Discovery Country Suites, Pontefino and Firelake Grill

Last summer we hied off to Pontefino. I had read so many articles on it in the papers and was very curious. A friend warned me there really was nothing to do there but I wanted to see for myself.

The drive to Batangas was uneventful. Finding Pontefino was a breeze. It looked very nice visually and it was: a not too big hotel but very comfortable. It was summer so leaving the room to go to the billiards place meant enduring some amount of heat. The highlight of that outing, though, was not the food nor the hotel, but meeting my husband's student by accident. He was on field work and had checked in there with his people. He joined us when we called him over after we realized it was he on the next table and we had a really long and interesting talk. He told us about Discovery Country Suites in Tagaytay and said it was worth a visit, but expensive. The bedrooms, he said, were big enough to conduct a meeting in. Even the bathroom, he said was huge. Plus he mentioned that ... never mind, let me tell you of our experience.

So a few weeks after that chance meeting with Edward, we booked ourselves in Discovery Country Suites. I think it cost over P10,000 for one night but had some freebies so... Prior to Country Suites we had lunch at Firelake Grill in Cliffhouse. We reserved a table there and as we were too early (the place hadn't opened yet), we took in the wonderful view of Taal Volcano and Taal Lake which it offered. We were so near to the lake, it seemed, that I could smell something marine-like, okay, fishy. But that didn't bother me as the smell wasn't overpowering. Then the restaurant opened.

I can't recall now what we ordered but the food was okay and efforts were made to make them look good as well. I didn't like the dessert too much, I felt it wasn't sweet enough. But my husband who is diabetic was happy with the dessert (coconut-based). The highlight of this trip was meeting the chef, Paul Huang, who also owns the place. He had Crocs on like Mario Batali and they were orange just like Mario's. He was very nice so we've been telling friends to visit the place.

Now on to Discovery Country Suites. As promised, the room we got was big: the Nantucket, I think. There are only 7 themed rooms in the Suites and Nantucket was accessible to me and big enough. Very nice actually, very tastefully decorated. Light blue walls, a huge bed, a huge TV set. And L'Occitaine products: shampoo, bath gel, lotion. Just outside our room was a shelf with DVDs (or were they VCDs)of a few movies. (yes each room had a DVD player) And books as well that one could borrow. At around six, we went to the balcony to partake of the cocktails of various cold cuts and cheeses. Shortly after we had dinner. And just before 9 p.m., there was a knock on our door: we were being served milk and cookies. Very British actually. Yes, I read in one book that's how the British end their day (night?).

We left Discovery Country Suites before lunch as there was nothing to do there really. But somehow, it left us content and with beautiful memories of a beautiful place.