Antonio’s Lands on Miele Guide’s Top 20

Expect impeccable service and a world-class dining experience behind the wooden doors of Antonio’s.

The intimate, chef-owned fine dining establishment in Tagaytay City - Antonio’s - earned a spot in the newly-published Miele Guide 2008/2009 edition. The Miele Guide is touted as Asia’s first, independent restaurant guide. The best restaurants from 16 Asian countries undertook “four rounds of rigorous and transparent judging” by food critics and food lovers. Based on more than 75,000 public votes and three juried screenings, the guide listed and profiled 300-plus restaurants in its slim volume. Antonio’s secured the tenth spot in the guide’s Asia’s Top 20 list, joining select restaurants from Singapore and Hong Kong which claimed the most number of seats on the list.

An afternoon at Antonio’s wouldn’t be complete without a carafe of dalandan juice.

The Le Cordon Bleu Australia-educated, Ilonggo chef, Antonio “Tonyboy” Escalante, runs the restaurant kitchen. He also tends to his own garden which supplies the freshest greens and herbs for all of Antonio’s creations. Salads, duck-centered dishes like Duck Confit in Grand Marnier Beurre Blanc, and the dalandan juice, earned the nod of Miele Guide’s juries. Local patrons travel to Antonio’s not only for Escalante’s consistent, richly-flavored menu but also for the impeccable service and romantic ambience. The chef is known to visit each table to greet his customers and strike a conversation or two with regulars. And many a wedding proposal have been successfully pulled off inside its amorous walls. Renovations at Antonio’s were recently completed in October 2008.

Patrons in nearby tables always seem to be in animated conversations or in hushed preparation for a momentous occasion - like a wedding proposal!

The guide is named in honor of Miele, makers of German home appliances and the book’s official sponsor. Included in the initial panel of 84 food writers and restaurant critics were the Philippines’s own food critic Margaux Salcedo of Sunday Inquirer Magazine; Nana Ozaeta, F&B World editor in chief; chef and food columnist Ernest Reynoso Gala of the Philippine Star, and Jeffrey Valisno, senior reporter of BusinessWorld.

 

 

The Miele Guide 2008/2009 edition can be ordered online at http://mieleguide.com and will soon be available in all major bookstores.

Text by Jenny Orillos. Images by Cathy Paras-Lara.

Miele guide image provided by Ate Media.

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