KZ
is something of an institution in Thamel. A darling of the darlings of the once-popular guidebooks backpackers use to navigate the city’s hotspots, the restaurant boasts an impressive seven floors and one of the highest rooftop dining areas in the district.
At Nepali Times, we’ve often shied away from reviewing more established restaurants, but considering Helena’s popularity among visitors, it deserves to be scrutinised as much as the newer, trendier locations we tend to gravitate towards.
Helena’s is probably best known for its breakfast menu, featuring the usual sets, plus excellent homemade croissants stuffed with ham, eggs, and the like. But the restaurant’s menu, like so many of its contemporaries, is stuffed to the brim with food for all times of day and from all over the world.
However, this multicuisine approach is often deeply problematic. While the intent to please crowds from all corners of the planet seems admirable and smart, one has to wonder whether it might be better to streamline: cook one cuisine with flair rather than many with mediocrity.
And that, unfortunately, is Helena’s downfall. We started with the Hariyali kabab (Rs 200), which, rather than dazzlingly green with fresh mint and coriander, was, well, kind of grey. This Punjabi snack is normally served spicy, but here was bland, and the topping of a whole, solitary cashew seemed insufficient.
We had better luck with our second Punjabi offering, daal makhni (Rs 260), which for me was the standout dish. Rich and creamy as it should be, with a garnish of ghee for good measure, the only thing to complain about was the lack of naan bread on offer that day to scoop it up with. But we couldn’t stay in India for the whole evening, although I suspect that this is where Helena’s greatest strengths lie.
Moving instead to Europe, the chicken cordon bleu (Rs 440) came with a slightly grainy but otherwise delicious mash and steamed vegetables. The chicken was perfectly cooked: tender and stuffed with cheese and ham. But, to our dismay, it arrived smothered in a hard-to-fathom generic tomato sauce. When you prepare a fillet of chicken so exquisitely, why not let it speak for itself The dish certainly passed muster, but only after we’d diligently scraped the slop to the side of the plate.
We’re suckers for ‘specials’ and the ambiguity their name generates. The Helena’s Special (non-veg), Rs 400, gave us so few clues, we just had to try it. What arrived was hard to place, but probably best categorised as quasi-Chinese. Huge chunks of (again tender) chicken swam in a bright-red, garlic-heavy gravy, served with boiled rice and the same vegetables from the cordon bleu.
Helena’s really does do a bit of everything and so we couldn’t leave without sampling its cakes, which are all baked in-house. The chocolate and banana cake and carrot cake (both Rs 150) were served in doorstop portions and while they lacked the moistness we’d hoped for, were a tasty (and generous) way to wrap up what was a rather uneven dinner.
I feel a certain affection for Helena’s: the staff are extremely friendly, breakfasts are hard to beat, and offers a different dining atmosphere on every floor. It’s also a shame to single it out, as many of Thamel’s older joints have been trading off former glories for too long. We’ll definitely return to cover more of these stalwarts in future reviews, but knowing the amount of innovation available in newer, single-cuisine venues, this will be done somewhat reluctantly.
How to get there: head left from the main, supermarket-laden junction in central Thamel. Helena’s Restaurant is on the left, opposite Pilgrim’s Book House.