Thamel has opened on Edinburgh’s East London Street

It’s the monsoon season in Kathmandu. Same in Edinburgh.

Thus, a drenching Sunday afternoon seemed the right time to shelter at our newest Nepalese restaurant Thamel. It is owned by the people behind Gautam’s on Dalziel Place and has recently slotted into one of the Scottish capital’s most cursed slots. I’ve reviewed various businesses at this blind spot of a location and restaurants rarely stick.

Still, the odds are balanced, as this city’s Nepalese restaurants have longevity. For example, among others, we’ve got old-timers The Khukuri, Gurkha and Namaste, which must have a few decades between them.

The newest addition trumps them, in terms of contemporary interiors. The space features a mural of the Himalayas, a burnt umber colour scheme, and fringed lamps and flowers, presumably to reference the Seventies hippie residents of Kathmandu’s Thamel neighbourhood.

I slotted my umbrella beside our pristine padded banquette, with a sleeping buddha statue punctuating the other end. The menu offers a few classic Nepalese dishes, as well as token classic curries, like korma and tikka masala, plus dum biryani, cocktails, small plates and a good vegetarian section.

It felt obligatory to start with the traditional momo (£6.50), which are available in chicken or vegan varieties.

This set of four steamed dumplings had fleshy cases with pale crimped edges, and were filled with a roughly hewn poultry and onion filling. It was wholesome and cockle warming. The magic could be found in the accompanying achar, or chutney, which was blobbed in the middle of the plate like a setting sun and contained tomato, sesame and hemp seed. They should sell this by the jar.

We also tried the fish poori tacos (£9). These were pleasant, with salmon tikka, pink pickled onions – in the same shade as Nepal’s national flower, the rhododendron – and spicy mint chutney in each of the two fried bready parcels.

For main courses, we chose the most expensive and luxurious sounding option – the scallops moilee (£23) – but also the most humble, with the gau ko jukhuro (£14) or village style chicken curry on the bone.

I must be a cheap date, as the £14 curry was my favourite. It was very comforting, with hunks of meat and a thick fox red sauce that had depth, with garlic, ginger and the citrussy addition of whole timur berries.

I’d suggest you eat the Goan seafood option quickly, as the fishy quartet was in a bowlful of hot sauce, so do continue to cook a bit. We wished we’d been a bit faster. However, this dish was in excellent contrast to our chicken curry. While that was rustic and uber savoury, this was balmy and coconutty, with tamarind and black mustard, all served in a pretty blue scalloped bowl.

We had a generous helping of pilau rice (£4.50) on the side, and garlic and coriander roti (£4.50) that was pleasingly saturated with melted ghee.

There was also an accidental third main. I’d misread the menu and ended up with a full sized paneer makhani (£12), which is also available as a side. Silly me. Still, it was not neglected. There were endless bouncy cubes of paneer in a tomatoey, cardamom and fenugreek sauce.

The rain paused at this point. We should have taken that chance to go. But, no, it turns out there’s a good-looking dessert menu too, with kulfi, gulab jamun, mango cheesecake and masala chai tiramisu.

However, we shared the jaggery sticky toffee pudding (£8.50), which has nothing to do with old Mick, but instead features this sugarcane product. It made for a dense and conker-hued sponge, with dates in the mix, a moat of treacle-y sauce (more, please) and lush and silky mango kulfi.

We finished it off with our cocktails. I’d gone for The Fat Buddha, which was a take on an old-fashioned, with Born Irish Whiskey, Krispy Kreme Nutella chocolate doughnut, maple, citric acid, milk, chocolate and coffee bitters. It was way more sophisticated than it sounds. Their Thamel Margarita (£11) was lovely too – baby pink, with tequila, raspberry-infused mezcal, watermelon cordial and a very spicy togarashi and Himalayan salt rim.

As we slowly worked our way through those drinks and three enjoyable courses, I was happy to see the place filling up. And I don’t think the other diners were just sheltering from the monsoon.

Perhaps this could be the restaurant to break the East London Street curse.

Thamel

7-11 East London Street

Edinburgh

(0131 526 4114, www.thamel.co.uk)

Lunch for two, excluding drinks, £82

Food 8/10

Ambience 8/10

Does this restaurant serve Scotland's best curry?

Comments