Leh - Food Tour

Firstly, let me start off by telling my readers that I didn't plan on eating so much in Leh. However, your girl probably isn't the best planner in the traveller universe. So turns out Leh isn't a place you can plan a 5D/4N trip to. You need to spend 2 days to acclimatise to the high altitude to begin with, and additionally most of the amazing points in Ladakh aren't particularly in Leh, but rather 5-6 hours journey's from Leh. This means that it isn't wise to book an accommodation for 5 nights in Leh, like I did. In summary, you need to make a minimum of a 10 day trip to see Ladakh at it's bare essence, and I'd recommend renting a bike/car in Leh to go to these points like Nubra, Pangong, Hanle, etc - and take 2/3 day trips to these points and treat Leh as your central point.

Okay, now that I've gotten the mistakes I've made out of the way. Let me say, while I did have a minor planning fail in this trip, I was instead able to deep dive into the foodie's paradise that Leh is. Had some of the best, affordable and variety food in the restaurants in Leh. Though many of these are simply traditional 'Pahadi' cousine items or Tibetan food, the places I had them in Leh added their own twist to even the most generic dishes, making it memorable.

Lamayuru Restaurant

On Day 1 of acclimatising in Leh, I visited Lamayuru Restaurant in the evening as most restaurants seemed to be shut at the time. Without much expectations from this place with barely anybody in it, I decided to stick to the most basics. I ordered a plate of chicken momos (protein matters guys ;D) and when asked if I wanted anything to drink, I asked my waiter to recommend something good. He recommended an Apricot juice. Both pleasantly surprised me. I've never had momos that have melted in my mouth, like these ones did. I was actually kind of disappointed with myself for spending forever savouring each momo, that the rest of them got cold and didn't taste as amazing as the hot ones. Also interestingly, it came with a soup of sorts - never seen this elsewhere. And the quantity was also A LOT! The apricot juice also blew my mind and infact became a regular in my life for my next 4 days in Leh. Turns out Ladakh is the largest producer of Apricots in the country, who knew! :)

Sky Wok Restaurant

Here I dived into authentic Ladakhi/Tibetan cousine with a Chicken Sha Phaley. It could be described as a combination of a large Samosa and a Momo. The filling was similiar to the Momo at Lamayuru with minced meat and veggies while the covering was slightly harder and had been deep fried slightly similiar to a Samosa or a poori and it was accompanied by a spicy chilly sauce similarly momos. Overall an 8/10.

I also tried a Sea Buck thorn juice - another interesting fruit special to Ladakh. This tasted like a mix of a Passion fruit and orange juice - tangy but sweet :)

The Tibetan Kitchen

Tibetan Kitchen is one of the most popular place in Leh, both for tourists and locals alike, so I obviously had to visit. Though I visited for an early dinner and was greeted with a candle lite set up, I've heard the vibes are very different for lunch. Here I tried my first ever Kothey style momo. A Kothey momo is a signature Nepali momo that's pan fried on one side and steamed like a normal steamed momo on the other side. I had a Kothey Tuna Momo - who knew that was a thing! Got to give it a 10/10 - probably one of the best things I've had in a while. And ofc, I also had an apricot juice - most definitely the best I had in Leh :)

Metta Cafe

Slightly different from the past two places I visited, Metta Cafe had a slightly different style and aura altogether -run by a non-Ladakhi and with a menu with mostly more city style food. However, nevertheless it gave off the energy of my ideal lifestyle - just running a cute cafe with a cute book corner and walls filled with memories of passing travellers. Though the food was priced slightly higher than Leh's other spots, it was priced at par with meals in other cities. I ordered an egg with herbs, and an Apricot Mug Cake. The eggs were decent - I guess there's nothing that you can do to make eggs seem particularly amazing haha. The mugcake tasted like heaven!! Cannot describe it in words, was toooo good (in my friend Karish's terms).

Summer Harvest

This is another spot I hit with very low expectations, however was pleasantly surprised. I had a basic chicken thupka here. It was not just absolutely amazing, but it also looked splendid and was a total bang on the buck. I could barely move to walk back to my room, after I had this, one late afternoon.

Rendezvous Restaurant & Cafe

This wasn't a place I particularly planned to go to, however, the owner's amazing salesmenship pulled me in, when I went to buy a soft drink. I ended up having a mushroom cheese omelette and an apricot cheesecake over here. The omelette was decent, however, the cheesecake was unbearbly sweet. I think this is a recurring trend in many places in both Ladakh and Kashmir, where everything including tea and coffee are extremely sweet.

Gesmo Restaurant

I went in around 11am one morning for a late breakfast to Gesmo, to try one of the most popular dishes in Ladakh before I left - The Yak Cheese Pizza, I had a chicken one [because ofc Protein ;)], but they had a vegetarian version as well. While they were still serving only breakfast dishes till 12, they staff told me that they could make the pizza for me, before I set out on my biking trip for the day to Hemis Monastery. The pizza was probably the cheesiest thing I've had in ages, and I was extremely cautious considering I am lactose intolerant for the most part. Surprisingly however, Yak cheese doesn't seem to mess up my stomach - so it might be a pizza for all the fellow lactose intolerant folks :)

Well, that's all the food I had in Leh! :)