Josephine Restaurant is another highly rated diner for local comfort food. It caters mostly to big groups so families who are in Tagaytay for a short holiday make a point to feast here, especially for their weekend buffets. The view overlooking Taal lake is pretty spectacular at night, I imagine it'd be even more so in the day. Lucky for me, they had a small menu for "solo" portions.
:
Pancit Malabon is a stir-fried noodle dish that originated in Malabon City, Manila. The white rice noodle is like thick beehoon or mee tai mak but harder, and smothered in a yellow-orange sauce made with fish sauce, shrimp or crab. Seafood toppings include shrimp, squid, hard-boiled egg, and bits of yummy crispy lard (yaaaas). The noodle texture was too tough for my liking, like biting through dried cuttlefish snack. The sauce however, though clumpy, was rich with seafood essence, to the extent that some bites taste pretty pungent. Hopefully this isn't representative of the overall standard given that it's #6 of 136 restaurants on TripAdvisor...

📸✍🏻by Jean Kao