KATHMANDU RESTAURANT, BERKELEY

Ah, it's my day off, so I'm sitting in front on my TV, watching Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel while blogging. Eventually I'll get up and runs some errands, but for now, I'll just keep up with my blog. So Mondays are my day off, but Tom has to work, but we still like going out to get lunch. This gives us a chance to try new places at typically lower prices than you'd be paying at dinner, and a few weeks, I figured we'd try out a restaurant called Kathmandu Restaurant.

Located in the Gourmet Ghetto, we'd actually walked by this restaurant quite a few times, but we'd never stopped there. After doing some research on Yelp, though, it turned out the reviews were quite positive, so we decided to check it out.

When we entered the restaurant, it was totally empty (it was admittedly an early lunch), but we were greeted warmly by the staff and seated quickly. After looking at the menu, I discovered that this place didn't really have a lunch menu. The just had the same menu for lunch and dinner, so it was actually kinda pricey for lunch. Luckily, on a menu board placed on the street, they did list like 3 lunch specials, and I ended up ordering one of them.

So we both started lunch off with a cup of lentil soup. It was actually pretty good. Not anything I couldn't have made a home by myself, but quite nice.

Next, we ordered one of their famous appetizers that everyone raved about online - the momo (basically a meat dumpling). They have different versions, but we ordered the chicken ones, and here they are below.

I gotta say, these were really good. They actually remind me of soup dumplings (which I haven't eaten since I gave up pork over nearly 13 years ago) and they're served with a very yummy red pepper sauce (that orange colored stuff in the middle of the plate). I would go back just to order these again.

For lunch, Tom ordered this enormous plate of mixed grilled meat.
He thought his dish was pretty good. By putting all different types of meat on the same plate, not all the meat cooked evenly, so things like the shrimp were a bit overcooked. Meanwhile, I ordered the lunch special of grilled chicken, which was served along with rice and veggies.
I liked my dish. It was a generous portion, and actually cost a lot less than Tom's meal (probably half as much). I wasn't feeling so great during the meal, so I didn't end up eating most of this, but I did take it home and managed to make two meals out of the leftovers.

Our meal at Kathmandu Kitchen was pretty good, but it ended being a bit pricey for lunch. I thought the food was pretty good, and would gladly go back for some more momos, but I don't think it'll ever become a regular dining destination for us.

NEPALESE BUFFET IN ARLINGTON

I'm not a huge fan of Boston.com's food writing, but I do enjoy reading their suggestion for Cheap Eats. I've tried a few and they tend to be pretty good. And if they're not, it's not a huge loss of money. (Normally meals are under $15 per person, a lot of times, it's under $10). So on Marathon Monday, we braved the rain and crowds (turns out it was easier to leave our place than get back) and headed out to Arlington for meal at Kathmandu Spice, a Nepalese fusion restaurant.

I've never had Nepalese cuisine, but from what I'd read, it's heavily influence by Indian and Chinese cuisine. So I'll let you know now, lunch was more like an Indian buffet. Here's a pic of the interior. It's nicely decorated (though the booths we sat in weren't all the comfortable) and divided into two rooms. When we entered, there were only a couple of tables filled, but more people would arrive. The buffet was set up towards the front of the room and you just help yourself.This isn't one of those huge Indian buffets that you may be accustomed to. There's one appetizer, one soup and 4 or 5 other dishes. I think Tom and Sue Min sample some of each. Here's my plate below. You can seen an onion pakora towards the top (yummy, especially when they're fresh), a side salad and Tandoori chicken. I really liked the tandoori chicken. It was well cooked and flavorful, and it was the first time I'd seen it served with different types of peppers (rather than just onion). Tom liked the chicken curry, but I disliked the heavy use of cinnamon, and Suemin generally enjoyed everything.
But my favorite thing was the fresh naan. It comes with the meal, and I chose garlic naan. It comes out super fresh, warm, bathed in clarified butter and simply delicious. I could've eaten these and been perfectly happy. And you can get as much as you want. Overall, I had a delightful meal. We stuffed ourselves and spent around $10/person. That's an excellent deal. I'd like to go back in the future for dinner, so I can try some actual Nepalese dishes, but if you're in the area for lunch, it's certainly worth a visit.