Daily Foodstuffs, Meals and Drinks on Everest Base Camp Trek

What will you eat during the Everest base camp trek? Read this full article you have an idea of what is available, what to eat, what not to, how much is it costs, and what to do with drinking water. These things are one of the most common queries and also very important to know for anyone planning for the Everest trek.

We all might know that Everest base camp is well known popular trekking adventure with developed tea houses or lodges, lunch houses, restaurants, and bakery built along the route; we can expect a wide range of dishes on our menu. Here while having our meal, one main thing to understand and acknowledge is that every grain of rice and every slice of meat, every bottle of coke, and every piece of fruits are transported from a plane or carried all the way up to your lodge by porters/Yaks/Mules. So, the cost seems expensive but the effort put by these local people to put food on your plate in front of you should not be underestimated. Therefore you are highly requested to order in proportions that you can consume, trashing food is highly discouraged.

Now let’s take a brief overview of daily foodstuffs, meals and during at various lunch stops, lodges found at the EBC trekking route:

At Lukla:

As your Everest trek begins after you land on Lukla airstrip, the cool Himalayan wind blows through that cleanses your mind and it is always a good idea to take a sip of tea/coffee before beginning our trek. In the meantime porter team offloads and arranges our luggage; choose from ginger lemon honey tea, black tea, masala tea, or coffee and mango juices.

At Thadokoshi and Phakding:

The first lunch day of EBC will be most probably at the lunch site nearby ThadoKoshi. There are scattered small locally owned lunch sites, choose your favorite dish from your menu. Or else take a glass of refreshment like juice and take few steps to have a lump sum meal at your tea house at Phakding. Here is the snapshot of Menu items taken at Mountain Resort Lodge and Restaurant at Phakding:

Scanning thoroughly, we can see that there are varieties of items from soup to the main course, meat items, pizza items, potato, noodle items, hot drinks, set breakfast, and bread. At Everest region, drinks especially hot drinks like tea and coffee are served per cup or pot categorized into small-medium, and large. The size of the pot varies according to lodges, so you need to either see the pot or ask how much cup per pot? This way, the cost, and drink will be optimally utilized.

Everest base camp trek continues as you enter through the checkpoint of Sagarmatha National Park, cross suspension bridges, and descend to a lunch stop near a riverside restaurant at Jorsale. While closely monitoring the route, we can see most of the lunch stops are at riverbanks and after filling your tummy, you need to ascend uphill crossing Hillary bridge and final day stop at Namche Bazar.

At Namche Bazar:

You will have quite similar menu items on most of the lodges, however, the quality of service and price may differ slightly. Nest, Himalayan Culture Home is quite a well-known tea house at Namche with many others. Most probably while acclimatizing at Namche Bazar we shall be going to Hotel Everest View at 3880m altitude. This Japanese-owned hotel is well known as star rated hotel at the highest altitude. Great Everest, Thamserku, and neighboring views of Himalayan peaks are seen while having our lunch. Here is a snapshot of Menu items at Everest view hotel. The price is quite competitive and not that different while compared to other tea houses in Namche.

At Phukni Thenka and Tengboche:

After Namche, walking through gradual ascents, and mostly downhill walk along with refreshing rhododendron forests, again as mentioned earlier nearby lunch site called Phungi Thanka, delicious meals from spaghetti to soups, from momos to sandwiches, variety is seen on your menu. Before having a meal always wash your hand with sanitizer. Have your lump sum meal and ascend steep uphill to Tengboche.  Don’t forget to take a pack of dry fruits like raisins, almonds, and chocolate bars as these will work as a quick energy booster while climbing these challenging uphill walks. One famous bakery is at Tengboche where you can have a wide range of cakes, pastries, brownies, and other bread and bakery items.

At Somare and Pangboche:

Somare or Pangboche will be your next lunch stop, where you can find several restaurants and fast-food kitchens. Now as we have reached almost 4000 meters above sea level, the lodge and other services begin to be more basic yet very acceptable. The availability of meat items also becomes scarce, as no slaughtering of animals is done at higher elevations, every item is carried up. However, you can easily find Tuna fish and other canned items at local lodges. Egg items like an omelet, fried, boiled, are common and veggies are basically varieties of potato, tomato mushroom, etc.

At Dingboche and Chukkung:

After walking for a couple of hours, you will take a sigh of relief as you get closer to several lodges and stone/wooden built hotels, guest houses at Dingboche. Hotel Good Luck, Moonlight, Bright Star are few good lodges to name the few here that have an occupancy of approx 70 guests and offer quality meal and accommodation services. While acclimatizing at Dingboche, it might be a good idea to hike to Chukkung and take a pot of ginger/lemon/masala tea at one local tea shop. Nearby beautiful Chorten and up-close views of Amadablam along with other peaks, scarily blowing wind and a cup of tea would be simply heavenly.

At Thukla and Lobuche:

In this way, your Everest base camp trek continues towards the next lunch stop at Thukla where only two/three restaurants/lodges are available along with few bakery items. Re-energize yourself before taking up the Thukla pass and head up to the tea house at Lobuche. Few tea houses are there at Lobuche: Oxygen and Ecolodge are among those few.

At Gorakshep:

Finally, the overnight staying site and lunch stop during Everest base camp trek is at Gorakshep, with Snowland lodge and only a couple of few more, they are still offering quite good meals with accommodations despite geographical and other limitations.

Drinking water on Everest Base Camp Trek

Drinking water is the key to stay hydrated and avoid altitude sickness during high altitude treks like EBC. You can get bottled mineral water all the way up to base camp but the price per liter goes higher and multiplies significantly. From 20rs per liter at Kathmandu to 100 rs at Lukla and it goes up to 500rs at base camp. Therefore, it is recommended to bring steripen (UV filtration) or chlorine tabs for water purification with soft plastic bags so that you can purify the water from local drinking water jars at lodges and make it safe for drinking purposes.  At tea houses, you will be served boiled water at an extra charge. One important thing to consider is that for a successful EBC trek, we should keep our bodies hydrated with purified safe drinking water at regular intervals.

There are hard drinks available at lodges in the Everest base camp route, however, it is recommended not to take alcoholic drinks at high altitudes as it will dehydrate your body and you will be more prone to acute mountain sickness symptoms like headache and others. We can rarely see anyone having alcoholic drinks at higher altitudes, however, if enjoyment and celebration is the case, it can always happen at lower altitude villages at Namche, Lukla while returning from a successful Everest base camp trek.