Where to Eat in Thamel: A Local Restaurant Family's Honest Guide

Thamel is small. Smaller than its reputation, anyway. You can walk the whole tourist district end to end in about twelve minutes — gate of the Kathmandu Guest House to the temple at Chhetrapati. In that twelve minutes you will pass somewhere in the region of two hundred restaurants. This guide is an attempt to make sense of them.

We have run a restaurant on Chaksibari Marg since 1962, when our founder Mike Frame opened a small café and named it after his hometown of Northfield, Minnesota. We have eaten everywhere over the years — sometimes by accident, sometimes on a slow night, always with notes. What follows is what we tell our own guests when they ask.

Know the grid first

Thamel is organised around four main streets: Thamel Marg (the loud central artery), Mandala Street (the pedestrianised stretch — bars and Western cafés), Saat Ghumti Marg (running north toward Hotel Marshyangdi — gentler, more residential), and Chaksibari Marg (running south from Thamel Chowk — older, quieter, where Northfield sits). Most of the famous restaurants are within a hundred and fifty metres of each other. Walking is faster than a taxi inside the grid.

By cuisine — what Thamel does well

Nepali

For a serious Nepali meal — dal bhat in the traditional way, on a brass thali — you want Thamel House Restaurant, Nepali Chulo (one of our sister properties), or Bhojan Griha. For momos, the answer is everywhere — every Nepali restaurant in Thamel makes good momos, including ours. For thukpa on a cold night, a small Tibetan stall just east of Saat Ghumti called Yeti has been doing it for twenty years.

Mexican

There is one honest answer for Mexican food in Thamel and it is the one we are biased about: Northfield Cafe. We have been making fajitas in Kathmandu since the 1960s, before there was a market for it. The Chicken Fajita Sizzler (NPR 580) is the dish that built the restaurant. Other restaurants in Thamel have added Mexican to their menus over the years; the dishes that succeed are the ones close to American Tex-Mex, not Mexican-Mexican. Manage expectations accordingly.

Indian

Third Eye, established 1989, is the most-named Indian restaurant in Thamel and is genuinely good. We make a butter chicken (NPR 520) we are proud of. For tandoor breads, anywhere with a working tandoor will do. For dosa or south Indian, walk south to the Bhat Bhateni area or take a taxi to Lazimpat.

Italian

Roadhouse Cafe owns the casual pizza market through sheer consistency. Fire and Ice Pizzeria has been around since 1995 and is still good. For a proper meal with wine, Kathmandu Grill (technically just east of Thamel proper) is the upgrade.

Israeli / Mediterranean

OR2K is the answer. Vegetarian, busy, communal floor seating upstairs. Has been the most-loved Mandala Street restaurant for years.

American

We have served American food since 1962 and the genre is shrinking in Thamel — most travellers want local food now. If you want a burger, a proper breakfast, fries done well, and a fajita that has been on the same menu for sixty years, you know where to come.

By mood — the harder question

Romantic

A garden, candle-lit tables, two wood-burning fire pits, paper lanterns, live folk music, no televisions, no horn-honking from the road thirty metres away — that is the answer for romantic in Thamel and it is also our garden, which is awkward for us to write but also true. Other choices: Thamel House Restaurant for the heritage atmosphere; Krishnarpan at Dwarika's Hotel for the full multi-course Nepali tasting (a taxi away in Battisputali, but worth it for an anniversary).

Quiet — somewhere you can talk

Difficult in Thamel by definition. The garden at Northfield works because the foliage screens the sound of the road. The Jesse James Bar inside is small and quiet. Most rooftop restaurants are loud only after 8 PM. Booking the corner of any restaurant helps.

A working dinner

Kathmandu Grill is the most business-meeting-appropriate room in or near Thamel — quiet, formal, a wine list. Northfield works for less formal meetings, particularly in the indoor Jesse James Bar.

With children

Anywhere with outdoor seating works better than anywhere indoors. We are happy to make smaller portions on request. Roadhouse and Fire and Ice are reliable child-friendly choices for pizza.

When to eat

Thamel restaurants are busiest from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. If you want a quieter table, eat at 6:00 PM (which is too early for most Nepalis but perfect for travellers on jet lag) or after 9:00 PM. Friday and Saturday evenings during October and trekking season (March to May, September to November) are the busiest weeks of the year — book at least 24 hours ahead anywhere with a garden.

What to avoid

• Touts on Thamel Marg pulling you into specific restaurants — those restaurants pay them a commission, which means your bill is higher and you have less choice.
• Restaurants with menus in twelve languages and photos of every dish — this is a sign of a tourist factory, not a kitchen.
• Anywhere claiming to do "all cuisines" badly — it is fine to span six cuisines if the kitchen has decades of practice (we do); it is not fine to span six cuisines because the menu was printed badly.