Canberra Momo House: Gungahlin’s hidden gem for dumpling lovers

A visit to Canberra Momo House, located in Canberra’s wonderfully multicultural northern suburb of Gungahlin, is like a visit to your mum’s house. That is, I guess, if your mum is an absolute devil in the kitchen, churning out steaming hot momos and killer Nepalese food that’s worth coming home for.

Seems I’m not the only one who thinks so either. The restaurant has more than 700 reviews on Google and a ranking of 4.7 stars.

Starting life as a food truck, Canberra Momo House has been in its permanent residence on Gungahlin Place for around two years. The day I wandered in with momos on my mind also happened to be the day Rita had just sold their original food truck to downsize to a smaller one. Still wanting to attend events, the smaller truck will better complement their primarily bricks-and-mortar existence and be easier to manoeuvre.

If momos are what you’re looking for, then this is the place for you. The extensive Nepalese menu is, at large, an ode to the momo in many forms. Goat, buffalo, chicken and veg. Steamed, fried, submerged in soups, floating in sauces, or served with a spicy dipping sauce. There are nearly two pages of options to fulfil your dumpling desires.

I once read somewhere that momos are to Nepal what pizza is to Italy. Yet a little more digging reveals these delicious dumplings have a history dating back to the 14th century, making the modern Napoli pizza from the 1800s look like a toddler.

It’s hard to make a recommendation when the food is this good but following the masses is never a bad choice and the most commonly eaten momo in Nepal is buffalo. Served with a spicy tomato chutney known as achar, these are best eaten piping hot right as they land at the table. This ensures that the dough is super soft and moist and the filling tender.

Buffalo isn’t the most common meat you’ll find in Canberra and Rita tells me that she gets hers from Sydney-based game meat supplier Alpine. It’s most similar in taste to beef but is leaner and sweeter.

Although momos may be a catalyst for the visit to the momo house, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to try some of the many Nepalese delicacies on the menu.

With such a large menu, a few sets and combos have been added to make your ordering easier.

Platters are great for groups and encompass a whole range of Nepalese dishes in servings for four or six people.

A thali set is designed for one person and gives you a personal serving of a traditional Nepali dinner, including rice, lentils, curries, pickles and sides.

There are curries served with rice if you want your whole meal on a plate and there are large momo platters which will give you a selection of momo styles all on one dish.

But as someone who likes to try a little of everything, we opted in for the combo menu. The combos come in a choice of veg ($30), chicken ($32) or mixed ($40), and each combo menu presents you with a list of dishes from which you can choose four. The dishes are cleverly served in half sizes so you can try lots of things while keeping the price reasonable and the serving sizes manageable.

Ordering one veg and one mixed combo, we then chose eight dishes. Veg pakora, nimki (crunchy fried pastry bites), paneer chilli, veg momos, goat sekuwa, buff choila (meat cooked with spices and served cold), chicken soup and buff momos.

Apart from the momos, which are always a highlight, the paneer chilli will haunt you until you make it back for another serving. Light, soft paneer is fried, giving it a lightly crispy coating, and then smothered in a chilli sauce akin to a sweet chilli sauce but richer and better balanced with a tartness that lingers on your tongue.

The chicken soup is a clear broth, rich with spices and aromas and has a herbal quality from the fresh herbs. It’s the sort of soup that could cure all your ails, particularly your hunger.

One of the things that makes many of these dishes so special is the use of the native Nepalese spice, timur, Rita tells me. Its spiciness is less like the spiciness of a chilli and much more like the numbing qualities of Sichuan peppercorns, which leave your mouth watering.

To wash it all down is a drinks menu with lassis, milkshakes, soft drinks and a large selection of beers, including five beers imported from Nepal, two of which pack an 8 per cent punch.

Opting for the slightly tamer Gorkha Premium at 5 per cent and Barahsinghe Lager at 6.2 per cent, these fairly light and very drinkable beers paired perfectly with the spiced dishes and rounded out the meal, which was one I’ll definitely be coming back for.

Canberra Momo House is located at 106/89 Gungahlin Place, Gungahlin, and is open from noon until 9:30 pm 7 days a week.

You can follow it on Facebook for updates to its services and menu.