OLD HOUSE - All about Flavor and Fun
“The excellent culinary skills and extensive dedication of our production team at Old House Restaurant are directed to serve our customers with a unique dining experience – organic yet delectable.
Old House Restaurant, which is centrally located at Durbarmarg, Kathmandu has been a wonderland for a lot of Nepalese food lovers. Its decorations are elegant and sophisticated, and its ambiance calm and hassle-free. It caters its customers with some of the most scrumptious meals one could find in Nepal.
This restaurant is perfect as it is. But an additional information about its method of cooking adds glitter to the gold. The restaurant is inspired by French Gastronomy method of cooking and has been using this method since its very establishment. During the restaurant’s initial days, the restaurant brought in consultant chefs from Paris itself to give a nine-month-long training to the restaurant’s production team.
Basically, under this method of cooking, the restaurant focuses on keeping its meals fresh and organic. In order to do so, the restaurant buys all the required ingredients from local farmers on a daily basis, and imports ingredients that are unavailable in Nepal in very small batches so that the ingredients used in meals are always fresh. Additionally, the restaurant changes its menu every now and then based on the ingredients available during the season.
The restaurant–from time to time–practices Molecular Gastronomy as well, which requires a special set of chemicals that aren’t readily found in Nepal, or even when found doesn’t come with proper food safety guidelines. So the restaurant has to import all the chemicals to prepare food in this method, making it unfeasible for regular practice. However, the Old House is trying its level best to serve its customers with meals prepared through the Molecular Gastronomy method from time to time.
Food Review
Watermelon Feta Salad – Rs.495
Rating: 4/5
This dish is extremely fresh and light. With a perfect balance between watermelon and feta cheese, this salad has a summer vibe to it. It comes with dehydrated black olive powder which, when sprinkled over the watermelon, adds a whole new taste to the salad. A green salad called ‘The rocket salad,’ that is served along with this dish also has a really raw and crisp texture to it. The honey balsamic dressing also adds to the flavor of the dish.
Seafood Risotto – Rs.980
Rating: 3.5/5
An adaptation of the Italian cuisine, Seafood Risotto comes with a creamy rice bottom and is topped with some shrimp. The shrimps are well-cooked giving them a very soft, luscious taste. The game changer, however, is the combination of zucchini puree and turmeric mayonnaise that gives a silky consistency to the overall dish.
Roasted Pork Blly – Rs.98
Rating: 4/5
The pork belly is cooked to a perfect level such that the meat is tender and succulent. The juices remain locked within the meat and burst out when one takes a bite. The meat also has a really shiny look due to the balsamic glaze added to it. Radish puree is also served along with this dish. The puree has a creamy texture and a light taste which lets the flavors of the meat come through. And for some greens, bokchoy cabbage is served alongside the dish. This cabbage is well spiced and has a goodcrunch to it.
Passion Fruit Cheesecake - Rs.550
Rating: 4.5/5
This dessert is so well decorated that one is likely to fall in love with it before even tasting it. Having said that, this dessert is a delight to the taste buds as well. The cheesecake has a rich flavor that is a combination of passion fruit puree and smooth cream. The cake also comes with a caramel tuile and a green net tuile. The dish also comes with three strawberries covered with normal chocolate and white chocolate, which when eaten with the cake balance the strong flavor of the cheesecake and give the cake a sweeter taste.
