Where Food is Fuel

A lot of people misunderstand the term detox. Although it has been a popular concept and a trendy thing to do for the last few years, many people—even ones who supposedly go on detox diets quite frequently—fail to understand what this kind of diet is trying to promote.

“You can’t just ‘detoxify’ your body in a day after you’ve eaten a lot of unhealthy food and drank copious amount of alcohol the day before. For the detox diet to work, it should be a constant thing,” says Supriya Shakya. And it is to make more people aware of the actual intention behind ‘detox’ that she launched the Detox Café, currently located in Labim Mall, Pulchowk.

Detox Café was launched around six months ago and the concept of detox food was new and foreign even to its two founders, Shakya and her long-time friend, Saloni Bagaria. Shakya and Bagaria, who have been friends since their college days, were working together at another firm when they found out that the Indian health food and cereal company, Bagrry’s, was looking to open an eatery to promote its products. And since Shakya, a self-confessed food enthusiast who also runs the foodstagram, @shakya_diaries, had always harbored a dream of running her own restaurant, she and Bagaria approached Bagrry’s and launched Detox Cafe after working on the idea for three months.

Detox Café currently operates out of a compact space. There is an outdoor seating space—if you can even call a space on the third floor of a mall that isn’t a rooftop space outdoor—that can seat two groups of people and an indoor seating space that can seat three to four groups of people. A counter separates the coffee and smoothie preparation space from the indoor seating space and the actual kitchen—which also is pretty small, according to Shakya—is on the other side of the door, situated behind the counter. The counter area also has a few quotes—that promote healthy dieting and eating—printed on it.

The space was previously a juice bar and Bagaria claims that as they had to remodel the space (instead of just building it from scratch), it took them longer to get the decor and interior right. There is an open shelf—beside the indoor seating area—that displays a bunch of Bagrry’s products and Shakya claims that some customers buy these products on the spot after trying a dish from Detox Café’s menu that utilizes these items, which quite a lot of them actually do.

Shakya reveals that the Detox Café team came up with the eatery’s menu all on their own and that they had to go through a lot of trial-and-errors before confirming whether a recipe or a dish was fit to be served. So, although they have some conventional items that are served at many restaurants in Kathmandu (like momos, coffee, etc.) mostly listed on the ‘cheat day’ section, their menu has more than a few experimental items.

I felt that Detox Café takes its concept of serving fresh and healthy food very seriously and that this is one eatery where you don’t have to feel guilty after giving in to your cravings. The food here might not be what you are used to but it’s definitely not something you should miss out on either.

Granola Protein Jar

Price: Rs 375 |

My personal favorite out of everything I tried at Detox Café was their Granola Protein Jar. It contained slices of a few fruits, including kiwi, strawberry, blackberry and banana, and was topped with yogurt and granola. Because they didn’t add any sugar to it, the whole thing tasted a little sour (probably because of the fruits and yogurt) but the granola adding a hint of sweetness to it.

Spicy Noodle Bowl

Price: Rs 375 |

The Spicy Noodle Bowl is a recent addition to Detox Cafe’s menu and I have to mention that you will only enjoy this dish if you have acquired its taste. People who are trying it for the first time will probably not enjoy this a lot. Also, I didn’t think the noodles were spicy at all but when I mentioned this fact to Bagaria, she said she would look into it and tweak the spiciness level as needed.

Detox Platter

Price: Rs 450 |

Detox Café has a separate ‘Make your own Detox Platter’ menu from which you can pick items to be included in your platter. I choose masala omelet, corn, avocado salad, cottage cheese, broccoli and onions. Although everything went together pretty well, the masala omelet and corn stood out. But I regretted including onion in my order as it added nothing to the dish.

Eggs Benedict

Price: Rs 450 |

The Eggs Benedict served at Detox Café comes with a side of salads and potato wedges. It’s very heavy and two to three people can share it if you order one or two other side dishes. I personally found the hollandaise sauce a bit too salty but that might just be me because I like my food a little on the bland side.

Dare to Be Healthy

Price: Rs 150 |

Dare to Be Healthy comprises of three health shots served in tequila glasses. All these drinks contain undisclosed ingredients but a staff conveniently let it slip that they only use different vegetables and fruits for it. The three drinks don’t particularly taste like anything but feel super healthy.

Detox Café

Labim Mall, Pulchowk

Opening hours : 8:00 am to 8:00 pm

Additional charges : 10% service charge

Parking : Available

Delivery : Through Foodmandu

Call : 9849371072