House of Momo

Nepalese

52 Boleyn Rd, N16 8JP

£

House of Momo is a small, neighbourhood establishment serving fresh handmade Momo’s and Nepalese cuisine. The menu is small, focusing on its namesake and then Thali’s, noodles and rice. We stopped by one chilly Wednesday evening, to warm our cockles with memories of warmer times.

We initially arrived at 18:30 and the restaurant was pretty empty. Given we weren’t hungry yet, we decided to stop for a pint at Dalston Curve Garden before journeying back. Second time around, at 19:30 and the restaurant was totally full. We were advised to wait outside until a table came free, which luckily didn’t take any more than 10 minutes. We were seated at a large communal bench-style table with other diners along it: the pace and ambience here make for extremely purpose-driven dining. Although they manage to avoid to horribly bright lights of similar restaurants, the whole atmosphere feels very frantic, and like an in and out operation.

We pondered the menu and decided to order some steamed vegetable Momo’s in a Jhol curry sauce and some fried chicken Momo’s in a Chilli sweet and spicy sauce. We initially were going to order the Mini for £6 / £6.50 but then realised if we ordered 10 it was only £2.75 / £2.50 more and therefore a much better deal. Given we had 20 Momo’s, we decided to just get one portion of Chicken Chowmein noodles to go with it £8.50, although the couple next to us raved about the vegetable Paratha Thali (£8). We got two Asahi’s to sink it down. A heads up that you need to go up to the counter and order – don’t be like us and embarrassingly wait for the someone to come over before your co-diners next door point out that no one will be coming.

The Vegetable Momo’s arrived in small cylindrical shapes, swimming in a yellow curry sauce. It arrived super quickly after ordering which was great, but both the momo’s and the sauce could have been a little warmer. The Momo’s were stuffed with fragrant and flavourful potato, spices and various veg – they would have been decent on their own, but I’m glad we had the sauce for an extra punch. The Momo’s themselves were crafted beautifully, however they were a little thick which made them quite chewy – not sure if this would have been better if they were a bit hotter. The chicken Momo’s arrived piping hot, however, and were fried to a perfect crisp which didn’t lose its shape too much when dunked in the sauce. The chicken was a great component to the sweet spiciness, the batter was a little thinner so didn’t become chewy, and once again the shape of these was lovely. The chicken chow mein noodles were pretty forgettable but were a nice way to soak up the final juices (rice probably would have done better though). They didn’t have loads of flavour, were quite dry and didn’t have that much chicken in them. Overall, these were pretty disappointing.

Overall, House of Momo does what it says on the tin: it is authentic, no-frills food which does what it knows how to do best. For the price, it's worth it, but my advice would be to stick to the Momo’s: they’re what you’re here for, so come and feast on delicious dumplings. The Thali will be a worth a shot next time around, but don’t bother with any of the sides, they will be mere background noise to the main event.

OVERALL RATING: ****

https://houseofmomo.co.uk/