8848 Momo House opens on George Street in Rockhampton

A Central Queensland chef has brought a taste of his home country to the Beef Capital offering a new cuisine and food while supporting the local community.

Mandeep Baral has fond memories of growing up in Nepal, helping his mother cook delicious meals in their home and eating momos at the food market.

Now he’s bringing the dishes he grew up eating to the Beef Capital to help give back to the country he fell in love with.

Mr Baral is the franchisee and chef at Rockhampton’s newest restaurant, 8848 Momo House, a restaurant that offers a unique oriental fusion menu featuring Nepalese momos, a dumpling which comes steamed, deep fried or pan fried.

The Rockhampton restaurant will be the franchise’s first in regional Queensland, with other stores located in the Brisbane region, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Sydney.

Mandeep Baral is the franchisee and chef at Rockhampton's newest restaurant 8848 Momo House, Rockhampton.

Mr Baral was born and raised in Nepal and after travelling to Australia and falling in love with the country, he made the move abroad in 2012, where he began working in kitchens.

He moved to the Rockhampton region after the pandemic and was most recently a chef at the Red Lion Hotel.

“Nepal was very nice, I lived there with my family and Australia was the first country I’d ever travelled to… I moved here to pursue an education in business and during that time I started working in the kitchen,” he said.

“I love the environment in the kitchen and I fell in love with the kitchen.

“It’s (Nepalese) a new thing and new food in Rockhampton, I saw a small gap in the market.

Mandeep Baral is the franchisee and chef at Rockhampton's newest restaurant 8848 Momo House, Rockhampton.

Mr Baral said the food at the restaurant would be a “taste of home” offering Nepalese street food in a restaurant setting, with dine-in patrons also treated to the sounds of traditional Nepalese music.

The menu includes the restaurant's signature momos, with different fillings including buffalo, chicken, pork and vegetables, Nepalese goat curry, butter chicken momos, chow mein and more.

“Whatever you have here is like when you go to Nepal and have food from the street food market, those sorts of tastes and food you’ll find here in a restaurant style,” he said.

“In different cuisines there are different kinds of dumplings and we call it momos. In Nepal, momo is very famous, so like Italians eat pasta we eat momos.

“Growing up on the weekends or family dinner we always made momos, and you would 100 per cent find them in the street (market), too.”

Through the new franchise Mr Baral said he wanted to give back to the community and country as much as he could, sourcing local ingredients and prioritising locals when hiring staff.

Mandeep Baral is the franchisee and chef at Rockhampton's newest restaurant 8848 Momo House, Rockhampton.

“I feel very proud, I’m trying to give back to Australia what I learned here. I learned in kitchens here, and now I’m trying to bring my cuisine so people can see what Nepalese food is,” he said.

“It’s different food so people will be excited to try it and it’s quite different from other spices, it’s mild food. We’re also bringing a new food, we use buffalo meat in our dumplings, there’s no buffalo meat here so we have to source it from Melbourne, because in Nepal we eat a lot of buffalo and goat.

“The goat we source locally from a farm in Gracemere, so we’re going to local producers and farmers to get the local produce.

Mandeep Baral is the franchisee and chef at Rockhampton's newest restaurant 8848 Momo House Rockhampton.

“It’s good for my country as well, because people can try the food here and go see what Nepal is. It’s good for both Australia and Nepal.”

Mr Baral said so far the feedback and interest from the community had been positive.

“We had a lot of people come in for dine in and takeaway on Monday,” he said.

Mandeep Baral is the franchisee and chef at Rockhampton's newest restaurant 8848 Momo House Rockhampton.

“In Rockhampton people are really friendly and treat you very well.”

8848 Momo House opened its doors in the old Patty Smith’s site at the 111 George St shopping complex on Monday for a soft launch with a grand opening celebration being held at the restaurant on Friday, August 16 from 5pm.

Originally published as 8848 Momo House opens on George Street in Rockhampton