An easy-going Nepalese restaurant opens on Moore Street

Bikash Pandit and Sebika Parajuli are slowly decorating their new restaurant in the mall under Moore Street.

They’ve fixed posters of Irish mountaineers scaling the Himalayas to the walls. Pandit has been thinking of adding a few Nepalese flags, he said, gesturing about the place.

“Put them here, there. Up on the wall,” said Pandit on Saturday evening.

They were just reaching the end of their first week as Dailo, a Nepalese restaurant where the menu above the counter offers dishes like dumplings, steamed and fried, a chow mein, potato croquettes and fritters.

Pandit brought a plate of sticky dumplings called momo out from behind the counter.

They can be fried. But they’re best when steamed, he says. “Eat them quickly.”

Each one is a moist and silky dough parcel stuffed with minced chicken, cabbage, red and spring onion, he says. “And then we have our secret masala of spices.”

There’s a small bowl of chilled spicy-tomato dipping sauce made with garlic, sesame and timur pepper.

All of this started with the momo, Pandit said.

Starting from scratch

Pandit moved to Dublin in 2009 from the Chitwan district, near Kathmandu, he says. “Central Nepal.”

“Central west,” Parajuli said from behind the counter.

He worked in several kitchens over the next 15 years – from the Badass Cafe and Thunder Road Cafe in Temple Bar, to a fish and chip shop on Camden Street, he says. “Then, one of my friends wanted to open an Indian street food restaurant in Temple Bar, that would include momo.”

He hadn’t made momo before, he says. “I had no idea of the recipe. No idea whatsoever.”

But he learnt. And, supplying them to his friend’s kitchen, he sensed there was a market for them, he says. “Then, I bought a food trailer.”

That became Bros Dumplings, a street-food stall, which started trading in November 2023 at markets including Central Park in Leopardstown, Meeting House Square and Moore Street.

They did the momo in a variety of styles, he says. “Steamed, fried, garlic fried and then momo soup.”

But, they started to mix the menu up a bit. After a few months, they added in a chow mein, he says.

Dailo was born out of Bros Dumplings and the couple’s decision to expand even further beyond dumplings, Paradit says. “And we just wanted somewhere that customers could sit down and eat.”

At one point, Parajuli brought out a plate of pani puri, a classic street-food common to north India, Pakistan – and also Nepal.

The five hollow dough balls are fried and filled with potato mashed with onions, coriander, spices and a tamarind-mint water. They’re garnished here with pomegranate seeds.

Pani puri is everywhere in Nepal, says Parajuli. “Nobody goes out without eating this.”

Nepalese food isn’t uncommon in Dublin. But more often you’ll find it in restaurants that bill themselves as “Indian and Nepalese,” she says.

“There are lots. But we just want to be something separate,” she says. “We’re trying to get away from curries and things like that.”

Personal touches

Just after 4pm on Monday, the restaurant was quiet.

Pandit sat at one of the tables. Parajuli was organising chopped vegetables in containers behind the counter.

“We’re getting a slow flow of customers, one-by-one,” Parajuli says.

There’s nothing dramatic to the food, Pandit says. “It’s what we like to eat. What we cook at home. Exactly the same.”

They like adding personal touches to each of the dishes. One of the main courses, a noodle dish called thukpa, uses a broth that is Parajuli’s own personal recipe, he says.

The noodles are thick and a little chewy. Floating in the broth are pieces of chicken, carrots, chickpeas, spring onion, lemon, coriander, red and green peppers, and some peanuts.

Its broth is savoury, but light.

She uses ajwain, garlic, some cabbage and herbs, she says. “It’s very simple but it makes it very flavourful.”

Easy-going is what they want Dailo to be. It’s a nice casual spot for fast food, rather than just fine dining, Pandit says. “I want us to fill that gap and I think we’re there.”