One of the perks of being a food and travel writer is that not only do I get to eat a variety of cuisines in Delhi, I also do so when travelling. We start off with our new series: Where to Eat in? This section of the blog will be attributed to places that you must try when visiting any country. As we have traveled to Nepal twice in the last few months, once with Scout My Trip and secondly with Nepal Tourism Board and PATA, we tried out quite a bit of Nepali food. One of the places that we truly enjoyed in Kathmandu was Utsav.
The Ambiance at Utsav
The restaurant is built in a typical community style with long wooden tables stacked up on both sides with chairs. But one of the main reasons that this restaurant has shot to prominence is due to the innumerable traditional dance performances that happen throughout your meal.
Starting off
The Nepalis have a strange start to their meal. Their welcome drink Raksi is the local rice wine that scorches your throat. It is quite advisable to sip it out combine it with the starch of fried potatoes served alongside. We start off with a nine lentil soup which will pique your palate with earthy flavours of a multitude of lentils. 
The next course is Momos. Although they may have shot to fame in Delhi, but nothing still compares to the ones found in Nepal. The hot chilly sauce adds on another layer of flavours.
Mains at Utsav
The Nepalese mains usually consist of a Thali. As rice is staple in Nepal, it is added on with some spinach, lentils and a thin chicken curry, very similar to what a Bengali household has. Although we also love spinach, but the Nepalese version tends to have a bit more watery texture. There is also a mixed vegetable which is omnipresent on most of the households in Nepal.
We end our meal with a sweet yoghurt based dessert but I was more enthralled with the numerous dance performances. I also tried out one of their cocktails, Utsav Special. It had some of the famous Raksi which I had mentioned earlier mixed with some Orange juice. It’s a heady concoction which you must try out.
Next time you’re heading to Nepal, do try out in Kathmandu for a taste of authentic Nepalese food. You can find Utsav here.
