Neha Gurung-Shrestha is a client servicing executive for JWT Thompson Nepal. She is passionate about films, art, books, and cooking.

Given the current fuel crisis, eating out in Kathmandu has been a dicey situation as most restaurants have limited menus. I was pleasantly surprised to know that Roadhouse Cafe was offering a full menu, so I decided on a brunch date with my husband.

We reached at around 11:00 am on Saturday to find that the restaurant was just opening up. After waiting for a while we were let in. We chose to sit out in the al fresco set up as it was tad bit darker inside and we wanted to get as much sunlight as possible.

We ordered Illy Americano coffees, it was too cold to have anything else. After warming up over the steaming frothy cups of Joe, we ordered Potato Skins and a Rocket Salad for starters; a Prosciutto, mushroom and olives pizza along with a Classic Carbonara as our main course.

While waiting for the food, I looked around the restaurant — the quite spacious restaurant has a lot of cosy corners perfect for an evening drink and dinner but nothing says brunch or lunch quite like the open al fresco seating surrounded by greenery they have at the back. Although I must warn you about the constant buzzing of houseflies around.

Our starters arrived after a good 15-20 minutes, a decent enough time. The fried Potato Skins stuffed with beans, onions, tomatoes and melted cheese, looked delicious but tasted fairly okay. The filling could do with some more melted cheese and the skins in general were just lukewarm — not hot, which could have elevated the mood.

Our second starter, the Rocket Salad looked appetising and tasted good but the sourness of the dressing was a little off balance between the ratio of the Rucola, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan. The starters were not really something to write home about.

However, the pizza had a super sauce to offset the topping of prosciutto-mushroom-olives and the base was thin, crunchy yet chewy — a perfect combination in my books.

The Classic Carbonara lived up to its name — deliciously creamy, cheesy and with bacon bits in it, the piping hot pasta

had just the right amount of bite to it making it my new favourite dish at Roadhouse Cafe.

Then we decided to share a decadent looking lemon tart which turned out to be a bad idea. The pastry was soggy and the lemon custard filling was quite dense and tasted like undercooked dough. All it took was one bite and we deserted our dessert and I would not recommend this at all.

Our weekend brunch at Roadhouse Cafe was one roller coaster ride of the culinary good, bad and the never would touch again. With over four branches spread all over the city, Roadhouse Cafe is one of the city’s favourite eateries and I guess this is because their menu regulars like the pizza and pasta are always a fail-safe option and you are guaranteed yummy goodness but with other items, I would advise on proceeding with caution!

RATINGS ROADHOUSE CAFE

Ambience: 9

Food quality/

presentation: 8

Quality of service: 7

Hygiene: 8

Value for money: 7

Overall satisfaction value: 8