For an average Nepali, Pokhara is an ideal place for holiday. Pokhara is always abuzz with the variety of national and international crowd that comes here to have a good time. However, Pokhara has also been the ultimate stop for national and international businesses. Businesses, especially eateries, are booming in the city gradually.

According to Former Restaurant and Bar Association of  Nepal (ReBAN) Chairman Gopi Bahadur Bhattarai, as per the trend, there has been a sudden inclination towards international food chains in Nepal. There are more than half-a-dozen national and international food chains operating in Pokhara. And these food chains have contributed extensively to the tourism sector of Pokhara.

The love for international branded food was evident since the first day of official opening of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) at Lakeside, Pokhara where the young food enthusiasts crowded the place.

This is the first franchise KFC has opened outside the Kathmandu Valley and there has not been a day when the place is not crowded. KFC was introduced to Nepal, with its outlet in Durbar Marg, by Devyani International (DI) back in 2009. Meanwhile, it was RJ Corp that helped DI to extend the business in Pokhara just two months ago.

“Even it’s been only two months, the response has been amazing. Not only local, but foreigners as well as businessmen and investors have also shown similar response. Seeing such response, we think we should have opened sooner,” KFC’s Branch Manager, Dipsha Bhatta shared.

Bhatta said they had plans for an early launch, but, they faced some technical disruptions which delayed their plan for extension in Pokhara.

Likewise, Nepali franchise Himalayan Java is another addition in Pokhara where coffee lovers can enjoy their cuppa. Himalayan Java was established some three years ago and many national as well as international crowd can be seen in the place throughout the day. They are even more delighted with the view of beautiful Lakeside in front of the café. The café has altogether 15 outlets and has even gone international with outlets in Bhutan, India, U K and the US.

“We promote national products, be it coffee or bakery, as much as possible in all of our outlets,’ Java’s Branch Manager Sanjay Gautam said adding, “Java has promoted the coffee-drinking culture to a very large extent. People do not need any occasion, time or season to drink coffee now. Coffee has become equivalent to a conversation.”
“Before the 2015 earthquake, we had affluent business throughout the year. But now, we have experienced ‘season’ and ‘off-season’ business. We are doing good business though,” added Gautam.

Also in Lakeside, OR2K restaurant has been operating since the last three years. Although the restaurant had targeted Israeli audience, it is not short of Nepali, Indian and Chinese customers. The restaurant is very spacious and can serve pure vegetarian cuisines in breakfast, lunch and dinner for up to 250 people.  OR2K first opened in Kathmandu 18 years ago and has been catering to the foodies there ever since. The ‘OR’ means light in Hebrew while ‘K’ refers to Kathmandu.

OR2K’s Branch Manager Poonam Chandra Giri shared, “We entered Pokhara with a motive to extend our business and to serve the people with good quality and healthy food.”

Giri also recalled their time when the earthquake struck. “We were in our first year when the earthquake struck. We were slowly settling but the earthquake put a halt to our business. It made our business seasonal.”

Not only that, Rosemary Restaurant is there, catering to the chicken lovers, Roadhouse Café for the Italian taste and Koila Restaurant for Arabian cuisines. There are also other restaurant serving food from Korean, Japanese, Chinese and other variety of cuisines of the world.

“We are just getting familiar to international tastes. We are in constant need of international exposure. Any tourism spot can be an international hub only when it gets such exposure. The tourism sector certainly benefits a lot from this,” Bhattarai claimed.
Bhattarai believed in franchise promoting a healthy competition among international food chains and that it would also teach other businesses about how to run business effectively. On the other hand, people get the variety to choose from as well; a new taste every time.

“For business to flourish, they need to expand their branches on a wider scale. If you are not successful at one place, expanding in the other place might change your fortune. The business would not be successful when it gets settled in one place only,” Bhattarai suggested.