Looking for a good breakfast around rapidly expanding restaurant row in Jhamsikel is surprisingly difficult. Walking aimlessly for a satisfying pancake breakfast is a fruitless and frustrating mission. Trips into inviting cafes have generally left me disappointed. Not all cafes are created equal, and that’s why an old favourite is not a cafe at all.
Hermann Helmer’s German Bakery is the same familiar establishment it was when Ashok KC opened it more than 30 years ago. “Buy your freshly baked bread and cakes from your local family baker,” the painted words outside the bakery demand. And the Jhamsikhel community continues to do just that.
Trained in Germany, Ashok has passed on the Nepali owned and operated bakery to his sons, and the family still are its hands on caretakers of freshness and service.
The pastry covered fingerprints of Helmer’s Bakery have spread all over the Kathmandu Valley as well. Cafes and bakeries like Chai Chai Cafe and Bakers on restaurant lane offer many of the same German bakery items. But it’s the whiplash of the oven-baked fresh smell that sets Hermann Helmer’s apart, and makes it worth coming back to again and again.
Everything in the small display and restaurant room smells and feels fresh. Signs ask patrons to please not touch the breads with their bare hands. While other establishments are quietly minded by a single person behind the counter, Hermann Helmer’s is always bustling with staff bagging freshly baked and sliced bread, taking orders for cakes, and serving their fresh baked items to their regular patrons.
You cannot go wrong with any of the traditional bakery items. But venture beyond its typical reach of expertise with the chicken burger that can be had on-the-go anytime of day. About the size of a large slider, the homemade chicken patty, also made with cheese and onions, is delicately seasoned. Slid into a fresh baked sesame bun the taste of the burger melts into your mouth forming fond memories. For Rs 125 it is both the best taste and value in burger land. A fresh baked sesame roll (Rs 60) or brown French bread (Rs 120) is much more of the norm for patrons coming in and out.
But frustration with finding a traditional breakfast turned into an alternative mission at Hermann Helmer’s. If I can’t have the first meal of the day, I might as well replace it with the last--cake.
ALL PICS: MATT MILLER
At the staff’s recommendation I ordered an iced Swiss roll (pic, center). Ordering a Swiss roll at a German bakery was a little like ordering a French dip at a fine Italian restaurant. But as I mercilessly broke down the defenses of the thick slice of Swiss roll smeared in rich chocolate sauce and sweet vanilla ice cream nestled on top, I unlocked it’s sweet flavor, well worth the Rs 100 price tag.
You can also walk out of the bakery with daily, pre-made cakes of different shapes and sizes, as well as fruit and other fillings. Or you can order a custom cake one or two days in advance. An average sized round cake is Rs 1,100 per kg. The smaller, we’ll call it without judgement the individual breakfast size cake, is Rs 300. The soft, chilled chocolate dripping over the light vanilla frosting complemented a moist chocolate center. Cake for breakfast was an unexpected delight that I’d recommend to anyone on a hot Kathmandu morning.
How to get there: Past the Suzuki showroom in Pulchok, Hermann Helmer’s is on the right, just a few steps away. Open everyday from 7AM to 8PM (except Sundays).