Lanterns
Having heard my team mates, many of whom who have lived in Shanghai for over 5 year, talk about Nepali Kitchen many a time, when a friend asked to meet up for dinner last Wednesday, I decided to recommended something new. With the amount of amazing restaurants in Shanghai, you could probably go to a new restaurant every day of the year, however it’s all to easy just to go to the same ones over and over.
Anyway, we arrived and were escorted upstairs by an amicable waitress who was dressed head to toe in red and white silk. We were then asked to switch from heels to slippers and shown to our low-slung table, which was on a raised platform, and surrounded in cushions. In typical Nepali manner, guests sit on the floor around the table, which makes dinner an extremely comfortable and relaxed affair. This is added to by the intimate size of the room in which we were seated- not more than 7 tables, mostly two-person ‘date’ tables, with one or two larger tables. The room was adorned in warm bright colours, with a sky of multicolored lanterns, and a soundtrack of upbeat and lively low key traditional Nepali music.
Sipping my martini (¥30) and tapping my foot to the music, I pondered the menu, and awaited the rest of the party’s arrival. Even with this extra reading time, the choice of what to order was not made any easier! It all sounded and looked so delicious. In the end we decided on chili prawns (for this seafood addict!) (¥73), vegetable curry (¥48), chicken in Nepali spices, egg fried rice with beef (¥48) and a green garden salad.
All of it, every single dish, was mouth-watering, the plates were spotless by the time we’d finished, leaving nothing but an excellent opinion of Nepali food! The vegetable curry was quite small, but the other dishes were large portions, perfect for sharing. The chilli prawns tasted a little like sweet and sour prawns and the Nepali spiced chicken was quite hot, served in a spicy paste. So good!
The menu contained a lot of exotic vegetarian options like Dahl as well. Having a vegetarian sister, I like to suss out whether restaurants are suitable for her when she comes to visit, as wholesome vegetarian food can be hard to come by in the best of places, not to mention in China! This would definitely be a contender.
A friend of mine, who’s a regular customer recommended the chicken tikka butter masala, the chili broth, the mutton ribs, and the aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes). Didn’t get to try those this time, so guess Il’l have to go again soon, shuuucks 😉
For a unique Nepali dining experience, head to 840 Julu Lu, Fumin Lu (巨鹿路，富民路）
in the French Concession, I’m off to look up flights to Nepal 😉
