Ellie and I are currently spending a weekend in Chatham, near Rochester, in Kent, for a two-day wilderness first aid course. Naturally, with us being fond of food and all, we had to check out the local culinary scene.
GURKHA FIRE, CHATHAM, ONLY OPENED IN MARCH THIS YEAR
This is how Gurkha Fire caught our attention. They only opened in March this year to great acclaim, with the mayor and other dignitaries attending the opening ceremony. The mayor at the time happened to be the first Nepalese-born mayor of the UK, Nina Gurung. Of course, she comes from a family of Gurkhas. Within weeks Gurkha Fire became the top-ranking restaurant in the whole region (125 restaurants), according to Tripadvisor. Ever since we first visited Nepal in 2020, we have grown fond of Nepalese food.
All pics (c) BerkeleySqB except where otherwise noted. Pic #2 above (c) Kent Online
GURKHA SOLDIERS
As many of you will know, Gurkhas are Nepalese soldiers and ethnic Nepalese, Nepalese-speaking soldiers from India. About 100,000 of them make up the Nepali army. But over the last two centuries or so, tens of thousands of them also served in other armies, such as those of Britain, India, Singapore, Brunei, and the United Nations’ peacekeeping troops.
THE ROYAL GURKHA RIFLES ARE BASED IN KENT
In 2024, there are still over 4,000 Gurkhas serving in the so-called Brigade of Gurkhas of the British Army. As it happens, two of their seven units, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, and the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers, are based in Kent, which explains the high percentage of Nepalese in this county.
FIERCE FIGHTERS
There is a famous quote by the former Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw: “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha.” Gurkhas are closely associated with the khukuri, a forward-curving knife. As it happens, two of my fellow three expeditioners on my recent Northwest Passage Expedition, were fond owners of khukuris, the other two, including me, were thinking about getting themselves one.
THE GURKHA KINGDOM
The Gurkha Kingdom once comprised most of today’s Nepal. As a consequence, the term Gurkha used to be used to refer to all of Nepal, while the term Nepal used to refer merely to the area around Kathmandu. It was only during the 1930s that things changed. Nepal Valley changed its name to Kathmandu Valley. The Gurkha Sarkar (Gurkha Government) changed its name to Nepal Government.
GURKHA FIRE OCCUPIES THE FORMER CHATHAM FIRE STATION
The building, Gurkha Fire occupies, is the former fire station of Chatham. I’m guessing the name is a reference to the Victorian building’s past as well as to the spicy food, and possibly the tandoori grill. The restaurant is the second business venture of chefs Keshav and Raju Kandel, who have been running the award-winning eatery Dylan’s Café (also in Chatham) for some time. Prior to that, they had worked for Dishoom in London. While Dylan’s Café is serving some of the very same Nepalese, Indian, and Indo-Chinese dishes, its focus is more on street food and casual dining. Gurkha Fire is aiming more at the higher end of the market, not quite fine dining, but somewhere near there. The two chefs are from the small village of Bihunkot, three hours’ drive West of Pokhara, located above 2,000m (6,550 ft) in the foothills of the Annapurna mountain range.
FRIENDLY STAFF AT THE GURKHA FIRE, CHATHAM
From the moment we set food inside the restaurant, Ellie and I were impressed by the super-friendly, smiley, relaxed, but attentive service staff, many of them of Nepalese origin. Our charming waitress, whose name we forgot to ask, was no exception. While she was clearly the daughter of Nepalese parents, her broad East London accent betrayed the fact that she must have been born on these verdant isles. I’m guessing, she is going to school in East London, but helping out at this restaurant in Kent on the weekends.
Pic #1 above (c) Gurkha Fire
HUGE VENUE, INTERESTING SPACE
When we entered, we had not expected the venue to be as huge as it turned out to be. It stretches over various large rooms on two floors. The area where we ended up being seated, had a lovely set-up with a two-storey atrium-style area, that was encased by a U-shaped upper floor: balconies on the sides, connected to a large seating area towards the back of the building. Throughout the rooms, the interior design looked appealing and warm, mixing modern Western elements with traditional Nepalese ones.
WORKING OUR WAY THROUGH THE MENU
After a long working day in London, one cancelled train, and one train that stopped in every last village on the way, Ellie & I had worked up an appetite. The menu is perhaps not as long as one would have hoped, with many dishes being variations of one and the same dish, each, differing only by the type of meat or non-meat main ingredient used, we still struggled for 15 minutes to make up our minds.
PLACING OUR ORDERS
Finally, a decision had been made, and we ordered Three Chilli Chicken (£8.95) and 6 chicken momos (£8.95) for starters, Timur chicken (£13.95), Timur jackfruit (£13.95), and a quarter tandoori chicken (£6.50) as our three mains, one butter naan (3.95), one large pilau rice (£5), one kuchumber (£3.50), and one raita (£3.50). For drinks, Ellie went for a bottle of sparkling water (£5), I ordered a 660ml bottle of Gurkha Lager beer (£6.50).
MOMOS AND GURKHA LAGER AT THE GURKHA FIRE, CHATHAM
The dumplings (momos) arrived a mere 5 minutes after we had ordered them, together with our drinks. Gurkha Lager had initially been brewed in Nepal for the sole purpose of exporting it to the UK market. Luckily, a decision to move production closer to its market had been made early on. Today, barley from the Goodwood estate and hops from Bodiam are being used. In my opinion, this beer tastes better than any other British beer. The momos were very simple, in essence meat balls stuffed inside the doughy wraps. This did not in any way impact the flavour, which was right up there with the best of them. We also adored the dip that came with it.
OUR OTHER STARTER, THREE CHILLI CHICKEN
When it came to our second starter, the Three Chilli Chicken, the set-up was also very simple, without too much thought given to presentation. However, in this case, the taste and texture left something to be desired. While the seeds of the chilli peppers were too plentiful and too crunchy, and the chicken was too dry, the batter had turned into a chewy affair in some places. Thankfully, this was going to be the only disappointment during our feast.
OUR MAINS ARRIVE
Only five minutes after we had finished our starters, all the other dishes we had ordered arrived, being carried by ‘our’ waitress and a colleague of hers. Just looking at them, was a joy. As food bloggers, we did spend a few minutes taking pictures. Then we got to tuck in.
TIMUR CURRIES WITH CHICKEN AND JACKFRUIT
I’ll freely admit that I’m no huge fan of jackfruit. However, in Old Blighty it’s not easy to find jackfruit on the menu, and whenever I find one, I will order it, that’s how I roll. So while even the best jackfruit will not compare well with a juicy chicken, this specimen was definitely one of the better ones, so well done there, Gurkha Fire. Ellie’s Timur Curry, which was identical with mine, except for the jackfruit having been replaced with chicken, was a true delight. The timur berry is native to Nepal. It is related to the Chinese Sichuan pepper, but has a strong citrus flavour, which is why it is also known as grapefruit pepper.
OUR THIRD MAIN, TANDOORI CHICKEN, AT THE GURKHA FIRE, CHATHAM
Our third main, the yogurt-marinated quarter tandoori chicken, came on the bone, as it is supposed to, with a delicious green dip, whose ingredients we weren’t able to guess and forgot to ask. If someone would force us to give some criticism, we would say that it was perhaps a tiny tad too dry, but the flavours were all spot on. Throughout our meal, we indulged in the outrageously tasty butter naan and pilau rice. Our waiter informed us that real saffron had been used for the rice, and you could probably have told by the colour and taste of it. The raita, a sweet yogurt with a few chopped bits of tomato, cucumber, onion, and some pomegranate seeds for decorative purposes, was a welcome fire extinguisher. Similarly, the kuchumber, a tomato, cucumber, onion salad, did a great job in offsetting the spices to some extent.
WE’LL TRY TO COME BACK
We don’t happen to pass through Chatham very often, but should we ever be back, then it is a matter of certainty, that we will book another table for two at this Nepalese gem. 4.5 out of 5 in our book. Just to mention it, we also really liked the Gurkhas Brother restaurant, whose food we had delivered to our hotel.
Looking for more restaurant reviews? Why not check out our posts about Helene Darroze, Kibako, RAI, Ninth, ICCO, all in London, Lafleur, Frankfurt, Gruvelageret near the North Pole (Spitsbergen), or Ekeberg Restauranten, in Oslo. I have also blogged about rock-climbing, stand-up paddleboarding, open-water swimming, kayaking, and caving, as well as about peasants’ food gone posh.
