I had dinner two weeks ago with the high school girlfriend at the new Tierra Cafe. It's this new restaurant that serves theTierra Alta clubhouse, the new residential resort located 15 minutes from where I live. I made a short
post about their now famous lighthouse
here. The developers have been busy lately, adding more improvements such as the
swimming pool, the clubhouse and the restaurant. All are done with a
Greek theme in mind, hence the white buildings. During the day, the
entire place easily reminds me of Mariduque's Bella Roca. We were scheduled for a 7pm
dinner, however, so there wasn't that much to see except the pavilion
awash in lights, and the entrance to the restaurant to the left when we
arrived. The restaurant is quite small, but it is cleverly divided into a
booth area on the left and the tables on the right. A door at the
opposite side of the entrance leads outside to a pathway that leads to
the lighthouse. There's a sport's bar outside, where guests can play
pool.
The night was spent catching up. It was a windy Saturday and a three-day cold almost persuaded me not to come. But I'm glad I did. The food was delicious, and it felt good eating somewhere a little bit far from the center of the city.
Food
I loved my yellow fin papillote. It made a grand entrance, since the waitress first served me with the orange chicken. The quick trip to the kitchen solved the problem. My papillote came in two plates, one with the fish wrapped in tin foil, still piping hot, and my cup of rice with its side of colorful fresh vegetable garnish. The others had baked chicken l'orange, while some had the baby back ribs, which according to Darwiza was pretty popular. The back ribs were exceptionally soft and buttery, so soft that you could cut through the meat with a spoon. Serlyn had the honey glazed chicken pork belly. All looked sumptious, and the presentation was professionally done. Everything is affordable by Dumaguete standards. If you are used to eating at any of the restaurants that line the Boulevard, you will feel right at home with the prices here.
They had a pretty good team of kitchen staff, since our food came just minutes after we arrived. Of course, I think it helped that Darwiza made reservations for us ahead of time, so for those who want to go in and sit down to your meals a few minutes after arriving, phoning in ahead of time would be the way to go.
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| Yellow Fin Tuna Steak en Papillote
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| Baby Back Ribs
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| Honey Glazed Grilled Pork Belly
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| Baked Chicken L'Orange
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| House bread and the Mango Panacotta |
A short walk would be ideal if you just had dinner here. The air is so fresh, and there's a breeze that sweeps through the place and clears up the lungs. They reportedly have a problem with flies during the daytime, which is something that the management should work on, but thankfully we did not have any encounters with flies while having dinner.
The view from Tierra Alta is amazing, whether you are staying during the day or enjoying the place at night. We climbed up the lighthouse just to see how high up we were. From the lighthouse you can also see the new lagoon swimming pool which is bigger than most of the pools that I have seen around Dumaguete, and something which we still have to try in our next visit. I didn't think that they allowed non-residents to use the pool but apparently all you need is P500 for a great daytime stay here, where you can swim and eat lunch before heading back out to the city.
