The Restaurant: Kathmandu Newa Chhe’n
The Map
The Adventure:
Braving the horrors of an empty fuel tank, two soldiers of misfortune ventured into the remote district of Milton, one of Brisbane’s finer dining suburbs, to locate a meal whose recipe was spawned in a country better known for its dirt and rocks – often of the piled-high variety.
The Kathmandu New-a-whatsit looks exactly as a Nepalese restaurant should, this has a lot to do with the fact that I have never been to any other Nepalese restaurant and I am in the habit of drawing conclusions from first impressions.
Three distinct and notably empty dining areas met our arrival, not ones to shy away from skinny dipping in foreign culture when they present their tepid waters, we dove right into the no-shoes-so-you-think-you’re-there area. Floor pillows and slightly too loud foreign sounding music crowded us, building the authentic ambiance.
We ordered food, lots of food, we were being ridiculous and thought it would be funny. 3 Fantastic entrées; the breads are magnificent, possessing a texture you’d imagine to be shared only with light rain clouds.
Then a Chea tea, yes Chea, not Chai or whatever pompous name is usually given to these fashionable beverages. It was simply titilating, like a dessert, it had flavours of nutmeg and cinnamon and gave a slight tingling feeling a little bit like nearly fainting after an adrenal-rush, without the prerequisite near death experience.
At this point we forced ourselves upon the mains, two meat platters of sinus clearing protein, with a large helping of rice and a bowl vegetable something-or-other. Perhaps we were too bloated to enjoy them fully; I barely had energy to filter through the dregs from my meat bowl to find those hidden nuggets of cow flesh just big enough to fill the gap beneath your eyeballs. The vegetable soupy thing wasn’t for me, but people accustomed to the world of bland and hollow dishes (vegetarians) might think differently.
They had an animal-flesh-free menu, and I think they could pull off gluten-free too, although I didn’t ask.
Food: 18
Its food, I am no critic, some of it was bad, most of it was good, the bread I will praise to anyone willing to lend an ear.
Ambiance: 18
What do I know about Nepal? They have a strangely shaped flag – the windows were strange, close enough. Lost some points because I don’t like slightly too loud music, gained some points because I don’t like places that are full of other humans.
Service: 15
It was basically empty and still I had sufficient time between stuffing my face to run through my repertoire of idle conversation topics. Nay!
Value: 20
Main for under $20, entrée and shit-hot tea for under $10, nice.
Convenience:15
1.2 Klm from the nearest train station, so you probably don’t want home carrying the full weight of a gigantic meal in your gullet. If you’re driving, we parked just across the road and weren’t nearly run down by psychotic 4×4 owners. Kudos.
Overall: That’s 86 out of 100, having never written a review, I have no idea what that means, damn statistics. Try it, its cheap enough that you won’t care if you are disappointed, and fortunately, you probably won’t be. There isn’t much room, so it would suck on a busy night, Tuesday is the day to hit it.