Where to eat in Clark,Pampanga?

So, as soon as I finished my travel-related errands in Clark Pampanga, we drove around the area trying to find a different place to eat. We do not want to eat the same old fast food in the mall or just another usual restaurant we have gone a couple times already whenever we are traveling to any City. We were trying to find some kind of Authentic Kapampangan food. It’s known that the Kapampangans are very good cooks that most of them usually succeed in the food/restaurant business as it is also called the Culinary Capital of the Philippines.

As we are roaming around the busy streets of Clark, we have passed some restaurants my mother has gone to before but most of them are already closed- probably due to pandemics (Corona V) that online food business became more safe and convenient as people will just order online and they will deliver right in front of your doorstep.

Yeah, some other restaurants wouldn’t be able to survive (with overhead expenses to run and maintain a physical store without regular customers) or compete with a much cheaper on-call ready to deliver food business.

And then they have come up with an idea to go to a place they’ve also been to before, (without me, I’m a first timer here) a restaurant in the heart of Clark called Matam-Ih Authentic Kapampangan Cusine.

It’s a Pavilion-type Victorian-style indoor and outdoor dining with a Filipino/Hispanic-themed design that offers Kapampangan food in Clark. I have researched that Matam-Ih is an Aeta dialect which means “delicious”. So the name really complements the food although it’s a little bit pricey as the food is great particularly for the first-timer like me who always wants to try something different.

I didn’t ask for the best sellers as I already have my order in mind but here is the menu;

I have seen a lot of unfamiliar food on the menu and what interests me is the Bistek Kalabaw among others-I just made fun by joking around that I will order this exciting food but we ended up ordering the usual familiar food we know.

So we had grilled chicken ass and chicharon bulaklak for the starter. Kare kare, Crispy pata, and grilled fish with buro for the main meal.

The steamed rice in the banana leaves is really cute to see.

The food is good though it’s a little bit pricey as I’ve said previously (as the servings are also small with the small bowl of kare kare that is good for 1-2 person only is the same price for the 3-5 person from the other restaurants I have been to) and if you are just eating on a budget, this place is not for you, but since it is my first time to eat here I just went with the flow and ordered what I want to eat. We noticed that the crispy pata isn’t cooked very well when served as it is still soft on the inside and the skin is not crunchy so we had to ask the server to cook it again. But all in everything went fine.

We paid around Php2300k something for the full meal less the 2 senior citizen discounts we have.

I would still suggest this Restaurant if you happen to pass by Clark Pampanga- Philippines less aside the minor comments I have noticed.

See you there!