Woodside Cafe
“I also recommend their chatamari (Newari dish) and their fried fish (best Nepali-style fried fish that I've had outside of Nepal so far).”
“I had the chicken momo's which had wonderful rich spices that brought life into my soul!”
“The food is soooo good and filling!”
Woodside Cafe
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
3 reviews
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Unfortunately one of the more disconcertingly dingy restaurants I've visited in recent memory. Not to be confused with Woodside Cafe (yelp.com/biz/woodside-ca…) which shares a kitchen with Sean Og (yelp.com/biz/sean-og-tav…) and pumps out Irish pub fare, this Woodside Cafe is barely a block from where I grew up and serves traditional Nepalese cuisine.
Bhatmas sadeko (Nepalese soybeans) – The soybeans were spread on the plate in a single layer and looked very spartan, but they were pretty good, crunchy and dressed generously in spices, lemon, and raw onion. Spiciness accumulated across several minutes in a nice, low burn.
Vegetarian thali – All the usual items come on this sampler plate of a meal, and you also get a separate cup of plain yogurt (plus sugar packets if needed). The saag was insipid, but everything else was decent. Veggies, achar, beans, and dal ringed a huge mound of rice. Like the soybeans, the thali was satisfying (if austere), but in terms of flavors that actually intrigue and delight, I'd go for Dhaulagiri Kitchen's (yelp.com/biz/dhaulagiri-…). In both restaurants, you're asked if you want refills on any thali items – I guess Nepalese thali is inherently all-you-can-eat?
It was quiet inside at 10pm on a rainy night. The dinginess does get me though (which is saying something!). There were a few groups of Nepalese customers in the dim, awkwardly shaped restaurant, but Woodside Cafe can probably attract more diners if they cleaned up the walls, patched up some areas, finished painting so the room is one color… Maybe I'm traumatized by how my childhood home looked (embarrassingly similar to this), but I can imagine unwanted critters popping up in the downstairs kitchen. Their recent "A" restaurant health grade is a little hard to have faith in..!
On our 2 Night stay in NYC – we made a point to eat at only restaurants serving "authentic" nepali dish. And this surely made the cut.
The place is somewhat small but big enough to accommodate a group. There's not much to look at when it comes to decor and has more of a cafe (as you can guess from the name 🙂 ) feel to it.
Let's get down to business now. Everything we ordered were really good. Since this restaurant is recognized for it's "Newari" food – we had to order the "Chatamari" – aka Newari Pizza. It was good but not what I imagined it to be. Other than that, we got the Wai Wai Sadeko, Aloo Paloo, Tareko Macha (Fried Fish), Chicken Kothe Momo, Veg Kothe Momo and Chilli Momo. My favorite was the Fried Fish and my least favorite was the Aloo Paloo. I'm a big potato eater but the Aloo Paloo was just a bit soggy for me. Nevertheless, my visit here did not disappoint me. The price is very reasonable and the service wasn't too bad either.
Tip: The food here are really spicy so make sure to ask them to tone down on the spice level especially when ordering dish that's supposed to be somewhat spicy.
Don't expect a fancy restaurant, cause this is not. It also doesn't have any Nepali decor, looks like a low key cafe. But, the food and the service wins it all.
I went here yesterday with 3 of my Nepali friends. We ordered the following:
1) Chicken Sekuwa
2) Macha Tarero (Fried Fish)
3) Mas Ko Bara
4) 4 orders of Steamed Chicken Momo
My favorite of all was the Macha Tareko, the fish was so fresh, well fried and the combination of spicy Achaar (Sauce) and the size of the fish reminded me to Malekhu (A place in Nepal famous for its local fried fish).
I equally enjoyed the Chicken Sekuwa and Mas Ko Bara (Lentil Cakes). Will definitely order this again when I go there next.
Their Momo wasn't my favorite, I would give it 6 out of 10. I have had lot better momos before. The filling was ok, the dough was a little thick for my taste. I enjoyed their tomato achar (Sauce) that came with the momo.
I also had Mango Lassi to drink. It was made out of mango pulp and not real mangoes. Since its the mango season, i wish they used the real mangoes instead. It makes such a big difference in the taste.
At the end of the day, we were very satisfied with majority of the dishes we ordered. We also ended up ordering extra Chicken Sekuwa to go for tonight.