Top Restaurants in Kathmandu: What They Cost and What to Order

Dinner for one in Kathmandu runs about Rs 400 at a Newari kitchen, Rs 900 at a good Thamel pizza place, and Rs 2,000 upward in the hotel dining rooms on Durbar Marg. Below are the restaurants worth the trip, grouped by what you actually want tonight. Prices come from the menus KTMenu holds in full, so they are checkable rather than remembered.

For a Dinner That Is the Occasion

The Chimney, inside Hotel Yak & Yeti on Durbar Marg, has been serving since 1968 and is the closest thing Kathmandu has to a historic dining room. Its menu runs Rs 600 to 4,500, the widest spread of any kitchen on this list, and the Russian borscht it opened with is still on it. Third Eye on J.P. Road has been in Thamel since 1989, seats over 300 across three floors and a rooftop, and won Nepal's Best Restaurant Award in 2025. Its tandoor is the reason to go: tandoori chicken Rs 850, chicken tikka Rs 780, paneer tikka Rs 650.

Durbar Marg is where the rest of this bracket sits. Mezze by Roadhouse does Mediterranean plates and wood-fired pizza from a rooftop, and Penthouse Rooftop Bar and Lounge trades on the same view. Neither publishes prices we can verify, so treat the Rs 2,000 a head figure as a floor rather than a quote.

For Nepali and Newari Cooking

This is where Kathmandu is genuinely hard to beat, and where the money goes furthest.

• Honacha, Patan. A century-old family room behind Krishna Mandir, ten dishes, Rs 80 to 320. The cheapest serious food in this guide.
• Bhojan Griha, Dilli Bazaar. A restored 150-year-old house that belonged to a royal priest. Eleven dishes, Rs 120 to 550, including a full samay baji set.
• Cafe de Patan, Patan. Family-run, steps from Patan Durbar Square, eleven dishes at Rs 120 to 550.
• Gaga Restaurant, Baneshwor. Nepali and Tibetan, twelve dishes at Rs 150 to 320, and the momo menu we hold in most detail: veg Rs 160, buff Rs 180, jhol Rs 220.

For Pizza and Pasta

Roadhouse Cafe on Chaksibari Road opened in 1992 as Thamel's first wood-fired pizza restaurant and is still the reference point. Margherita Rs 780, diavola Rs 970, spaghetti bolognese Rs 680, thirteen dishes between Rs 320 and 980. Marcopolo in Thamel is the other Italian name that comes up consistently. Worth knowing before you order: a margherita is Rs 650 at OR2K a few streets away, so the wood-fired oven is most of what the difference buys.

For Vegetarians

OR2K on Mandala Street has run for over twenty years on cushion seating with your shoes at the door, and the whole menu is vegetarian. Hummus with pita Rs 380, shakshuka Rs 450, Buddha bowl Rs 480, twelve dishes from Rs 220 to 750. It is the only kitchen here where a vegetarian orders from the full menu rather than a section of it.

What Dinner Actually Costs

• Newari or Nepali set meal: Rs 120 to 550 a dish, and the sets refill.
• Momos: Rs 160 to 250 a plate sitting down, Rs 80 to 120 from a cart.
• Wood-fired pizza: Rs 650 to 980 depending on the oven and the address.
• Tandoori and curries: Rs 440 to 850 at a long-established kitchen.
• Hotel dining rooms on Durbar Marg: Rs 2,000 a head and up, with the top of the range around Rs 4,500 a dish.
• Service charge of 10 to 13 percent plus 13 percent VAT is added at most of these. It is on the menu, usually in small type at the bottom.