Pokhara restaurants review

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We spent such a long time in Pokhara doing nothing after the ABC trek, that I can't resist reviewing Pokhara's restaurants. I worked on this project for a long time... and luckily I plan another trek to get rid of the extra calories :-)
This post maybe not so interesting for my regular readers but maybe useful for some future visitors to Nepal!

(Just so you have an idea of the prices: 70 rps ~ USD)

1) Bistro Caroline
Expensive but worth it. The décor is lovely, and a lot more spacious than a classic French restaurant (maybe because real estate is cheaper here?)
My mate had a classic French dinner, with onion soup and steak au poivre. Both were prepared in the classic way and were good. Also the accompanying French fries were excellent.
I tried different dishes: Shrimps cocktail was tasty, although very spicy. I needed a bottle of water & lots of bread to survive. Hachy Parmentier, a French dish of potatoes and minced meat, that I found in only one place in Israel once, was very good.
We shared 2 desserts that were less satisfactory. The chocolate mousse was a bit like a pudding, and the crème brule was a bit too brule (burned), but they were still better than most desserts in Pokhara.
Prices are high - the described meal without the drinks costs about 1600 rps!

2) Mike's restaurant
Probably the most expensive place in town, but also the only one directly on the lake. Mostly American and Mexican cuisine. The enchilada was very good although very spicy, almost too spicy for us. It applies for the bbq chicken. Our friend that had a steak sandwich claimed it was the best steak he had in Nepal. Highly recommended.

3) Lemon tree
Décor and atmosphere are very similar to many places here, with wooden furniture and an open terrace (in addition to a big space inside).
Fresh fish from the lake with garlic sauce was good, but other dishes that were sampled (hamburgers, minestrone soup) were really bad

4) Mama Mia
There were mixed opinions regarding the steak in red wine sauce. Mine was excellent but some people were much less satisfied. So the problem is stability. Other dishes that we liked included pasta, roasted chicken, hamburger, Israeli salad and potato salad. On the other hand, the grilled fish was horrible and had disastrous results in my stomach.

5) Café Concerto
They are famous for their pizzas. Our first was excellent but in our next visit we were disappointed. Maybe in lunch time the main chef is absent?
Nevertheless don't miss a visit here, for the best desserts in Pokhara. The tiramisu (85 rps) is fantastic, and the ice cream too is not bad at all (50 rps 2 scoops), especially the chocolate-mint flavor.

6) Moondance
A nice place, good atmosphere, street level terrace and also a balcony in the first floor. Inside there are more seats and a pool table.
The pasta rose was excellent, bruschetta was ok but not very interesting, and the same applies for the fried chicken basket. The patai was pretty bad. The banana-chocolate crepe was ordinary except for the design: the crepe was rolled around a whole big banana!
Prices are a bit high for the type.

7) Once upon a time
Also a very good pizza, good competition to café concerto and much cheaper. The israeli salad was excellent. The usual décor, with 2 floor, open terraces, and nice wooden furniture.

8) Everest steak house
It's the only real steak house in town, offering the biggest variety of steaks, and it's highly popular. In our first visit we shared 2 huge chateaubriand steaks (1000 rps each) among 6 hungry trekkers, just back from a week in the mountains. It was very good and no wonder that about 2.5kg of meat simply disappeared.
In our second visit we tried other steaks, as the "really red wine sauce steak" and the classic (250-275 rps). Both were good. The restaurant suffers from one problem but this is true for all steaks here: you can never control the cooking level. So we always order medium and hope for the best. Sometimes it comes nicely red, sometimes closer to well done. But mostly we were ok with the results.

9) Little Tibetan tea garden
Horrible momos, bad veg. soup. We didn't bother trying more.

10) Café Be-Shenkin
This place doesn't have a formal name except German bakery - one of dozens. But they have signs in Hebrew and one of them named the place "Café Be-Shenkin". They have very cheap and tasty sandwiches, especially if you are hungry or sharing: the large one is huge, double of the medium, and costs only 30% more. The cheese omlette is a popular choice (75 rps for medium which is big enough normally). The cheese only is great too, and you can try also nuttela+mars or snickers if you have a real sweet tooth. The chocolate croissant is nice when warmed (25 rps), and the local hit is nana tea (Israeli mint tea) for 15 rps only. The place is very simple but highly friendly, it's THE place in town to make new friends. If you go there, send my regards to the lovely owner, Sita.

11) Two popular breakfast places: Boomerang & Pumpernickel
They both have nice location almost on the lake shore, with nice open views. Unfortunately, that's the only good thing I can say about them. If you know Pumpernickel in Kathmandu, it's not even close in the quality of the pastries and and bread rolls. Boomerang offers tempting cakes that will always disappoint you, and is also a bit more expensive (in return for the posh decor). It also offers real meals for lunch and dinner, but we didn't bother. Just go to Café Be-Shenkin!

12) And a last minute note from my neighbors in the internet cafe. If you like Indian food, they recommend the Punjabi restaurant!

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