The time & date in Clark, Philippines is

A memorable dinner at a good restaurant in Clark Pampanga

We were in Clark Pampanga for the Hot Air Balloon Festival in February 2015. The Festival itself was a major disappointment. They really should change the organizers if they want this great event to survive. Anyway, all was not lost for our trip to Clark because even though the balloon fiesta was a mess, we managed to strike gold with another aspect of travelling – food!
 
 
We were six, three adults and three children, no helpers because we wanted to travel light. The trip from Manila to Clark Philippines was smooth and a lot shorter than we had expected, so that was another good thing. Because the Clark Hot Air Balloon Festival turned out to be a disappointment, we exited early and decided to look for a good restaurant in Clark for a meal before heading back to Manila. We found this nice looking restaurant inside Mimosa. It is called Yats Restaurant. Once we stepped through the door, our day got better.
 
 

 
 
We go out a lot in Manila probably because we live in a small condo unit so cooking is never a lot of fun for us. We are no strangers to find dining and we are not shy about spending a good chunk of our earnings on food, and wine also of course. So our standards are not exactly low when it comes to dining out in the Philippines. With this in mind, I have to say that this Yats Restaurant in Clark is nothing short of awesome.
 
 
Our (teenage) children got adventurous and tried some adult food, starting with a simple prawn toast, very English I think, which they really liked. The Roasted Cream Pumpkin Soup was a hit for them also. But it was the duck breast that got them really interested in gourmet fine dining. Boy, were we glad that they didn’t go for the safe bets like burgers or steaks.

The adults were equally fearless. I started with a crocodile. That set the pace for the rest of the evening in this fine dining restaurant in Clark. Others had to have their foie so, there goes adventure for the first course. We skipped the soup and went for a hot appetizer called Fegato alla Veneziana which is a Venetian recipe of sautee liver with onions, amazingly friendly, not a trace of that liver bitterness at all. Main courses in this restaurant in Clark Pampanga are anything but routine. One meat lover ordered the trio of Kangaroo, Venison and Wagyu. Another one wanted fish so she went for the Hummus Crusted Barracuda Fillets. I went for the Braised Pigeon breasts with chestnuts. Pigeons are not often found in Manila even in the upscale fine dining restaurants. That’s a shame because pigeons are really so delectable.
 
 
Then it was another moment of truth – the wine. We found out that this restaurant in Clark is the only restaurant in the Philippines to have earned the Best of Awards of Excellence by world-famous wine magazine called Wine Spectator, given out to around 800 or so restaurants in the world for their great wine lists. Imagine there is a world-class wine restaurant right here in the Philippines! As a wine lover, I felt a little embarrassed that I didn’t know about Yats Restaurant before. But better late than never, right?
 
 

 
 
I took charge of the wine, as I almost always do. With just three drinking persons in that dinner, I ordered only these wines. The wine list by the way, offer over 2500 selections and vintages dating back over 100 years! It could easily take an hour just to browse through it but our empty stomachs did not allow for such a wait. Oh yes, the wine, here was my order:

For a matured red wine from Bordeaux which went swimmingly well with the delicate main courses we ordered,
 
 

1994 Domaine Petit Musset, Montagne-St. Emilion

For a nice white, I decided to splurge a little and ordered a full-bodied white wine that bears a famous name for red wine,

2012 Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc, Domaine Juliette Avril

You know what they say about wine, if it is good, there is never enough of it. If it is bad, you ordered too much. Well, as the dinner in this fine restaurant in Clark approached its end, it was clear that we needed a little something more for dessert. I let the orders choose this one. I am glad they did because they chose a very nice and not expensive half-bottle (375ml) of

2012 Monbazillac, Pavillon de la Brie

 
 
What a dinner and you’d be surprised how much we spent, not nearly as much as you might think. Including wine, the check for the six of us came to south of p10,000. It would easily have been double that if this dinner was in a fancy restaurant in Manila.
 
 
To say that our dinner at Yats Restaurant in Clark Pampanga was memorable would be a gross understatement. In fact this dinner recalibrated our measuring stick for outstanding dining experience.
 
 

 
 

Do you want to dine there next time you travel north from Manila?
 
Sorry, I didn’t get the contact details, but I did get the web site. Here it is:
 
www.YatsRestaurant.com

 
 
Manila is already littered with fancy restaurants but just 45 minutes out of the town going south or north, options for a good meal are not that many. But experienced travelers and frequent visitors to Pampanga or Subic know that some of the finest restaurants and bars can be found inside Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone.