Kar.ma Coffee

Kar.ma Coffee is a small, ethically minded coffee company in Lalitpur; Kimkim's guide called it a favourite with young Nepalis and expatriates. It was founded by the Austrian Birgit Lienhart-Gyawali, who began with a pour-over stand on a staircase and a single room, and it has grown into two Kathmandu outlets, including the one at Gyanmandala that Malaysia Airlines' magazine featured in 2025, with bright, earthy interiors full of plants. The name comes from Buddhist philosophy, reflecting the founder's belief that what you give to society comes back to you in some form.

The coffee is the focus. The single-origin Arabica comes from independent farming families in several villages, including Kalika near Pokhara, and the cafe has long brewed by hand, using filter paper and a wooden stand. Moka pot double espressos with a homemade spice drizzle and coffee-tasting sessions are on offer, along with coffee-infused wild honey, handcrafted chocolates and herbal teas. Nepal Traveller reported in 2018 that coffee was sold on a pay-what-you-like basis, an unusual model that reflects the cafe's ethos. Kimkim's guide to the city's cafes called it ethically run and described its fair-trade coffee sourced from the Himalayas, and Nepal Traveller listed it again in 2025 among the city's best cafes.

Kar.ma is about more than drinks. The cafe works with around 30 local producers and sells coffee-based cosmetics such as scrubs, lip balm, soap and body oil made from roasting waste, along with eco-friendly pads made with local women through a partnership with the organisation Putali. At its original cafe in Jhamsikhel's Moksh complex, Nepal Traveller found that most of the decor was handmade in Nepal: a long corridor decorated with graffiti led in, lamps were made from recycled filter paper, and the mango-wood furniture had been designed by the owner and built by women from Kakani. Today coffee waste is also turned into eco napkins and notebooks.

Kar.ma suits solo travellers, people who want a quiet place to read or work, and anyone interested in social enterprise. It is not a place for a large meal, so treat it as a coffee stop.

Jhamsikhel is in Lalitpur, the same city as Patan Durbar Square, so Kar.ma combines well with an afternoon among Patan's temples and the Patan Museum.