Bawai, The Best Home Made Vietnamese I've Ever Tasted

Banh da Lon (P20). Vietnamese sapin sapin, made of pandan and monggo beans.

Vietnam is a hot tourist place these days because of its cultural sights, cheap shopping places and interesting Vietnamese cuisine. However, I've never tasted Vietnamese cuisine similar to the one you enjoy in Vietnam. I'm glad that Yong and Virgilio Tatlonghari decided to open their lovely home for weekend dining. Bawai is a 4 month old Tagaytay Vietnamese restaurant which serves close to authentic home cooked Vietnamese food. Yong, called Bawai (grandma in Vietnamese), is the person behind this refreshing new restaurant.

I would highly recommend the fresh spring roll and just about anything with the special sweet patis sauce. Also, they don't get a lot of guest lately so they will entertain you as their own guest. You need to reserve and order in advance since each meal is cooked by Bawai herself. I do hope it remains that way, and the food don't get commercialized like most Vietnamese restaurants in Manila. The secret to Bawai's food is authentic imported ingredients from Vietnam sent by Bawai's friends and relatives.

So next time you are in Tagaytay, be sure to check out this hidden Vietnamese treasure..

We got oriented with the Vietnamese way of calling grandma and grandpa. It is similar to the respect given by the Chinese.

If the grandpa and grandma belongs to the wife side, the grandkids would call them Ba Noi and Ba Wai respectively. If they belong to the husband side, the grandkids would call them Ong Noi and Ong Wai respectively. Don't be surprised if Bawai's accent is kinda Visayan and she has a funny way of speaking Tagalog. She migrated to the Philippines in 1972 and recently they decided to retire in Tagaytay.

Bawai --- Thanks so much for the wonderful meal!!!

Related Posts:
Cha Gio Vietnamese - Old Time Favorite

Driving Directions to the Hidden Vietnamese Restaurant
Coming from the Tagaytay Rotunda, turn left. Drive along the national road and turn left into the Lagusan Drive. This road is before the road going down to Sta. Rosa. When you are in the Lagusan just go straight and you should see Dominican house of Prayer on your right, Shin International School on your right, Toscana Farms on your left, and the Dona Leoncia Country Retirement homes on your right. After Dona Leoncia, turn right on the road with a sign that says Purok 5 (see intersection above). You should see Bawai on your left.

You should see Bawai on your left. The dining area is in the second floor and if you are the only guest, you can park inside the garage.

Above is the dining and sala area of the house. Please reserve and order in advance (see menu below). I just remembered, Sonya's just started with a small dining space like this, until she was able to buy the nearby lots.

Bawai's Main Menu / Entrees
Bawai's Drink Menu
Breakfast and Merienda Menu
Side Order and Desserts -- The Best!!

Goi Cuon (P125) Vietnamese Fresh Lumpia - fresh noodles, shrimp, pork and veggies wrapped in Vietnamese rice paper, served with special sauce (3pcs. per order).

I love the fact that the shrimp seems to be bursting out of the lumpia skin. This is my wife's choice every time we go to a Vietnamese restaurant because she feels this is one healthy dish. Highly Recommended. We love the sweet peanut sauce that comes with this!

Cha Gio (P120). Crispy pork spring rolls, served with fresh veggies and special fish sauce (5pcs. per order)

We love this fried spring roll instantly, never mind that it is fried! =) This is way better than Cha Gio's spring roll. By the way, we love the special fish sauce that came with it, it was enough for me to really soak my spring roll into this and even with the cucumber and the greens! Yummy sweet patis sauce! Can't stop asking for more.

Pho Bo (P175) Rice Noodles & thinly sliced beef cooked in hot beef broth, topped with cilantro, spring onions and scallion.

Devour this while hot because you'll know why if you don't. The soup itself is already tasty so adding the lemon will make it a little zestier and the dark brown sauce and red sauce (we forgot to ask what it was) more tastier. There was a generous serving of beef slices was all over the soup. However, they could improve on the quality of beef that they use.

Bung Bo Xao (P160) Rice noodles (dry) topped with sauteed beef, pickled carrots, radish and roasted peanuts. Served with fresh veggies and special sauce.

This is the actual look of the dry noodles topped with beef which you cannot see from the bowl above. Again, we made use of the special fish sauce to put taste on the rice noodles. I just loved the sauce. What would happen if they run out of this special sweet fish sauce? The beef was kinda hard still..

Ca phe sua da (P55) Vietnamese iced coffee with milk. This is a must try if you are into cold coffee drinks!

This is one interesting comment in Bawai's Guestbook....

Aidan standing on a Vietnamese rocking chair with the whistle given by Ba Noi. Thanks so much for this! The garden is still not yet developed and I won't be surprised if one of these days we would see a nice landscape garden here.

Bawai's Vietnamese Kusina
Yong Tatlonghari, Bawai
Brgy. Bukal, Silang, Cavite
Cell Nos. +63927 697 0445, +63 915- 403 5155

Driving Directions to the Hidden Vietnamese Restaurant
Coming from the Tagaytay Rotunda, turn left. Drive along the national road and turn left into the Lagusan Drive. This road is before the road going down to Sta. Rosa. When you are in the Lagusan just go straight and you should see Dominican house of Prayer on your right, Shin International School on your right, Toscana Farms on your left, and the Dona Leoncia Country Retirement homes on your right. After Dona Leoncia, turn right on the road with a sign that says Purok 5 (see intersection above). You should see Bawai on your left.

Cha Gio Vietnamese - Old Time Favorite

Manila has a lot of good restaurants and you need to discover them. I admit, it is sometimes easy to go to the many Jollibee and Mcdonald's out there, specially when these are the restaurants that have a good name recall from the kids. Cha Gio (pronounced as Cha-yo) vietnamese restaurant is one of those special quaint hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Malate. Cha Gio refers to the popular Vietnamese spring rolls. It opened in 2003, in its original store located near the Diamond hotel, along J. Quintos St. Carlos Celdran was the one who introduced me to its delicious pho-noodle dishes and I made a mental note to blog about Cha Gio.

They tried to project an aura that they are a cafe rather than the noodle house so the pho dishes assortment were toned down. But they cannot readily compete with the nice figaro cafe along that street, so I would have thought that they should market themselves as an authentic vietnamese noodle house instead. This is where you can try a vietnamese coffee called ca phe su which is a Vietnamese brewed coffee dripped from a perculator mixed with condensed milk. They carry a vietnamese brand of coffee called, Trung Nguyen. Have anyone tried this coffee?

I like restaurants that has a story and Cha Gio gives you a glimpse of Leilani Valido-Castillo's family life in Laos. In full blown sepia photos, you'll see what their home is like in Laos. Lani's family had to escape from the war and migrate to Manila in 1977. They are proud of their heritage and you can see the photos of Lani's mom, Ba Lan (vietnamese from Hanoi); Lani's dad, Pert Valido (Filipino who worked for the Philippine Navy); and Lani's grandma, Ba Thao who is the source of their vietnamese cooking skills.

The photo above is a fitting tribute to Lani's grand mother, Ba Thao who used to serve French troops at a food stall and later sold French Breads at a bakery. Her mother, cooked and sold food in Hanoi and served in the US Base where she honed her skills in western cooking style. Lani was born in Laos as Nguyen Thuy Thang after the family moved out of Vietnam in 1976.


We were waiting for Rache who has a french cooking class demo at the Manila Diamond Hotel so we just had our photo shoot with Aidan. Check out the Menu below:

Cha Gio Menu:
Spring Rolls, Noodles, Specialty Items
Beverage, Dessert and Deli Corner

Vietnamese Noodles Topping (P79+) with Beef, Chicken and Pork. For me, this is the best dish in the menu. How I wish they serve hot soup together with this.

Cha Gio or Vietnamese Spring Rolls (P67+). I was really not impressed since it tasted like ordinary lumpia because the ingredients where too scrimpy to make a difference. It was nice to taste the house specialty though.

Fried Stuffed Tofu (P125+). I noticed that they fried a lot of things and this one was soaking in oil.

Cha Gio Menu:
Spring Rolls, Noodles, Specialty Items
Beverage, Dessert and Deli Corner

Cha Gio Vietnamese Restaurant
11th Floor Ramon Magsaysay Center
1680 Roxas Boulevard, Malate Manila
524-4324, 523-3775
Email: cha-gio@lamarph.com

Delivery: 404-3361 (minimum order of P250)