Best Restaurants and Cafes Near Nagarjun and Thamel

Ask any of us at House of Forrest what we miss most when we travel abroad and the answer is always the same: the food. Nepali cuisine does not always get the international spotlight it deserves, and that is exactly why eating your way through Kathmandu feels like discovering a secret.

This guide covers the dishes you should try, the places we personally recommend near the house and in the city, and a few tips for eating well and safely. Everything here comes from what we tell our guests face to face, and from many happy meals of our own.

1. The Dishes You Must Try

Start with dal bhat, the national dish and the daily fuel of Nepal. It is a platter of steamed rice, lentil soup, seasonal vegetable curry, spicy achar pickle, and often a meat curry, with refills offered until you surrender. There is a saying here that "dal bhat power, 24 hour", and after a plate of the good stuff you will understand why.

Then come momo, the beloved Nepali dumplings filled with buffalo, chicken, or vegetables, served steamed, fried, or swimming in a spicy jhol sauce. Every Nepali has strong opinions about where the best momo are, and finding your own favourite is half the fun. Beyond those two icons, look out for thukpa noodle soup on cool evenings, sel roti rice doughnuts at breakfast, chatamari, which people call Newari pizza, spiced choila meat, and juju dhau, the famous sweet "king yogurt" from Bhaktapur that alone justifies a day trip.

2. Eating Near House of Forrest

Nagarjun is a residential neighbourhood, which means the food scene here is local, honest, and wonderfully cheap. Within walking distance of the house you will find family-run eateries serving fresh momo, chowmein, and full dal bhat sets, usually for 150 to 400 rupees. These small kitchens, often just a few tables and a mother and son at the stove, serve some of the most authentic food you will eat in Nepal.

The places change and new ones open every season, so rather than listing names that may be outdated by the time you visit, we do something better: when you check in, ask us where to eat that week. We know which kitchen has the best jhol momo right now, and we take real pride in pointing guests to the good stuff. Guests who follow our momo directions tend to come back grinning.

3. Restaurants in Thamel

Thamel is 10 minutes away by taxi and has the most concentrated restaurant scene in Nepal. Decades of feeding trekkers from every corner of the world have produced a neighbourhood where you can eat Nepali, Tibetan, Indian, Israeli, Italian, Japanese, and Korean food within a five minute walk.

Long-standing favourites our guests keep coming back to include OR2K, a cosy vegetarian institution with Middle Eastern platters and floor cushions, Roadhouse Cafe for wood-fired pizza, Third Eye for refined Indian cuisine, and Gaia for relaxed garden-courtyard breakfasts. For Nepali food in a beautiful setting, several traditional houses around Thamel and Durbar Marg serve full Nepali and Newari set meals with cultural dance shows in the evening, which makes for a memorable first or last night in Nepal.

Prices are gentle by international standards. A generous dinner with drinks in a good Thamel restaurant typically lands between $6 and $15 per person.

4. Cafes and Coffee Culture

Kathmandu has quietly become a serious coffee city. Nepali beans grown on Himalayan foothill farms are excellent, and a generation of young roasters has built a cafe culture to match. Himalayan Java, Nepal's homegrown chain, is a dependable choice with branches across the city. Around Thamel and Lazimpat you will find dozens of independent cafes with proper espresso, good WiFi, and calm corners for a journal or a laptop.

Our favourite coffee moment in the city, though, is the Kaiser Cafe inside the Garden of Dreams. You sip your flat white surrounded by restored 1920s gardens, fountains, and birdsong, one minute from the chaos of Thamel and a century away from it. It is the perfect mid-sightseeing pause.

5. A Newari Feast in Patan

The Newars, the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley, have one of the richest food cultures in the Himalayas, and Patan is its capital. The lanes around Patan Durbar Square hide courtyard eateries that have been serving the same recipes for generations. Honacha, behind the Krishna Mandir, is the famous one, a no-frills institution where you point at sizzling pans of bara lentil patties and choila and eat shoulder to shoulder with local families.

Make an afternoon of it: explore the Patan Museum and the Golden Temple, then finish with a Newari khaja set and, if you are feeling brave, a wooden pot of tongba, the warm millet beer that Himalayan people swear by on cold evenings.

6. Rooftop Dining at Boudhanath

The ring of buildings around Boudhanath Stupa is stacked with rooftop restaurants and cafes, and eating dinner while looking down at the great white dome glowing in the evening light is one of the finest dining experiences in Kathmandu. The area is the heart of the Tibetan community, so this is the place for laphing cold noodles, Tibetan butter tea, thukpa, and some of the valley's best momo.

Come for the sunset kora walk around the stupa, then pick any rooftop that catches your eye. The view does most of the work, and the food rarely disappoints.

7. Cooking in Your Apartment

One of the best things about staying in a serviced apartment rather than a hotel room is that every House of Forrest apartment has a fully equipped kitchen. Local vegetable shops and small markets within walking distance sell farm-fresh produce at prices that will make you smile, and your host can point you to the nearest butcher, dairy, and spice shop.

Several of our long-stay guests fall into a happy rhythm: breakfast on the balcony with mountain views, lunch out exploring, and a home-cooked dinner with ingredients from the morning market. If you want to learn to make dal bhat or momo yourself, tell us. We can point you to cooking classes in the city, and kitchen conversations at the house have been known to turn into impromptu lessons.

8. Eating Well and Safely

A few sensible habits keep your stomach happy in Nepal. Drink bottled or filtered water, and we provide filtered water at the house. Choose busy places where food is cooked fresh and hot, and be gentle with street food on your first days while your system adjusts. Peel fruit yourself, and go easy on raw salads outside reputable restaurants. Spice levels are adjustable almost everywhere, so just say "not spicy" or, if you are the opposite kind of traveller, "Nepali spicy" and mean it.

Finally, eat with your right hand if you try the traditional way, accept the dal bhat refill at least once, and never be shy to ask locals where they eat. Food is the fastest way into Nepali culture, and Nepalis love feeding curious guests.

For more ideas on filling the hours between meals, see our guides to the 13 must-visit attractions nearby and getting around Kathmandu. Not sure which part of the city to base yourself in? Our guide to where to stay in Kathmandu compares every neighbourhood.