Eat Drink Hong Kong

Tucked away behind the Belchers and Westwood Plaza this place could be a challenge to find for anyone not familiar with the area. But for those that do your efforts will be well rewarded.

Kathmandu serves an eclectic mix of Nepalese cuisine and Spanish tapas. It may seem like a odd combination but not to owner and chef Bahadur KC Shiva. Shiva has experience of running Spanish and Argentian restaurants and his original branch of Kathmandu was one of the first restaurants to open in the SoHo area back in 199Os.

Soaring rents forced that branch to close down. The current branch is a cosy little hole in the wall on a Kennedy Town back-street where Shiva himself is on hand to take your orders and explain dishes. And when hoe’s not doing that he will have his head in the kitchen to direct operations there.

The Spanish part of the menu consists of around a dozen tapas plus soup and salad options. The Argentinian chorizo ($48) caught my eye and, tempting though the momo and samosas were, I decided that would be my starter. Though I did order some poppadoms and a beer as well.

The chorizo was good and I wolfed it down enthusiastically but I had barely finished when my second dish, Ostrich Kebab ($88), arrived. The ostrich is marinated in organic Nepalese herbs and served on skewers with onion and bell pepper with a red wine and garlic sauce. It is also served with lightly spiced vegetables and saffron rice.

Ostrich meat is low in fat and really rather tasty. I promised myself that I will try the tandoori version of it next time.

The next dish was Khasi Gurkhali. This is the Kathmandu version of a Rogan Josh. This is not as oily as the familiar Indian style rogan josh. In this version lean pieces of lamb served in a smooth, spicy tomato rich curry sauce.

I finished off with rice pudding ($30) which was served with light sprinkling of masala spices.

Kathmandu has a limited number of tables I recommend calling ahead to book.

G/F Shop 1A Woo Hop St, South Lane
Kennedy Town
Tel 2817 7811

59 Staunton Street
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2857 2966

7/F, Cheung Hing Commercial Bldg
37-43 Cochrane St
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2854 0916

This restaurant is tucked away down a little side street off Johnston Road. At street level it is merely a doorway and quite easy to miss.

Inside the restaurant is simple but spacious. Indian popular music and dance was showing on a large screen TV but there was nobody there to watch it. I had the restaurant to myself.

It serves both Indian and Nepalese cuisine and there is a good variety of each. The menu is divided accordingly with good explanations of each dish and where it comes from. I’d gone along specifically for the Nepalese food.

I started with Bhogate Sandheko ($35). This is a simple dish made with some nice tangy grapefruit with yoghurt, sprinkled with chilli powder to give it a little extra bite. Following was a Chicken Choila ($65). This is a delicious chicken dish that has been barbecued and served with chillies, ginger onions and coriander.

Next, just to remind me that Nepal shares a long border with China, came some steamed chicken dumplings ($40) in soup. The dumplings are called momo. They were pleasant enough but they did seem a little out of context alongside the rest of the food I had ordered. It was a generous serving though, definitely designed to be shared.

Following this was a dish that I was particularly looking forward to, Himali Lamb Sekuwa ($65). This is cubes of barbecued lamb spiced with timmur. Timmur are the same peppercorns that make Sichuan cuisine so distinctive. It was nice, though I would have liked it to be more heavily spiced.

Finally came the Jhol Halu Ko Macha ($78) which is a very tasty but light fish curry in a thin sauce. Mopped up, of course, with nan bread.

For dessert there were the usual gulab jamun but the very last item on the menu caught my attention – Himalaya Special ($35). I ordered and waited in anticipation. When it arrived I was surprised to find that it consisted of three scoops of Ice cream, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, sandwiched between two slices of banana. It was topped with cream and finished off with a little pink umbrella.

‘Is this a traditional Nepalese dessert?’ I asked the waitress. She grinned.

1/F, 22-30 Tai Wong Street East
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 2527 5899

1/F 122 Woo Sung Street
Jordan
Kowloon
Tel 9042 7154

10 Elgin Street
Soho
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 6405 0298

G/F 12 Staunton Street
Soho
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2869 6212

G/F 24 South Wall Road
Kowloon City
Kowloon
Tel 2716 5128

26-30 Tai Wong Street
Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel 6271 5719

G/F Block D, Ho Kwan Building
48-54 Jordan Road
Jordan
Kowloon
Tel 6048 0492

43 Staunton street
Soho
Central
Hong Kong
Tel 2543 2632