Kantipur Restaurant

DECEMBER can be relentless. Bam! Work Christmas party on a Monday. Kapow! End-of-year school concert. Zzzzzwap! The pre-Christmas Christmas with extraneous relatives.

"School nights" become a thing of the past. It's a double then triple-booking frenzy as you limp towards the finishing line of New Year's Eve, when, finally, the social hurdy-gurdy ceases and you buy a juicer and bolt for the beach.

Seemingly unaffected is steady-as-she-goes Kantipur, a gloriously low-key and relaxed local with service as warm as the sun and damn good Indian and Nepalese food. It's a family affair — and a family-friendly spot — run by Bhim and Saraswati Neupane (Saraswati helps with the cooking). Bhim hails from Baglung, a town in Nepal about 300 kilometres west of Kathmandu with long, snowy winters and "lots of goat meat".

There's good goat curry at Kantipur and a menu that's based on traditional dishes but constructed from a bigger pool of ingredients — it's hard to grow crops in the Himalayas.

Fabulous is the five-course Nepalese banquet for $27.50 a head, which ends with a standout kulfi for dessert, the creamy, pistachio-studded slab served sliced on a plate.

Before that, crunchy, crumbly pappadums and chutneys are the first to land on your table, set formally with linen over maroon tablecloths, starchy linen napkins and wine glasses at the ready. It's a slightly dated look — not a reclaimed-timber table in sight — but cosy and charming.

Jewelled lanterns dangle from the ceiling, and pictures of Buddha, Shiva and Ganesh, plus one of Bhim ploughing the fields back home, brighten the walls.

Dishes arrive in copper bowls, brought from Nepal, that help keep the curries warmer longer than ordinary crockery. This includes excellent green pulao — a two-tone basmati rice with almonds, peas and fresh spinach mixed at the end so the colour remains vivid. It is fresh and not over-oiled.

Chicken tikka arrives sizzling on its cast-iron plate, the boneless thigh pieces marinated in yoghurt and flanked by chunky onion and capsicum and a green salad with a lemon wedge on the side.

The momos, a Nepalese version of xiao long bao minus the soup, are pretty good, filled with a meaty mix of beef, ginger, garlic and cottage cheese.

Dhal lovers will find joy in the tarka, a thick yellow lentil stew with plenty of body, good colour and a mild, well-balanced spice set. It's delicious with the house-made wholemeal roti, lightly slicked with oil and hot from the tandoor.

Also worthy are the lamb and cashew country captain and a buttery chicken and potato curry, the potato soft and soaked with gravy.

Kantipur is a neighbourhood restaurant that serves its community well, with a roaring takeaway trade, bargain lunch specials such as curry, rice, naan and a pappadum for a tenner, or lamb biryani for $10.50 and somewhere to escape the December fray.