Goose Gate Cafe in Hockley is located (unsurprisingly) on Goose Gate in Hockley. At first sight you might think that it is just another cafe selling lattes and sandwiches, and to some extent you are right. But look closer, come inside and you will find a Nepalese chef serving up food from his homeland.

I got chatting and while some people had wandered in looking for a fry up and a burger, many more had taken a punt of some of his homemade Biryani, his Nepalese dumplings, or one of the other less expected items on the menu like the Indian Omelette . I ordered both the Momos and a plate of the Biryani, I did fancy an Indian Omelette but I really could not manage three plates of food for lunch 🙂

Nepalese Chicken Biryani

The Chicken Biryani was excellent, the chef said that he had cooked them this morning and you could tell. The rice was turned out of the cooking pot onto the plate and as it came towards my table I could smell the aromatic spicing perfuming the air around me. The chap at the table commenting about how great it smelt and I could tell that he was a little bit jealous as he munched his wrap. I was feeling like a winner already 🙂

On first glance it might look like it is mostly rice, but once you dig into it with your fork you find that there is loads of chicken thigh meat in there as well, more than I had expected. I loved the rice, it has really absorbed all the spices as it had cooked so each piece seemed to be so tastily coated with flavour. The Raita that came alongside in the pot was creamy with mint and was really cooling and refreshing when mixed into the rice.

The aromatics and flavourings that were coming through was cardamon, ginger and coriander. Once I had forked my way inside I found a few green cardamon pods so I knew that this had been cooked with all the whole spices in the pot just as you would hope. It was really very good and at just £4.95 was well worth the money, not just for the authenticity and the quality but also for the size of the portion. You would not need anything else to eat for a while, of course that didn’t stop me as I was getting the Momos too 🙂

Nepalese Dumplings

I was really quite keen and excited to check out the Nepalese Dumplings or Momos at Goose Gate Cafe. You know how much I love a dumpling and I had been tracking this particular dish down for a while now. Last year I had heard that they were serving them at the New Art Centre in Hyson Green and I made a few trips over on the tram to try and get some. each time they were either not making them or not open so I abandoned that hunt and forgot about them for a while. So today when I saw them on the board at Goose Gate Cafe I was well made up.

There were either Vegetable or Chicken filled Momos available, both being cooked to order by the Nepalese Chef. He said that it would take about 10 minutes to make them, I said that was fine as I had my Biryani on the go 🙂

These were amazing, the dumpling filling was so good, chicken mince mixed with coriander and ginger, I think that there was also a hint of cumin and some garlic in there. The wrapper was perfect, steamed gently until it was soft and silky with a nice light chewy bite. The dish came with a dipping sauce of mint and tomato mixed with yoghurt, which was a perfect accompaniment

I will most certainly be back for both of these dishes and I hope that they can expand the menu with more of this style of food. People who want a bacon cob or a tuna mayo roll can just stroll along down the hill.