-sweet.

Chateau 1771 – Greenbelt 5 is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every Sunday to Thursday and 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 m.n. for Friday to Saturday. For reservations, banquets and catering services, please call 729-9760 to 61 or (0917) 8626467. Chateau 1771 is a member of the Chateau 1771 Group of Restaurants that include Sentro 1771 in Greenbelt 3, Sentro 1771 in Serendra, Bonifacio Global City and Café 1771 in El Pueblo Real de Manila, ADB Avenue cor. Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Tower Lounge and Steak Bar at One Tagaytay Place Hotel

Tower Lounge and Steak Bar is one of the two dining options (aside from Azalea the lobby restaurant and bar) located at the 3rd floor of the One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites in Barrio Sungay, Tagaytay City. We were treated to a scrumptious meal, which you can see below. Tower Lounge and Steak Bar is really known for its very delicious and tasty steaks, and signature drinks. They have a live band you can sing along to every Friday. The restaurant opens from 6pm to 1am daily. (Check out the menu here, and the bar list here)
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For starters, we were served a spicy Onion Soup. It was spicy, a little bit more than what's normally served, but I like it that way. I can taste the onions and some croutons with the soup, which is good, because I like to taste and feel my food. Then came the Salad, Tagaytay greens with some cucumber, tomatoes, cheese and croutons. The thousand island dressing was not for me. It would have been better with some sweet-spicy Asian dressing or Caesar, but everything else was fresh and perfect.


One of their bestsellers, is the rolled pizza. It's made of thin crust pie with the veggies and the mozzarella cheese rolled to a perfect bite. Don't forget to add their original sweet and spicy sauce which will make it taste even better. The star of the night was the steak, of course! I ordered a medium rib-eye steak, which exploded with satisfying flavor and taste, even without all those sauces (as some Steakhouses usually do, to infuse more flavor to their steaks, and make them more tasty). It's a must try when you visit the place! :)


Tower Lounge is in fact, also a bar, therefore it serves drinks. As a customary welcome drink, they serve you with a Bacardi infused concoction that will surely warm you up. You can also opt to try their "5 Tower of Power", one of the Tower Lounge signature drinks (photo below).


Another bestseller in their drinks selection is the "Green Minded," selling at Php 380 per pitcher. It's one of the alternative drinks I would recommend if you are not into the hard drinks. It is good for unwinding with a group of friends.


They also have delicious desserts. We were given an option if we wanted the Tiramisu or fried ice cream in tempura batter. I love how rich the Tiramisu was, and the fried Tempura Ice Cream won me over. :)


Tower Lounge and Steak Bar is an idyllic place to chill out with friends and have dinner not just because of its great food and drinks, but also because of the atmosphere and ambiance of the alfresco dining area at night. I am certain that you will love the place.

You might also like to visit:
Creating memories at One Tagaytay Place
Enjoying Tagaytay at One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites