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1905
You can dine with ambassadors and government ministers in Thomas Kilroy's latest venture, set in a lovely old house. The tables on a bridge over a wonderful lily pond adds a definite colonial Burmese feel, so it's fitting that there are several southeast Asian dishes on offer. You'll need some time to wade through the seven different menus, including one just for teas!.
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Baithak Restaurant
At Babar Mahal Revisited, southeast of the centre, this restaurant has a dramatic and regal, almost Victorian, setting, with crystal and linens and where diners are attended by waiters dressed in royal costume and watched over by looming portraits of various disapproving Ranas. The menu features 'Rana cuisine', a courtly cuisine created by Nepali Brahmin chefs and heavily influenced by North Indian Mughal cuisine.
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Bakery Café
With branches on the edge of Thamel, on Durbar Marg and in Patan, this buzzy chain offers excellent value coffees and snacks for when you just need to take a break over an Americano and a plate of momos. The management have commendably hired deaf staff, which is perhaps one reason why the music is so bad.
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Bhanchha Ghar
This restaurant resides in a traditional three-storey Newari house in Kamaladi, next to a Ganesh Temple. There is an upstairs loft bar where you can stretch out on handmade carpets and cushions for a drink, snacks and the obligatory cultural show (try to arrive before ). You can then move downstairs to take advantage of an excellent set menu of traditional Nepali dishes and delicacies.
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Bhojan Griha
In the same vein as Newari restaurant Bhanchha Ghar, but perhaps more ambitious, is Bhojan Griha in a recently restored 150-year-old mansion in Dilli Bazar, just east of the city centre. It's worth eating here just to see the imaginative renovation of this beautiful old building, once the residence of the caste of royal priests. Again, dancers and musicians stroll through the various rooms throughout the evening, representing Nepal's major ethnic groups.
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BK's Place
BK's has a growing reputation for good old-fashioned chips (French fries), with a variety of sauces, as well as good momos. It's a tiny place, west of the Rum Doodle.
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Brezel Bakery
This bakery, one of a cluster in the area, is pretty good, especially for breakfast.
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Café de Cosmopolitan
Café de Cosmopolitan. Nearby Basantapur Sq, this is a cheaper eating option than Festive Fare Restaurant.
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Chang Cheng Restaurant
The real deal for Chinese food, and often full of visiting Chinese business people and Chinese Tibetans who shout, smoke, slurp and burp their way through large portions of wonderfully spicy Sichuanese food.
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Chez Caroline
Caroline's is a swanky (pretentious even?) outdoor restaurant popular with expat foodies. It offers French-influenced main courses such as 'wild mushroom tart with walnut sauce', quiche and crêpes, plus a wide range of patisseries, teas and wines. After a swift couple of glasses of pastis (liquorice-flavoured liqueur), head upstairs for some steamy salsa dancing at Latin Quarter.
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Chimney Room
This is one of Kathmandu's most famous restaurants, named after the famous open fireplace. It now serves mostly continental cuisine, with the excellent borscht and chicken à la Kiev two of the last links with its Russian roots.
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Ciao Ciao
Formerly known as the Marco Polo, this restaurant is great for authentic Italian food, including Italian permigiano cheese, good espresso, and truly yummy pizzas.
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Dahua Restaurant
In contrast to restaurants like Change Cheng, this definitely isn't 'real' China - sticky sweet-and-sours and egg foo yong are the rule here - but it's cosy and tasty and the price is right.
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Dechenling Beer House
Quality Tibetan and Indian food is served up in this attractive beer garden and it's one of the few places in town to offer interesting Bhutanese dishes, such as kewa dhatsi (potatoes and cheese curry). The thentuk , Tibetan noodle soup, is the best in Thamel. If you can't decide, opt for a set meal.
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Delima Garden Café
If you can't decide whether you want baked beans or tom kha gai, this garden restaurant down an alleyway away from the traffic in Paknajol covers all the bases. The surroundings are nice but the food is a bit hit and miss. There are plenty of breakfast choices.
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Diyalo Restaurant
At the Annapurna Lodge, this is a cosy, popular little garden restaurant with a large menu, including crêpes, burgers and a few Chinese and Indian dishes.
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Dolma Momo Center
This is typical of the Tibetan eateries dotted around town - it's just a hole in the wall, and momos and a few stains are the only things on the menu. But the momos are excellent, and they're top value.
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Dudh Sagar
This is the place to reacquaint yourself with South Indian snacks like dosas (crêpes filled with potato curry) and idly (pounded rice cakes), topped off with Indian sweets like barfi (fudge) and gulab jamun (deep-fried milk balls in rose-flavoured syrup). A special masala dosa followed by a dudh malai (cream cheese ball in chilled pistachio milk) makes a great meal.
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Dwarika's Hotel
Dwarika's Hotel has a candlelit Friday night poolside barbecue and dance show that makes for a great splurge; it also houses the upmarket Nepali Krishnarpan Restaurant.
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Everest Steakhouse
If steakhouse restaurant K-Too represents the new breed of slickly-run Thamel eateries, then the Everest Steakhouse is very much old-school. The red curtains haven't changed in 20 years and the waiters can be fascinatingly rude - it's hard to know if they're taking the piss or not. The menu spreads to 30 types of steak, all imported from Kolkata (Calcutta) and served up rare unless you request well done.
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Festive Fare Restaurant
Overlooking Basantapur Sq, this restaurant has unsurpassed views from its top-floor terrace and attracts more of a tour-group crowd. Prices are about double those of the Freak St cheapies.
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Fire & Ice Restaurant
Rumour has it that this was a favourite of Prince Dipendra and his girlfriend, before he massacred his entire family in 2001. Regardless, it's an excellent and informal Italian place, serving some of the best pizzas in Kathmandu, imported Italian soft-serve ice cream, seriously good coffee and rousing opera - Italian, of course. It's very popular and you'll need a reservation in the high season.
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Four Season Restaurant
A great location and some of the tastiest Thai and Indian food in town, make this a good compromise if you fancy a chicken tikka masala but your date wants a green papaya salad. You can sit overlooking the road, in the warm orange and black bar area or on the rooftop under what looks like an aircraft hanger. One of the chefs is Thai, the other worked at the Rum Doodle for 17 years, so they know their stuff.
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Ganesh Restaurant
A slightly gloomy but good vegetarian place, with generous portions of such dishes as lasagne and spinach mushroom burgers. There are two lovely chaityas in front of the restaurant.
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Ghar-e-Kebab
Run by the Hotel de l'Annapurna, this has some of the best North Indian and tandoori food in the city. Indian miniatures hang on the walls and in the evenings classical Indian music is played and traditional Urdu ghazals (love songs) are sung. Try one of the traditional sherbets for dessert.
