What to Eat in Nepal: 5 Best Meals You Must Try
Nepal offers a diverse variety of foods, from traditional cuisine to popular international dishes. In this Nepal food guide, we're throwing our list of the 5 most delicious and favorite Nepalese meals at you that we had while trekking Annapurna Circuit and visiting Kathmandu and Pokhara. What to eat in Nepal, what is the traditional food, and what are the best meals in this country?
Hiking in Nepal was our favorite activity in this Asian country. What was activity number two? It was certainly eating our way around. We must admit that we might be biased here as we love Asian cuisine - the smell of spice, exotic flavors, and local eateries.
If there's something we miss in our home country, the Czech Republic, it is the street food. Sure, we have Indian or even Nepalese restaurants, but it just feels different, less authentic, which is not surprising.
That's why, when we travel to a foreign country, one of our favorite things to do right after arrival is visiting a local restaurant. Nepal was no different.
We tried amazing food in Kathmandu and Pokhara, even later along the Annapurna Circuit. Yes, the food high in the mountains was eventually a bit repetitive, but the memory of freshly made dal bhat served on a silver platter still makes our mouths water.
How would we describe Nepales food? It is a mixture of Asian, Tibetan and Indian cuisine; many meals are vegetarian, and most of them are served with rice.
Although normally in our travel guides, we focus on the best things to do and rarely mention food as people's tastes are very different, we decided to make an exception when going through our photos.
Not only would we like to give you a few tips on what to eat in Nepal and share with you five meals you definitely must try, but we would also like to encourage you to incorporate these meals into your daily routine.
Even now, back at home, we from time to time cook Aloo Gobi or Dal Bhat. Nowadays are all the ingredients well accessible, and the food always brings back our memories from Nepal.
When in Nepal, you should try at least once Dal Bhat, Momo Dumplings, Thukpa soup, Aloo Gobi, or Pakora.
This article will give you an idea of what to eat in Nepal - the best thing is that these simple meals are served literally in every restaurant.
FOOD IN NEPAL
Ok, we've already shared with you that we are extremely fond of Asian food and Indian flavors, and the visit to Nepal gave us new ideas and inspiration for our home cooking experiments. But it was also here in Nepal where we broke all our rules.
Normally, we do not eat in the stalls where the bus stops - but the scent on the parking lot on the way from Kathmandu to Besisahar was simply so catching that we tried our first momos here.
Also, we normally do not eat meat at dodgy-looking restaurants. But the line of locals queuing in front of the restaurant (if the shack where the cook had his equipment on the floor can be called this way) persuaded us to give it a try.
Simply put, some of the best meals we had in Nepal were cooked in the worst-looking eateries we've ever seen.
In a nutshell, food stalls where locals eat and small Nepalese and Indian eateries are topnotch, just wander around and find your favorite one!
And if you want to know and learn more about traditional Nepalese recipes, you might find more inspiration in these two cookbooks: Taste of Nepal and The Nepal Cookbook.
Travel Insurance
We never leave home without travel insurance that was designed to cover our expenses if something goes wrong during the trip.
Travel insurance protects against theft, flight delays, injury, illness, cancellations, and much more.
World Nomads provides travel insurance for travelers to cover their trip essentials, including sports and adventure activities.
SafetyWing is affordable travel insurance for backpackers, long-term travelers, and digital nomads.
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#1 DAL BHAT
We cannot start the list of the best meals you have to try in Nepal and not to mention one of the most traditional foods in the country consisting of steamed rice, cooked lentil soup, herbs, and several other ingredients such as coriander, onion, ginger, spices, and served with seasonal vegetables.
Dal Bhat is a signature meal that is hard to avoid in this country.
You can have Dal Bhat every day, and each serving will be slightly different; the taste and ingredients will vary from place to place.
At higher altitudes, servings of this meal are more rustic as it is much harder to grow vegetables there. We could read that local people eat Dal Bhat even twice a day, and what we could see, it was true. This meal is very nourishing, and it is something people need high in the mountains, hikers including.
The Annapurna Circuit took us 15 days, so we had 15-times Dal Bhat for dinner, and even though it was a bit repetitive in the end, we were always looking forward to a new version we are about to get.
#2 MOMOS
Steamed white-flour dumplings come with different filling varieties - they can be either vegetarian or filled with meat and served with dipping sauce.
Yes, we are talking about momos.
After our arrival on the first day in Kathmandu we had momos in a small street restaurant, that was overcrowded with only locals.
For 80 rupees (less than a dollar), we got a plateful of delicious dumplings with green chili sauce and pork filling.
It was the only time we did not have a vegetarian option in Nepal.
After we saw the state of the kitchen, which was extremely dark and wet, we were surprised that we didn't end up in the hospital, and for the rest of the stay, we only stuck with vegetarian meals or filling.
Needless to say, these were probably the best momos we ever had.
If you tried momos and fell in love with them as much as we did, you can take a cooking class in Kathmandu to learn how you can prepare the meal at home.
Here you can reserve a Cooking Class in Thamel.
#3 PAKORA
A traditional deep-fried snack prepared from vegetables such as onion, eggplant, spinach, or cauliflower, and often used as an appetizer is called Pakora.
Preparation for this bite couldn't be easier. It starts with mixing ingredients, dipping them in the gram flour sauce, and quickly stir-frying the mixture.
We had this meal from a stall on the side of the road when traveling by bus to Besisahar to stave off our hunger until the next stop.
We usually do not eat fried meals, but if you are looking for a traditional appetizer that will blow your mind, Pakora it is.
#4 THUKPA
A spicy soup with a rich taste that warms you up on your travels through Nepal.
Thukpa is originally from Tibet but expanded to neighboring countries through time.
This is primarily broth mixed with locally grown veggies and noodles and widely varies throughout regions.
We believe that every Nepali woman has her own family recipe, and every one of them will be delicious.
It does not come as a surprise that in the cities where it is easy to do grocery shopping is the soup rich in ingredients.
The higher in the mountains you get, the more watery Thukpa gets because of the lack of veggies. But it is not a bad thing.
We were actually amazed by the variety of food we were able to get above 3500 meters.
#5 ALOO GOBI
Simple vegan curry dish consists of potatoes and cauliflower as main ingredients. A handful of tomatoes is added later to make this somewhat dry dish easier to cook.
Seasoned with turmeric powder that provides the typical yellow color, garam masala, and fresh herbs give this meal its specific taste.
Aloo Gobi was one of our favorite meals in Nepal, and until today, it is the meal we cook at home most frequently, when we feel like eating something from this part of the world.
As we work from home, it is also important how long it takes to prepare the meal, and even with the eating, we are usually ready within an hour.
Same as the rest of the meals from Nepalese cuisine, Aloo Gobi is also very photogenic.
Travel Resources
Here you can find links to all the travel resources we use and which you might find helpful when planning your next holiday.
Accommodation: When looking for accommodation, we usually search hotels via Booking.com or Hostelworld.
Tours: Although we love to travel independently, some places are better to visit with a guided tour.
We prefer GetYourGuide for its easy-to-use interface and solid reputation. Another great alternative is Viator.
Rental Cars: When going on a road trip, we always use Rentalcars.com, a reliable site for booking a rental car in advance.
Flight Tickets: When looking for flight tickets, you can search Skyscanner to find the best price.
Travel Insurance: World Nomads and SafetyWing cover against risks of travel.
