Where to eat in Thamel

Where to stay in Kathmandu?

I stayed in Kathmandu for about a week after my trekking in mountains. I needed a break from hiking, was in mood to do some coding and also wait for my Chinese visa. All my feelings were aligned and I stayed in Tasi Dhargey Inn in Thamel.

When I was researching about my trip, I noticed, everyone is mentioning Thamel. I had no idea what the hell it is, so… Thamel is central part of Kathmandu where there are many hotels, shops with trekking equipment and restaurants adjusted for western people. There are quite narrow and terrible roads with dust, luckily my hotel is located in the side road and was very calm during the night for sleeping. This was basically my first impression when I came to Kathmandu before trek. On the other hand after my trek, I knew what’s coming, how it looks like and had lowered expectations. The dust was not so bad this time – it rained few times while I was trekking. Everything is close and walkable and I also met nice people to talk and spend time with.

Also in whole Thamel internet is shit. It works sometimes completely fine and then you have these 10 seconds up and downs and it kills me completely. Cannot be more frustrated, when you need to finish something, but its different story. Just that you know about the internet situation – would not choose online work there longer than few days.

Where to eat?

You can eat cheap and also more expensive as anywhere else in Asian country. I tried to eat local meals most of the time, these are cheap, but usually dont have a proper name or found on internet. Although no dal-bhat anymore as I was quite full of that after eating it almost every day in mountains. I will list all places I liked below and you can choose based on your mood.

Western Tandori – my friend Jyamchang took me there first day on motorbike, but I couldn’t remember where it was. Found it on google as best naan in Thamel. The naan bread is really good, but it is also very cheap in general. Had usually 2 meals and got over-full with those curries and masala. Probably my most favorite place as it was crazy cheap and delicious.

Everest steak house – I read about Yak steaks and wanted to try them. This place does NOT have them and is honest about it. They have beef/buffalo steaks and they are delicious. I was quite confused from reviews on TripAdvisor as it said reviews with terrible and delicious steaks. I had great one and I wish I was more hungry for more from this place 🙂 This place is moved from center of Thamel to 15(30 minutes for me as I got lost) minutes walking from there – it is worth it.

OR2K – Mediterranean restaurant with great hummus and mint juice.

Rosemary kitchen & coffee – I think I had best momos there. Also had kind of salat with meat, which was really good and fresh.

I ate a lot in Tasi Dhargey Inn. Fried mushrooms were my favourite probably. There were momos, indian dishes, crunchy noodles, sandwiches, all is great. I am not giving advertising to them on purpose, but I was just happy to stay there 🙂

What to drink?

There are few beers to choose from: Everest, Nepal ice, Gorkha and Sherpa. Nepal ice was quite good, but strong. I actually drunk mostly Everest as most places had it.

If you wanna try local drinks you can check out Tongba and Chyang. In short, Tongba is millet with hot water and Chyang is made from rice. Tongba to me tasted like mild young wine. Chyang was smoother and I could taste fermentation. Both drinks are good fit for colder days as you drink them warm.

I drunk lots of black tea with lots of sugar. There is also milk/tibetian tea, which is black tea, milk and ofcourse sugar.

What to visit in Kathmandu?

Boudhanath – biggest stupa in Nepal is huge round building used for meditation and prayers.

Patan Durbar Square – nice square 2o minutes from Thamel by Taxi

I didnt go much around except Boudhanath, but it was interesting for me to get lost on my way to Everest steak house. I saw bit different life on the streets, skatepark and markets. Definitely try it during the day 🙂

At the end I would like to thank to Prakash, Shukra, Irena, Dominika, Michal, Mathil, Jyamchang and Aglaia for making the stay amazing experience.