The lovely place that Darjeeling is, when it comes to having a late night dinner, shies away. Almost all eating joints close in the evening, leaving the occasional seeker to deal with hunger pangs on his own. But on a night when it was too late to have dinner and we were planning to subsist on dry food, Kyilkhor Restaurant caught our eye.

'Kyil khor' means mandala or the Buddhist landscape in Tibetan. Located in a deep facade on Mall Road, this is the only place we could find that's open throughout the night. "We are open if you are awake" reads the message on the door. Pleasantly surprised, we walked in to be greeted by the amiable pair of owner and waiter inside. These two men are managing the restaurant alone, often interchanging their roles as the situation demands. We checked the menu to confirm the claims of true Tibetan and Chinese food being served. 

We ordered some dumplings, thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup) and a Tibetan speciality consisting of meat stuffed in a rice cake. Sitting on the soft and comfortable large sofas we almost drifted off to sleep in the little time that it took for our order to arrive. As we happily felt the soft dumplings melt in our mouths, we turned our necks to watch others enjoying their meals, or having quiet conversations hunched over beer. 

"This is the only place in the whole of Darjeeling where you can have food anytime of the day. Come back anytime," the owner quipped as we bid goodbyes after being satiated and started on the climb to our hotel. So the next time you are in Darjeeling, you know where to head in search of your midnight snack.