Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar has been in operation for more than a decade now. The restaurant opened its doors in early 2005 and was arguably the first organic eatery in Kathmandu Valley. The proprietors of the café started an organic farm to complement their organic eatery a year later. Currently, they have three different farms located in Melamchi, Sanga, and Gorkha. Binod Balami, general manager at Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar, confirms that almost every ingredient the café uses – besides meat – comes from their farms.
“The reason behind the launch of our organic line – the eatery and the farms – is to provide healthier alternatives to the chemical laden food we have everyday. We don’t use any chemicals in our food and everything is grown organically. I believe this is something you find out while eating the food that’s prepared here too. Everything tastes refreshing and natural,” says Balami. However, there are a few produces used at the Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar kitchen that are not from their farms. But these ingredients come from places like Manang and Mustang where using chemicals and other artificial additives is not a common practice.
Balami says that having their own farm has made running an organic eatery easier for the Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar team. He reveals that since they know how the ingredients are produced and grown, they can confidently claim to their customers that their dishes are as healthy as they get. And although he finds that a lot of eateries have really good organic salads these days, he says that he is yet to find any other restaurant in Nepal that serves good quality organic cuisines.
Although a majority of people who enter the Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar are foreigners, Balami claims that gradually the number of Nepalis customers have been increasing because of the fitness craze that is trending among the young crowd. According to him, the cafe’s authentic Nepalis curries are very popular among the foreign crowd. And since they serve tasty, healthy, and hygienic food at reasonable prices, Balami reveals that the café mostly gets good reviews and ratings from their customers.
"Our team as a whole would really love to see more people from Nepal getting involved in organic farming. Since only a few people are actually doing it right now, organic products are comparatively more expensive than chemical laden ones. But we are sure that if organic farming is adopted on a larger scale, then the cost will even out and people can enjoy healthy food at affordable prices,” states Balami. He further mentions that Green Organic Cafe and Farmer’s Bar also has plans of launching at least two other outlets at different locations of Kathmandu so that people living in or visiting the capital can enjoy organic food without having to travel all the way to Thamel where they are currently located.
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Garden fresh salad with nuts
Price: Rs 349
This is one of Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar’s bestselling appetizer. It’s a fresh salad incorporating multiple leafy greens, nuts, yak cheese and is served with their special in-house dressing and a piece of bread on the side. A decent serving of the salad is presented under the ‘regular’ size so it might be a little too heavy for a single person. The salad tastes good but make sure to avoid drizzling a lot of dressing on it as its flavor can come off a little too strong.
Chicken pasta casserole
Price: Rs 769
Balami claims that this dish is his personal favorite among the list of cuisines under the ‘pasta’ section of their menu. Their homemade pasta and chicken pieces are cooked with mushroom and creamy white sauce (made of cheese) and then baked in a casserole dish and garnished with herbs and additional cheese shavings. Although the pasta tastes delicious, the excessive amount of cheese used in this recipe gives the dish a very overpowering cheesy taste.
Veg millet momo
Price: Rs 399
This is a Green Organic Café and Farmer’s Bar original dish that is definitely worth an order when you visit the eatery. Unlike a typical plate of momos, the outer wrap of these momos is made up of a mixture of millet and buckwheat flour dough that gives the momos an enticing nut-brown color. Filled with tofu and paneer crumbs, green beans, lettuce, cabbage, carrot and ginger shavings, this dish will be a good change of flavor for all momo lovers out there.
Chocolate sikarni
Price: Rs 249
This particular dessert will either be a hit or a complete miss for you. Although made from creamy and thick juju dhau, the sikarni is surprisingly thin and watery. The chocolate and yogurt combo is pleasantly delectable and the cashew kernels that garnish the sikarni also add onto the flavor. Fair warning though, this is not a dessert for people who dislike lassi or overly sweet dishes for that matter.
