Josephine’s in Tagaytay

When my brother, his girlfriend, and I went to Tagaytay some time ago, we stopped by Josephine’s for dinner, which is well-known in the area for its authentic, Filipino dishes.

I absolutely love crispy spinach. It’s basically large spinach leaves dipped in tempura batter and deep fried to crispy perfection~ Some restaurants serve this with thousand island sauce or mayonnaise, but I prefer eating it as it is.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this could be considered healthy since it is deep fried in oil. Even if you deep fry this in olive oil, there’s too much oil left that it’s just not healthy.

I forgot what my brother calls this creamy seafood soup, but I think it was bouillabaisse? It’s not bad, but it’s not the best that I had either. I’m not a huge fan of clams and shellfish, but the soup base was pretty good.

This may look like something from a horror movie, but it is one of my brother's favorite dishes. They're small, crispy fish that you can devour from head to tail without deboning. It’s ok too, but you really need to chew on these, because some of the fish bones, like the skull and spine, can be prickly. I forgot the fish’s name, but I believe it’s only found in Taal Lake.

Frankly, I think this taste better as a breakfast with rice and egg.

And now the big guns: Crispy Pata (or crispy pork leg). I don’t know what it was about that evening, but we were really ordering a lot of deep fried food.

Personally, I’d prefer crispy pork belly than the pork leg, but this does make my mouth water just looking at it. There are a lot of different sauces served with this dish, but I prefer soy sauce with kalamansi (a type of local lemon).

Finally, my brother's girlfriend's favorite, barbeque beef ribs. I was surprised how tender this was, and it was really tasty and delicious~ I wouldn’t mind ordering this again when we go back, but my must-have dish is still the crispy spinach.

Overall, not a bad place to eat when you’re in Tagaytay. The restaurant has a nice view of Taal Lake by their outdoor dining area, but it’s not exactly cheap. Their serving sizes are not too bad, so it would be best to dine with a group of people.

…in case you’re wondering how the three of us finished all this in one dinner? We didn’t. Like I said, we were starving that evening, so my brother and his girlfriend kinda ordered like mad, crazy people. It was amusing to watch, but not so much when I saw my share of the bill.