Rum Doodle in Thamel, Kathmandu is considered an institution by many of the mountaineering and trekking expeditions who go there and is a traditional place to go at the end of a trip. I recently returned from the Annapurna circuit and we all decided to visit for a meal as well.
The restaurant is described as the 40,000 1/2ft bar, a description which is a tad confusing to say the least for people like myself. It turns out that the restaurant is named after a book entitled "The Ascent of Rum Doodle” by W.E Bowman or that the book is named after the restaurant – I never did find out which. Either way the book and the restaurant are intrinsically linked and in the spirit of cashing in, copies of the book are available from the restaurant at the very reasonable price of 200 rs, which is currently £1.50 or so. I would recommend the book for that price as it is very funny.
The main thing that attracts people to the restaurant is the vast array of signatures and “Yeti Feet” that adorn the wall. For people who have not been there, the Yeti feed are pieces of cardboard in the shape of a foot, which are used by all and sundry to record their names and thoughts about the various expeditions they have been on. The feet contain musings from people who have done a simple 5-day trek, all the way to people who have climbed Everest and to be frank you could spend days reading them all and not get bored. We did one as well and hopefully people will be reading ours as I speak.
The main signatures however are from the famous people of Nepal. These are behind toughened glass and include the likes of Chris Bonnington, Reinhold Messener (completed all 14, 8000m peaks without oxygen), Alan Hinkes and taking pride of place Sir Edmund Hillary. All of these people have visited Rum Doodle after expeditions and left their mark. One of the other signatures is Scott Hall who died on Everest in 1996 and was part of the story for “Into Thin Air” by Jon Kraukner.
Any good restaurant, no matter how much other interest it has lives or dies by its food and this is where I think Rum Doodle falls down. I should say however that it is recommended by Lonely Planet for the quality of its food, so we may just have gone on a bad night.
For starter I had Garlic Bread (70rs, about 50p) and it was acceptable – 4 slices of French bread, toasted with garlic butter. Other people had soup, which by all accounts was nice and salad, which according to one person was “horrible”, with the most disgusting cheese imaginable.
Main course I had steak (260rs, about £2) and whilst it was not inedible it wasn’t great. I am assuming that it was either Yak or Buffalo steak as it did not taste like Beef. I ordered the steak well done and it was at best rare and was quite tough as well. The sauce it came with was nice however and the chips and veg were ok. The main complaint was the heat of it though. The sauce it came with was boiling, but the steak itself was at best tepid – almost if it had been cooked some time before and then just given a helping of hot sauce to warm it up. Everyone else who had steak reported the same thing.
Other people’s impressions of the meals were varied – from the chicken Tikka, which was excellent to the steak, which was at best rated “average”
One other point that should be made is that the staff are horrible. It seems almost like Rum Doodle is such an institution now that they feel they don’t need to try anymore. The staff member who served us was surly to the extreme and made no effort to provide good customer service. This is not indicative of Nepalese people at all, who are in the main exceedingly friendly.
Despite this review and the poor mark I am not going say people should not go there, on the contrary I think anyone in Nepal should go there once, if only to see the signatures and take in the atmosphere. If they have not improved their standards of service and food however, then I would recommend going for a drink only.
Rum Doodle could be a fantastic place in the right hands. When I am next in Nepal I am going to go back and try and find my signature foot. I will probably eat there as well and I hope it has improved this time.
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