A couple of weeks ago I was driv­ing along what is often referred to as “Restaurant Road” in Jhamsikhel when my attention was drawn to a sign saying The Choco­late Room. This Aladdin’s cave of all things chocolate opened on June 27, so has yet to make its mark on Kath­mandu’s foodie list. But it should. Chocoholics, let’s do this!

 

First impression is of a modern fresh looking restaurant with three different seating areas. One of the areas is a separate room with glass walls. Perfect for private children’s parties. Giving the partygoers their own space and keeping them away from other customers who want a more peaceful experience.

 

One wall of the main restaurant is taken up with a display of gifts for sale. Champagne bottles made of chocolate, beautiful crafted boxes to be filled with chocolates, chocolate inspired ceramic mugs, and more. Another wall has chocolate dripping down it (unfortunately not literally). The display case at the counter has an array of mouth-watering goodies from individual chocolates, to mold­ed chocolates and cakes in all shapes and forms.

 

Being overwhelmed by all this chocolate glitter I hoped the menu lived up to the decor. It did. The menu is presented as two volumes—one with savory items and one with sweet. Starting with the savory, there are crêpes, sandwiches, piz­za, pasta, burgers, wraps and salads (why go to a chocolate cave and eat salad?). Some unique items caught my eye, Savory Waffwich being one of them. Thankfully (read huge por­tions) as it turned out, I had per­suaded a friend who really wanted a chocolate inspired lunch on a wet Wednesday.

 

So we ordered the Philly Cream Cheese and Chilli Waffwich (Rs 385); basically a stuffed waffle. Coming with two different sauces, and cut into four big slices, it was delicious! The Signature Brunch Sandwich (Rs 685) is brunch (eggs, hash browns) in a bun. With fries. We would have preferred something other than the burger bun but otherwise it was very tasty. The menu states all items take 25 minutes to create. Yes, we did have to wait 25 minutes…

 

Being a franchise from Australia, by the way of India, the recreation of the menu items was pretty much spot on (although I’m not sure orig­inal Philadelphia cheese is used in the Waffwich). I asked the owner, Saurav Basnet, why he decided to open this type of restaurant. “I’ve always been interested in the enter­tainment and recreation business and wanted to get into the food side,” explains Basnet. He went on to say that while travelling over­seas he saw many chocolate themed restaurants but had yet to see one in Nepal. So when the opportuni­ty to take up a franchise came, he grabbed it.

 

“Originally The Chocolate Room was Australian but when two India business partners returned home from Australia they bought the com­pany and set it up in India. Today there are Chocolate Rooms in 11 countries,” Basnet briefs. With the knowledge that a lot of the ground work has been done by the franchise HQ folks, Basnet hopes The Choco­late Room will be a learning expe­rience in his budding food-based hospitality career…

 

With rising anticipation we turn to the sweet menu—sundaes, fondues, cakes, shakes, and choctails galore. We chose, for research purposes of course, the Choco Surprise Bomb. You’ve seen it on Masterchef, now see it live! Our huge chocolate ball had hot chocolate sauce expertly poured over it to split and reveal cake and ice cream inside! All for Rs 495. Our next spectacular creation was the TCR Special Mini Midas Sundae (Rs 425), complete with one of those shooting sparkling candles. The Midas part is in the gold edi­ble cake decoration balls around the top of the glass and the ‘gold’ colored fruit inside. By now the neighboring table was staring at us with wide eyes. They and us will be back!

For further information see The Chocolate Room Nepal on Facebook.