PICS:: RUBEENA D SHRESTHA

Dharan doesn't boast of many fine dining options. But as a first time visitor to the city, friends told me to include 'lunch at Nirvana Golf Club' on my to-do list. Located inside the vast compound of BP Memorial Hospital, Nirvana Country Club Health and Golf Resort is lush and beautiful - a cool oasis from Dharan's heat. The food, however is another matter altogether.

The menu is extensive and has everything from Indian to Chinese to the ubiquitous continental dishes that every restaurant worth its salt insists on including. It also had sandwiches, soups, and salads. The overly ambitious menu is probably why the food suffers. Instead of trying to impress us with a multitude of dishes, the restaurant should have jstuck to the basics: serving good, wholesome, tasty meals.

The lassis were warm and not well blended. Chunks of yogurt in the mouth do not make for a pleasurable drinking experience. Although the staff was very polite and helpful, the service was painfully slow. The ice we asked for came after we had almost finished drinking our warm glasses of what can be best described as mush.

Having decided to skip starters, we ordered the 'Nirvana Special Sandwich', vegetable shaslicks and chicken basket. Our waiter encouraged us to try the Nepali Thali set which at Rs 525 a plate, seemed expensive for what was described as a regular plate of dal-bhat-tarkari.

The bread was crumbly and plain and the meagre fillings of dry chicken bits and wilted lettuce ensured that there was nothing special about the 'special' sandwich. And the vegetable shaslicks, well those were an eye opener. We were expecting vegetables skewered and grilled, served over a bed of rice, but what we got instead was a mix of boiled vegetables dunked in thick white sauce.

The chicken in the basket was crisply fried, but drowned in a thick congealed mass trying to pass itself off as a brown sauce, accompanied by unpalatable French fries and plain boiled noodles. I judge a restaurant by its quality of fries and it's shocking how many get it all wrong. A classic plate of French fries is crisp on the outside but after biting into the potato, yields a rich smooth softness- a clash of textures that makes this a perennial favourite. At Nirvana, we got served thick chunks of potatoes dripping in oil with no hint of crispiness anywhere.

The saving grace of our meal arrived with the Nepali Thali set. A heap of rice, thick dal, mixed vegetables with grated paneer, tomato chutney and chicken in creamy gravy finally had us satisfied.

Nirvana wants to please everyone and in its eagerness to make all patrons happy, it instead does just the opposite. The restaurant should downsize its menu, emphasise on what its chefs cook well and then bask in the collective sighs of appreciation from satisfied and satiated customers.

Enter BP Hospital grounds and follow the road past the hospital and the disused swimming pool to the resort gates.