Lakeside can feed you anything — pizza, sushi, full English — and much of it is fine. But the food worth travelling for is Nepali, and specifically Thakali, the cooking of the Mustang valley that Pokhara has adopted as its own. Start there.
At a glance
- Must try
- Thakali set
- Cheap & good
- Momo, chowmein
- Lake fish
- Ask what’s fresh
- Tipping
- ~10% if no service charge
Eat a Thakali set
A Thakali khana set is the refined version of dal bhat: rice, a thin dal, a meat or vegetable curry, sautéed greens, fermented gundruk, a fried papad, pickles and often a spoon of ghee. Refills of rice, dal and vegetables are customary and free. Pokhara has dozens of Thakali kitchens; the ones full of Nepali families at 1 pm are the ones you want.
TODO: add 3–4 vetted Thakali restaurants with street/area only (no hours or prices until checked).
Momo, chowmein and the snack food
Momo — steamed dumplings, buff or chicken or veg, with a tomato-sesame achar — are the national snack and cost very little. Look for places where they're made to order rather than sitting in a steamer. Sel roti (the ring-shaped rice doughnut), samosa and chatpate from street carts are the afternoon food of the city, and better in the old bazaar than on Lakeside.
Fish from the lake
Restaurants on the shore sell "lake fish" — typically carp species from Phewa or from the fish farms on Begnas and Rupa lakes. Grilled with lemon and Nepali spices it's excellent. Ask whether it's from the lake that day; the honest answer is often "from the farm", which is also fine.
Cafés, bakeries and breakfast
Pokhara has a proper coffee culture now — locally grown Nepali beans, decent espresso — and the German-style bakeries that trekkers have relied on for decades. Breakfast facing the lake with a pot of coffee is one of the city's pleasures; the north end of Lakeside does it best.
TODO: add 3–4 vetted cafés/bakeries.
Where to sit for the view
The lakefront restaurants between Barahi ghat and Hallan Chowk have tables at the water. The food is generally middling and priced for the view; go for a drink at sunset and eat elsewhere, or accept the trade. The rooftop terraces a street back from the lake often have a better mountain view than the shore.
Drink
Local beers (Gorkha, Everest, Nepal Ice) are everywhere. Try raksi — the home-distilled spirit — only where a Nepali friend vouches for it, and tongba, hot millet beer drunk through a straw, on a cold evening. Lakeside's live-music bars cluster around the centre; things wind down around 11 pm to midnight in practice.
Questions I get asked
Is the tap water safe?
No. Drink filtered or bottled water. Most hotels and many cafés offer refills of filtered water — bring a bottle and ask.
Is Nepali food very spicy?
Restaurant dal bhat is mild; the pickles carry the heat and you control those. Ask for "less spicy" and you’ll be understood.
Do I tip in Pokhara?
Many tourist restaurants add a 10% service charge; if they do, nothing more is expected. If not, rounding up or ~10% is appreciated but never demanded.