Montys Rathgar

Sometimes you don't want a big meal out. You don't want all the effort of getting dressed up and heading into town. You just simply want to relax and take it easy, and on nights like those, it's good to know the restaurants in your neighbourhood. Such was the situation we found ourselves in last Friday night. Tired after a week's work, we were looking for an easy and reliable option. Therefore, it wasn't much of a surprise we decided to head to Montys on Rathgar Road, an easy 5 minute ramble from home.

The interior of Monty's Rathgar

Montys is not an Indian restaurant, it is Nepalese, and while you will find some familiar Indian dishes on the menu, you will also find a selection of more original offerings. One such famous dish are Momo - Nepalese dumplings served with a special chutney which must be ordered 24 hours in advance. Every time I visit, I promise myself that I will have my act together the next time that I visit and order the momo in advance. Hah! If only.

The restaurant interior is dark and relaxing and is spread out over two floors. Montys was pretty busy on the night we visited, but despite not having a reservation, the staff were easily able to offer us a choice of tables upstairs. Rather than choosing a regular table, we took the option of sitting at the low tables, on benches lined with brightly covered satin bolsters.

Choila Lamb

Khukura Ko Chuso Masu Lollypop

For starters, I chose the Choila Lamb (€8.95) while he opted for the Khukura Ko Chuso Masu Lollypop (€7.00 for 6, essentially chicken wings). The choila lamb came as a mound of fried lamb pieces, intermingled with ginger, red onions, green chillies and coriander. The lamb was juicy and cooked lightly while overall the dish was spicy, but not overly so.

The Lollypop came as 6 chicken pieces, each individually wrapped in a twist of tinfoil, presumably to protect the diner's fingers from the tasty sweet and spicy tomato sauce. Although these were tasty, I'm more of a fan of the crispy chicken wing variety and I found these to be just a little too soft. Overall, they were just sauce coated chicken wings and could have been served in any generic restaurant.

I didn't realise until after I had ordered, that I had also requested lamb for my main course, in the form of Khasi Ko Karang (€21.95) which are tandoor cooked, marinated lamb chops served sizzling. To accompany this I asked for a Kulfi naan, which comes stuffed with vegetables and covered with coriander. Himself chose a more unusual speciality dish, the Chicken Chilli Nanglo (€16.50) which consists of spicy, deep-fried chicken in a light batter with chillies, onions, capsicum & fresh herbs.

Chicken Chilli Nanglo

The chicken nanglo was a unique dish, with a lovely tart and quite spicy flavour. It reminded me a little of Chinese cooking which involves fermented beans and vinegar, and it was absolutely lovely. It was dotted throughout with little slices of green chillies and their seeds, so there was a pretty decent spice level to this dish.

 

Khasi Ko Karang

My lamb chops came served thick, juicy and slightly pink in the middle, in other words cooked to perfection, with a lovely flavour from the tandoor. My only critique is that I would have preferred for them to be spicier but lamb of this quality is not often found.

The total bill came to approximately €78, including an (expensive) glass of light & tasty Pinot Gris at €9.00 and two bottles of Tiger beer (€5.00 each). Montys offers an interesting alternative to those people who are familiar or perhaps a little tired of Indian cuisine. Nepalese cooking introduces new flavours and textures and there's no doubt that the staff at Montys will take good care of you.

Montys Rathgar, 88 Rathgar Road, Dublin 6
Tel: +353 (0)1 492 0633
Web: www.montys.ie