Woolwich Arsenal is probably not the area you will picnic in given a choice nor would you expect a gem of a restaurant hidden in the row of chip shops and barber shops. But, that’s exactly where you will find the Kailash Momo restaurant. The green doors and welcoming sign of this Nepalese restaurant with Momo’s on the logo picture, was all that was needed to convince me to go in, once I stumbled upon the same while googling for ‘Momo’s in London’.
Kailash Momo restaurant is a small family run business, with its root in Nepalese cuisine, which in itself is highly influenced by its two much larger neighboring countries of India and Tibet. This place has a delicate balance of curries found in the mountains of India and absolute delight of stews and dumplings indigenous to Tibetans.
Here is what we ordered
Starters : Crazy Chicken
Mains : Steamed Chicken Momos, Steamed Mutton Momos, Vegetable Chowmien.
Crazy chicken is not really very crazy , when you think about it is in essence a fried chicken with a very light coating of flour/ starch used for frying in the oil full of flavour, dominated by pepper and green chilli. The dish in itself has a lot going for it as the flavours of the spice do justice to small pieces of chicken on bone and is a good start for the star of the show Momo’s . We had it with one of house bread, called as Plain Bhaley, which was a cusp between a focaccia and a fried bread. in it’s texture. No complaints there as it was an appropriate complement to chicken. Overall Ratings : 7/10.
Momo’s for the uninitiated are dumplings made of flour filled with minced meat, steamed or fried to perfection. What is the difference between the Chinese dumplings you have been accustomed to you ask; well the actual pastry for the dumplings in momo’s is thinner and minced meat is cooked before it is filled and then steamed together with pastry or fried together, cooking only the pastry and increasing flavours of meat in the process.
This place gets how the momo’s are to be made and they are simply incredible. Steamed fresh each momo is overflowing with flavours and the accompaniment of the tomato garlic chutney is just amazing. Did take me back to time, when I use to have these delicacies back in Delhi’s Tibetan colony ; for me the mutton momo’s (goat meat) trumps the chicken hands down. Vegetable chowmien or noodles was quite alright, to be fair, I was too engrossed in a plate of momo’s to divert my attention to the noodles.
Overall Ratings : 8.5/ 10.
Service was quick and efficient. No complaints there.
Overall Restaurant Rating : 8/10
Spice & Oil Level: Medium to High
Recommended: Yes
Will I go back ? Yes, tell me when?
The Curry Blogger 