Long Weekend Comfort Food in Granville: Raato Ghar’s Must-Try Nepali & Indian Dishes for the Perfect Family Escape

The Full Feast at Raato Ghar: What to Order and How to Order It

Nepali and Indian food rewards a specific approach at the table: order for the centre, not for yourself. Shared dishes in the middle of the table, everyone taking from each, with naan or roti to carry the sauces — this is how the food is meant to be eaten, and it’s how a table of four becomes a proper feast rather than four separate meals that happen to arrive at the same time.

Here’s how to build the Easter long weekend feast at Raato Ghar from starter to final course.

Round One: Street Food and Starters

Begin with the table starters while everyone settles in and the drinks arrive. This is the part of the meal that sets the tone — it should be lively, interactive, and slightly messy in the best way.

Pani Puri is the opening act. Crispy hollow shells, each one filled with spiced potato or chickpea, then dunked in cold, tangy, spiced water before going straight into your mouth in one bite. It’s one of those dishes that produces an immediate reaction from first-timers and a particular kind of nostalgia in anyone who grew up eating it at a Mumbai chaat stall or a Kathmandu street corner. Order a round for the whole table. Order a second round. Nobody ever stops at one.

Gilo Chatpate is the starter that earns its own conversation. Where the classic dry chatpate is puffed rice tossed with spices and herbs, Gilo Chatpate takes that same base and dresses it in a wet, tangy, spicy chutney — saucier, bolder, and more intense in every direction. It’s a Kathmandu street food format that very few restaurants outside Nepal do properly. The wetness of the chutney binds the ingredients together differently to the dry version: each mouthful carries the full hit of the seasoning rather than letting it drift off dry puffed rice

Round Two: The Momo

Momo deserve their own round. They are not just a starter — at Raato Ghar, they are a course in themselves and should be treated as one.

The Momo Sizzler is Raato Ghar’s signature preparation and the best entry point for a group. Momos arrive on a hot sizzling plate, the sauce hitting the metal with that immediate aroma that announces itself across the table before the plate even lands. The combination of the sizzle, the smell, and the presentation makes it the dish people photograph, and it tastes exactly as good as it looks.

Steamed Momos with Jhol Achar — the traditional format, for comparison. Hand-folded wheat flour wrappers filled with spiced minced meat, steamed until the wrappers go translucent and the filling stays juicy. Served with jhol achar: a spiced tomato-sesame broth that is uniquely Nepali. There is no direct equivalent in Chinese, Japanese, or Indian cooking. The combination of the soft dumpling and the tangy, warming broth is the most honest introduction to Nepali food that exists.

Filling options include chicken, buff (water buffalo — lean, clean-flavoured, the traditional Nepali choice), and vegetarian. For an Easter table with mixed preferences, order two fillings and let people try both.

C-Momo — flash-fried momos tossed in chilli sauce with capsicum and onion. This is the Indo-Nepali fusion version: louder, spicier, more aggressive than the steamed momo, and absolutely right for the people at the table who want heat from the first bite.

Round Three: The Main Spread

This is where the Easter feast earns its name. Order for the table. Three to four mains for a group of four is the right volume — enough variety, enough food, with leftovers being a sign of abundance rather than waste.

Goat Curry — this is the centrepiece of a serious Nepali and Indian meal and the dish that separates a kitchen that knows what it’s doing from one that doesn’t. Goat needs time, the right spice balance, and patience. When it’s done properly, the meat falls from the bone and the sauce carries enough depth that you want to chase it around the bowl with a piece of naan. Order this. It is the dish that will make the Easter table feel like a real occasion.

Butter Chicken — made fresh on-site at Raato Ghar, not poured from a commercial base. Rich, slightly sweet, deeply warming. This is the anchor dish for anyone at the table who is less familiar with the Nepali side of the menu or prefers milder flavours. Regulars consistently describe Raato Ghar’s butter chicken as the dish that made them come back. Don’t skip it just because you know what butter chicken is — this version is worth ordering.

Dal Bhat — lentil soup over steamed rice, served with vegetable curry and achar (pickle). This is Nepal’s national meal. Most Nepali households eat it twice a day. It is the most nutritionally complete, culturally honest dish on the menu, and it tastes like home to anyone who grew up in a Nepali kitchen. For first-time visitors, it’s a revelation: simple-looking food with more flavour and balance than it has any right to have.

Chicken or Vegetable Biryani — fragrant long-grain rice cooked with whole spices, topped with raita. This dish anchors the table and works across every dietary preference at an Easter gathering. Order it as the baseline and build the rest of the spread around it.

Sekuwa — Nepali-style grilled meat, marinated in Nepali spices and cooked over high heat. The marinade is different from tandoori: less red, more direct, with ginger and garlic forward and the spice profile cleaner and less smoky. It’s the kind of dish that makes you want to eat with your hands, which is entirely appropriate over Easter lunch.

Goat Intestine and Offal Fry (Bhuteko Anda) — for the table that wants to go deep into Nepali cooking, the offal fry is the honest test of a Nepali kitchen. Goat’s intestine, stomach, and offal fried with Nepali spices. It sounds confronting and tastes extraordinary. This is the dish that Nepali community regulars order to assess a new restaurant. The fact that Raato Ghar keeps it on the menu and does it properly says something about the kitchen’s confidence.

Paneer or Mushroom Curry — for vegetarian guests, both options carry the full weight of the spice profile. The paneer curry is rich enough to hold its own on the table alongside the meat dishes. Order it as a main, not as an afterthought.

Breads, Sides, and the Finishing Round

Order garlic naan and plain roti for the table — more than you think you need. The breads are how you carry the sauces between bites and how you extend the meal past the point when the rice is gone.

Mango chutney and mint chutney on the side. The contrast between sweet-tangy mango and sharp mint-coriander cuts through the richer curries and resets the palate between dishes.

Finish the meal slowly. Have another round of drinks. Let the table settle before anyone moves.