Sand Under My Feet: Pamana: A Filipino Heirloom Restaurant

Every time we go up to Tagaytay and pass by Aguinaldo Highway we always notice a lot of parked cars in front of Pamana, especially on weekends and holidays. There was once a time that we tried eating there but we were told that the tables were already reserved until around after lunch time; we didn’t know that it was by reservation so we looked for another place to dine instead. But Pamana is always jampacked which says something about this restaurant, it is either the food is really good or there’s just an prolonged ongoing hype. Although this place has been operating for quite some time now so the former may have been the reason why it’s hard to get a table there if you didn’t call to reserve for one.

So when we made a quick getaway to Tagaytay one Monday in June this year, we decided to go there and see if we can finally try it out. And since it was a Monday, it is expected that not many people is in Tagaytay for a vacay, it wasn’t a holiday either. This time around we were lucky that it was almost like we have Pamana all to ourselves (but it wasn’t the case, there was another family dining there).Pamana belongs to the group of restaurants from the same creators of the well-known Barrio Fiesta that is the home of the best crispy pata and kare-kare in the Philippines. It is a Filipino restaurant that serves timeless heirloom recipes handed down from generation to generation, collected by the owner Happy Ongpauco from friends, families, family friends, house helps etc.

The establishment’s structure looks modern on the outside but once you step inside, it is like a time warp back in time. Every nook in Pamana screams vintage; it was a mix of local Filipino and Western vintage and quirky decorations. Which as you all already know, I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff and I was totally digging everything my eyes laid on.

The second floor is the main dining hall and mixed matched furniture and decors gives the area a very homey and family feel. It might remind you of your ancestral house in some province and as for me, it reminded me of our then house in Pasig, where we have a comedor with a Narra long table and chairs and our table tops were adorned by crochet table runners and table cloths created by grandmother. The place really made me nostalgic and missed my grandmother especially on how she decorated that house.

This stairway is probably the most photographed area of the restaurant, because the wall is full of photographs of people dear to the family who owns Pamana. I really find this a pretty cool idea to display photos and that chandelier is so elegant, do you agree?

We decided to seat at one of the tables on the balcony facing the Taal lake and volcano so that we can enjoy the cool Tagaytay breeze as we savor our late lunch.

Pamana's menu consists of pages and pages of choices and everything looks and (probably) tastes good too. But we settled to order Binagoongang Bagnet and Pampanga's Sizzling Sisig & Aligue.

Binagoongang Bagnet is Pamana's Bagnet sauteed in Happy Ongpauco's Tita Monchie Biazon's bagoong. A secret recipe of their family that was only shared to Happy. The bagnet was super good! The skin of the pork was crispy yet the meat was tender. The bagoong that came with it is probably one of the bests we've ever tasted, it had the right taste of saltiness and didn't have the stench or taste of fish.

Pampanga's Sizzling Sisig & Aligue. If you loved the sisig along Pampanga 'riles', you haven't tried this one yet. Served sizzling hot with ginisang aligue! (description directly copied from the menu). It is Happy Ongpauco's hubby's favorite. Although we didn't mix the aligue (crab fat) with the sisig but instead with our rice. The sisig was good, a different version of what we usually have from other restaurants. The parts of the pork of this one wasn't super crispy, which I find better.

We ordered plain rice with these viands and just asked for house water. We was surprised of the taste of the water that we couldn't helped but ask the waiter what was in it and he disclosed that it had pandan.

By the way, there are also dining areas on the ground and roof deck, but it is in the second floor that most people love to reserve a table at, well probably because it's much cozier there. The comfort room also shared the same interior design just like the rest of the restaurant too!

ground floor

roof deck

comfort room

There is also a mini souvenir shop at the ground floor that sells knick-knacks and food items.

The prices of Pamana's food are very reasonable. We will probably bring with us more people the next time we visit so we can try more from their menu. The two dishes that we ordered were already great and I bet the rest will also deliver.

We made another visit to Pamana recently and ordered the following:

Pandan-luya Iced Tea

Nilagang Bulalo - look at the size of that thing!

Boneless Bangus - inihaw or niluto sa tustadong bawang

Pamana Choriburger Rice

-inspired by Boracay's famous Choriburger, now in Pamana's fried rice version. A must try.

Ribeye Bistek Salpicao

-Ribeye steak marinated in soy and lemon then cooked the Salpicao way.

Tinuktok

- minced coconut meat, shrimp, and spices wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in coconut milk. Lolo Eugenio's Pamana to us.

And the bill was served in this cute miniature vintage typewriter!

P.S. I would like to mention that Pamana has a second branch in Boracay which is in Station 1 near Astoria Boracay (where we stayed), we saw it the last time we were in Boracay but wasn't able to try it. Their small space in Boracay had the same interior design like the one Tagaytay which I find pretty cool!