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 KTM's Best Restaurant
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Posted on 12-15-03 4:29 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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And the winner is�

Bhatmara Bhai announces his Best Kathmandu Restaurant Award, 2003.

Thamel is awash with restaurants catering to the budget backpacker. If a banana pancake, or any dish featured in the 1970�s Peace Corps cookbook tickles your fancy, then be my guest.

If you fancy something a little more classical then things get difficult. Indian and Chinese are available, but these things are most often uninspired. Delhi and Beijing have moved on. Move your palate Westward and things get yet more spartan, the edible choices that rise above the mediocrity are limited. Think about it for a moment. Italian food beyond the excellence of Fire and Ice�s pizza perfection is unknown. And for French brasserie style, Chez Caroline is an obvious candidate. But few others spring to mind.

When Caf� Mitra, owned by Master Kunal Lama, opened some 18 months ago, it quickly added itself high up the list. With good reason. On d�cor alone Caf� Mitra is different. While set in an old building the style is modernist. There are no other restaurants in the Valley with vibrant orange walls. Regular art exhibitions add to the visuals.

Quite how these oeuvres manage to sit comfortably�they do�with the colour scheme is a mystery to me but testament to Master Lama�s confident taste. Perhaps most attractively, as the winter cold starts to bite, Caf� Mitra, unlike most other restaurants, is cosy. Tall people, however, be warned. Caf� Mitra is an old building. A motorcycle helmet is a sensible, if unfashionable, prophylactic.

The reason for Bhatmara Bhai�s visit to Caf� Mitra was the recent (ish) opening of another floor of the restaurant. This time in the shape of a cocktail lounge. The style again, is modernist. Instead of orange, this floor features lively green walls. Again, from a style point of view, it works.

So do the really excellent range of classic and well-mixed cocktails. There are other more eclectic offerings dedicated to the owner�s colourful chums. �Cosmic Chas� is one example. �Chas�, however, shall have to wait, until I tire of Mr Mojito�s charms.

Master Lama again wins yet another gold star in Bhatmara�s good books for the thoughtful addition of a halfway decent hi-fi and his healthily eclectic music tastes. There appears to be a welcome refusal to play any Bob Marley or indeed the poptastic ambient monk music that pumps out of Thamel�s CD shops. The music is intelligently set at a volume that obviates the need for sign language.

Returning downstairs the menu meets with further high marks. It is short and unfussy. The food is accompanied by an equally no nonsense and sensibly priced wine list. I chose the chicken liver for starters. They were simply prepared and balanced: a nice, delicate sweet and sour.

For the main course I chose soy roast duck. A healthy plate of tender sweet duck with roast potatoes and steamed bok choi. Excellent. Neither dish was complex in either preparation or presentation. Good food need not be. And it is this attention to quality and detail that is the leitmotiv that sets the restaurant apart. The butter is not butter but butter run through with cracked pepper. There are not one but four breads to choose from. The bread is warmed. A breed apart.

If I have any grumbles, and this is a minor whinge, it was with the dessert. Both my partner for the evening and I beat the retreat with the Banoffee cheesecake. Cheesecake is good only when it is bad.

A forkful should transmit loud imperative neon warnings to men of a certain age, lifestyle and girth to: �Step away from the plate!� Don�t get me wrong. I finished my cheesecake. But I had the uneasy sensation that this thing was doing me some unwelcome good.

But this is a minor complaint. Frankly, it is one of the best meals you can eat in Kathmandu. In terms of style, ambience, attention to detail and service I can�t think of anywhere better. Master Lama understands food.

It�s getting close to the end of the Roman calendar year and Bhatmara Bhai is going on his holidays. There are as yet no awards for �Best Restaurant in Kathmandu� but it�s high time there were. So on behalf of the Nepali Times, and without consulting with my editor, I would like to finish this article

by extending Bhatmara Bhai�s congratulations to Master Kunal Lama, for the Bhatmara Bhai Best Restaurant Award, Kathmandu 2003.
bhatmarabhai@yahoo.com

Taken from The Nepali Times 12-18 December, 2003. Number 174
 
Posted on 12-15-03 4:33 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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What follows is from Kunal, Kathmandu's most stylish restauranter.

Eat, drink and be merry . . . for tomorrow is another day!!

oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal

*****
Caf� Mitra & Lounge Bar, Thamel, has been awarded Nepali Times' "Best Restaurant of the Year 2003" by their famously identity-shy restaurant critic Bhatmara Bhai.

Bhatmara Bhai appeared particularly impressed by Caf� Mitra's dishes which were not complex in either preparation or presentation by stating "Good food need not be". Caf� Mitra's modernist setting in an old building, it's vibrant orange & lime interiors and regular art exhibitions led him to wonder "Quite how these oeuvres manage to sit comfortably - they do - with the colour scheme is a mystery to me but testament to the owner's confident taste".

Welcoming the recent additon of a lounge bar with its excellent range of classic & well-mixed cocktails and no nonsense, sensibly priced wine list, Bhatmara Bhai rounded off his review, after a minor whinge at our Banoffee Cheesecake (damn!), by simply concluding "Frankly, it is one of the best meals you can eat in Kathmandu.

In terms of style, ambience, attention to detail and service I can't think of anywhere better. Kunal Lama, the owner, understands food".

The Caf� Mitra Team humbly accepts the Award (and thanks the Editor of Nepali Times for allowing Bhatmara Bhai to slip in his article without first consulting him!).

We are always battling to become better. A short look at the feast below we have planned for you over the upcoming festive season should assure you of this. It will be our pleasure to welcome you to Caf� Mitra in the very near future.


FESTIVE SEASON MENU
December 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 2003

STARTERS
Twice-baked Cheese Souffl�s
Butterflied Prawns in Garlic Butter & Paprika
Spicy Vegetable Broth with Caramelised Butternut Squash
Black Bean Pistou Soup
Fresh Fennel Salad with Lemon & Parmesan

MAIN COURSES
Javanese Roasted Salmon & Wilted Spinach
Chicken Breast with Port & Mushroom Sauce
Red Wine & Herb Braised Ham
Roasted Eggplant & Mozzarella Lasagna
Marinated Tofu with Shiitake Stuffing

DESSERTS
Peach Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
Walnut Shortbreads with Strawberries
White & Dark Chocolate Crunch Torte with Pistachios & Golden Raisins
Coffee & Vanilla Ice Cream Parfait with Honey Brandy Oranges
Cr�pes Stuffed with Spiced Pear Comp�te

Reservation required. Please contact us on 4259015 e-mail us cafemitra@mos.com.np
 


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