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Buffalo is a common ingredient in Hindu Nepal mostly because it doesn’t count as venerated cow, which is not to be eaten.

At Lakhey, try it in sukuti sadheko, which features small pieces of buffalo meat dried in a slow oven, then fried and marinated with onion, tomato and spices including numbing timur (similar to Sichuan pepper). It’s a thrilling dish – like jerky but wearing fancy dress to a flavour party.

Shaphaley, flatbread stuffed with chicken mince and cabbage, is fried until dark. Dunk it into rip-roaring chilli sauce. Momos – Nepal’s best known culinary export – are exemplary, with house-made dumpling skins and fillings ranging from cheese to buffalo meat.

But there’s so much more to the cuisine of this mountainous country. This basement dining room, with its dark banquettes and gold-backed bar is a great place to find it.