Tag Archives: nepal

Saturday Café (Bodhnath, Nepal)

Rating:

Over the past few days we’ve spend a lot of time at the Saturday Café. We were first wooed by the baked goods at the takeaway stand downstairs. Their bakery stand wouldn’t have been out of place in Seattle or Portland, with its assortment of organic grains and juices. Fresh-baked quality whole wheat bread is near-impossible to find in Nepal, so we grabbed a loaf to snack on.

Later that night, we returned for dinner on their rooftop deck. They have a fine stupa view, though it disappeared when the heavens opened up shortly into our meal.

Their menu is primarily soups and snacks, with momos and a few entrees also on offer. I ordered the hot and spicy tofu stir fry. The peppers and onions were fresh and crispy, and it was served with a large portion of brown rice. Unfortunately the sauce fell flat. Mildly spicy at best, and mostly flavorless and uninspired.

DSC_4848

Lauren ordered the vegetable noodles, which were much better. They had a a good kick, and a large mix of veggies (carrots, onions, assorted greens). On par with a solid yakisoba in the states.

DSC_4849

Saturday Café offers free wireless, so we lingered after dinner, waited out the worst of the rain, and caught up on some blog posts and photos. The staff were very nice, and very chill.

Last night, after a disappointing dinner at Rabsel Garden Café, we were back for a late evening snack.  The momos had caught my eye. We’ve been having a lot of momos lately, but the choices at Saturday Café were unique, including the spinach and paneer ones that we ordered (no pics as we left the camera home that evening). The noodle wrapped around spinach and paneer resulted in a good texture, and while the flavors of the momos themselves were fairly weak, the accompanying dipping sauces perked them right up.

I also ordered the mango sorbet, and was reminded as to why I shouldn’t order frozen desserts in Nepal. Turns out that there are two options for refrigeration here. The first is your standard 40ish degree fridge. The other is a below zero freeze-fest. My sorbet was served in a bowl, but was a block of mango ice. It was in the “hockey puck meets flower” shape of those plastic containers you get from the ice cream truck. While it was tasty enough pureed mango once it slowly defrosted over the next 30 minutes, I wouldn’t recommend expending the effort.

On our last morning, we got up early to catch a bus to Sundarijal and Saturday Café was the only place that we knew was open at 7AM. So we had our final breakfast there. 🙂

Their porridge is served with apples and raisins, which is not as good a combination as the more common banana approach that we had enjoyed at a different cafe the morning before. It took care of the problem though.

DSC_4974

I had the spinach omelet, which is served with their house-made bread. The omelet was a standard Nepalese-style with spinach mixed in.

DSC_4976

Overall, Saturday Café is a relaxing place to hang out. The deck is pleasant, the staff are very nice, and the food is decent. Prices are a little high for what you get (though still very cheap relative to the US of course), and it’s definitely worth stopping by the bakery for some hiking snacks.

Saturday Café
Bodhnath, Nepal
+977 2073157

Daily: 7:00AM – 8:30PM (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

Stupa View Café (Bodhnath, Nepal)

Rating:

Today for lunch we took advantage of the brief respite from stormy weather to check out the Stupa View Café. They advertise the best view in the city, and their 3 level rooftop deck did not disappoint.

DSC_4866
View from our table

Given the prime location and tourist target, the prices are reasonable (cheaper than the equivalent restaurants in Thamel). As with most places in this Buddhist town, Stupa View is all vegetarian. Conveniently enough, the items we were most interested were all pulled together in their “Potpourri” assortment:

DSC_4867

All five of the included dishes were enjoyable. The best dish (which Lauren was hankering for over the next few days) was the Oriental Lentil Balls. Well-seasoned lentils with a light peanut sauce and crispy on the outside, they were the kind of dish that can put meat to shame.  The fried aubergine was lightly breaded, flash-fried, delightfully crispy, and served with a creamy tzatziki. The pizza was decent, though it was the weakest dish of the bunch. The fruit salad was a refreshing conclusion to the meal, served with fresh fruit in tamarind with mint.

 DSC_4864

Fried Aubergine w/ Tzatziki Fruit Salad with Caramel Nuts
Mushroom Pizza
Elephant Feet Oriental Lentil Balls

Overall an excellent meal and the next time we’re in Kathmandu/Bodhnath, we’ll be sure to enjoy some oriental lentil balls on the roof!

Stupa View Café
Bodhnath, Nepal
+977 4480262

Yin Yang (Kathmandu, Nepal)

Rating:

We arrived in Kathmandu this afternoon.   While the past three days of Nepali home cooking have been fantastic, we decided to change things up tonight with some Thai food.

Yin Yang is located just off the main drag in Thamel, in a garden courtyard that is a pleasant oasis from the constant noise, traffic, and hawkers outside. The chefs hail from Thailand, and the food is supposed to be authentic.

We ordered Panang Chicken and Phad See Iw “hot” on their scale of “mild”/“medium”/“hot”.  Due to our skin color, Lauren and I are usually treated with spiciness kid gloves in Asian countries (much to our frustration). However, tonight the Panang Chicken had a decent amount of kick to it, on par with a Thai Tom 3-star. The clay pot kept the curry piping hot throughout our meal.

DSC_4195

The Phad See Iw was served in the same manner as in Thailand, i.e. “spice it yourself”. Just like our noodles experiences in Thailand, our Phad See Iw was quite bland initially and we asked for the spice rack. Four spices later (one each for salty, sweet, hot and sour), the noodles were excellent.

DSC_4194

There’s nothing better to wash down your spicy food than a cold Everest Beer! Everest tasted like most other Asian beers I’ve had (Tsing Tao, Chang, Singha, Tiger, Saigon).

DSC_41851

Overall a delicious Thai meal with attentive service in a lovely setting. What more could we ask for?

Yin Yang
Kathmandu, Nepal
4425510