Review: Kathmandu Indian, Santa Eulalia

Kathmandu is an Indian restaurant situated on Santa Eulalia's famous ‘Restaurant Street'. It's well-known for its wide range of cuisine as well as its great ambience and the friendliness of its proprietors. Ibiza Spotlight went eagerly to check it out!

Santa Eulalia gets very busy during the summer months, so arrive in plenty of time to find a place to park. ‘Restaurant Street,' running parallel behind Santa Eulalia's main road is pedestrianized and the nearby blue bays only allow 2 hours maximum parking, so I recommend the underground public car-park next to the bus station. Another option is the fast, air-conditioned bus from Ibiza Town which costs only €2 and runs every half an hour, there and back.

I arrived in Santa Eulalia one beautiful Ibiza evening at 7pm to find the street bustling with a colourful array of locals and holidaymakers eating, shopping, chatting and laughing. What a great atmosphere!

Soon my friend arrived and we took a seat outside on the street terrace, settling down for a spot of good old people-watching. Our friendly waitress, Vicky, was over straight away to take a drinks order. In a flash, I had a nice, chilled glass of very decent house white in one hand and a delicious fresh popadom in the other. The popadoms came with a great range of typical Indian dips and sauces. Yum! Ordering some Onion Bhajis, I perused the menu which offered a large selection of both classic favorites and house specialities, not to mention an impressive vegetarian selection.

My friend, to my surprise, knew what she wanted before the menu arrived. Did she have secret superpowers I wondered?! “Actually yes” she whispered. “I have x-ray vision, but that's not how I knew the menu!” We giggled and she confided that she comes often to Kathmandu and loves it because of the enormous range of great quality food and very decent prices.

“In fact,” she continued “I often come to this Indian restaurant with visiting friends and family. One of the dishes I'm ordering, the Nepali Momo has been so popular, it has sent my highly impressed friends searching high and low back home to find it again!”

A high compliment indeed, coming from a woman with extremely high standards who eats out in Ibiza's finest dining establishments on a daily basis. Well it came and she was right, it was fabulous! An authentic Nepali dish, it came served with dumplings made with minced meat in a wonderfully spicy Nepalese sauce.

Finishing (every crumb) of the delicious, crunchy-on-the-outside, soft and spicy on the inside onion bhajis, next up was the Kathmandu kahari with large, succulent prawns for my friend and the Paneer Mutter for me.

The prawn Kahari came in a rich, succulent sauce cooked expertly using a special blend of spices with onions and green peppers. The Paneer Mutter was a mild, creamy sensation, prepared with delicious tasting coconut with lightly fried paneer and delicate, sweet garden peas.

It was all excellent. But, dear readers, the star of the show was without a doubt their legendary naan bread. It was absolutely MASSIVE! I've never seen anything quite like it! Goodness gracious me, take my word for it, one between two is more than adequate! Needless to say I did not manage to finish mine, but as it was far too good to waste, you bet I took the remainder home in a doggy-bag!

We finished with a creamy, sweet mango lassi, followed by coffees (served with brown sugar, yea!) and a couple of shots of their wonderful, homemade mango liqueur.

The restaurant was packed by 8.30pm. There was a queue of curry-lovers waiting patiently for a table. It was only Tuesday. My advice? Either arrive early or call first and make a reservation (don't forget to mention Ibiza Spotlight!) or you may have a long wait on your hands.