Tony L.
Yelp
I have no basis with which to review Nepali food as I'm not familiar with the culture, but I came with my partner who woof'd there for 6 months and has become quite attached, so we came to relive some of his memories. My review is purely based off of the taste, service, aesthetic, and feel.
Upon entering and looking at the tables/seating, I was reminded of every other South Asian cafe I'd been to in Sri Lanka and in the Middle East - shoddy glazed wobbly tables, metal dishware, stale chairs with no bendability and that seem toy-like in weight - my kind of place. Water in pitchers and sauce is left on tables to be shared, just like in traditional SEAsian eateries. The service was attentive, coming around for extra rice and side-dishes when they saw we were almost done.
We started off with the selroti - a mildly sweet rice-dough fried ring which was nice to start, and received out mango lassi and chia (chai tea) shortly after, accompanied by chicken momo (dumplings). The mango lassi was superb, but the chia wasn't sweet enough for my liking - it could have used some more condensed milk. It was good but tasted more savoury/umame than I would have liked. The chicken momo's had a great thin skin to them and the meat was very tender and succulent. Mixed with the orange dipping sauce, I could see myself eating it every day, which my partner used to do in Kathmandu. I'm sure Western foreigners would eat this right up since they're supremely fascinated by dumplings.
For our main entree, I had the chicken main dish thali. The rice, daal, veggies and fried chip were great. The meat I didn't care for so much - dried red pieces of chicken without much flavour. I can't quite pinpoint it, but something elevated my sweat glands and overtook me in spicyness - the mango lassi certainly helped with this, but I was left panting.
To speak of the service, the wait-staff was overly attentive with extra fixings - rice and side dishes, but they were a bit absent when it came to receiving the check, which I guess is a cultural norm (not pressuring customers with the bill). Overall, I enjoyed our meal and was thoroughly stuffed, but I can't see myself having this too often as there's a surprising amount of food that puts you in a coma.