On any ordinary adventure, the level of food & accommodation changes depending on where you go but the Everest Base Camp trek is no ordinary adventure and the food is anything but ordinary! This is because you need the best food available to give you the energy and fuel for your trek.

On the Everest Base Camp trek route, there are good and bad lodges and some in-between.  Having spent many nights in a tea house or lodge I know how important it is to get a good meal in you and a good night’s rest (with Earplugs of course). That’s why we use the best tea house/lodges available to us in order to make sure you have the most comfortable experience possible on your trek to Everest Base Camp. The service you receive in the places we stay is second to none as we don’t like to offer substandard service. There’s nothing worse at altitude when you’re lacking energy due to a poor nights sleep and only having a substandard meal the night before. That’s why we don’t have a fixed menu, we let you choose what you want to eat from the lodge or tea house menu. I definitely recommend the Sherpa Stew or Dhal Bhat (Dhal Bhat power 24 hour you will hear around the lodges). We don’t cut corners and want to give you the best service and experience on your journey to Everest Base Camp.

Breakfast

When staying overnight at the lodges and tea houses, we normally have an early breakfast at around [07:30]-[08:30] so that we can get on the trails and the trek as soon as we can. I recommend starting breakfast with an intake of fluid like hot tea or coffee to get your mind into action and also to help keep the sore throats away due to the cold air.

As I mentioned, the choice is yours as it’s an open menu but I normally eat potatoes and eggs to get some some Carbohydrates and protein into my body. There are plenty of other options like omelette, a swiss rosti, pancakes, muesli, cheese, and juice from packs. Below is one filling breakfast, a swiss rosti. Give it a go and you will be wanting it the entire trek.

Lunch

After 2 or 3 hours of hiking at high altitude, your body will be needing some fuel so we will stop at one of the tea houses or lodges on the way to Everest Base Camp. Until you reach an altitude of 4,000-4,500m, we usually encounter several settlements or villages along the trekking route where we can have lunch so there is certainly no shortage of food.

The options on offer for lunch is extensive and once again, an open menu. Starting from simple snacks in the form of Tibetan bread with jam right through to various soups, sandwiches, Momo, macaroni dishes, and pizzas. Below is a sample menu from one of the lodges we use along the Everest Base Camp trek.

One of my favourite trekking staples is garlic soup which also acts as a natural means of preventing altitude sickness, as well the Nepalese national food – dhal bhaat. This comes with boiled rice and normally a specially prepared lentil soup with side dishes including vegetables and curry. You also get sneaky extra portions of this as the lodge chef always cooks more than whats required.

Dinner

We stay at some of the best lodges and tea houses available to us so you always get a good meal in at the end of the day. A normal trekking day finishes around 3-6pm, depending on the route so there's always a couple of hours to relax before you have some food. The options for dinner are normally the same options that are available for lunch with small variances from lodge to lodge. Tasty local food from Momo(shown below) to Dhal Bhat or pizza or pasta, the choice is yours.

When we get to the lodge or tea house, after we settle in, it’s important to get the food order in as soon as we can so one of our guides will take your food order from you, particularly in high season when there are lots of trekkers around it’s good to be organised. You can then relax and hang around the dining room where there is normally a hot iron stove providing the heat, especially in the colder months. Very often, the playing cards and music come out and the lodge is full of people playing card games with music in the background to pass the time. Our guides will show you a few local games which you will very easily get addicted to.
 
Lodges and Tea Houses

We stay at a variety of lodges and tea houses on the Everest Base Camp trek but we make sure these are places we regularly stay at. This way we know what level of lodge or tea house you will stay in. Although this is a remote region, the level of accommodation is superb, although certainly not 5* hotels but this is all part of the journey right. You will be able to normally have around 4 or 5 hot showers along the route depending on the weather as the water is heated via solar heaters and if this is not available, it's worth asking the local staff to boil some water to have a wash. This does cost extra although not a huge amount at around £3-£5.