Himalayan Restaurant - Minneapolis

We have a reader to thank for dropping us a line on this restaurant. We're always interested in trying different foods and we've never had Nepalese cuisine before.

Himalayan is an order of the menu restaurant that happens to also offer a noon buffet. We stopped in for lunch as a buffet is what the doctor prescribes to sample as many dishes possible. With that said, the buffet selection was quite small, no more than about a dozen offerings.

I was stumped. All the food because of its appearance, names, and/or taste reminded me of Indian food. If you told me it was Indian food, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. So was I eating Nepalese or Indian food?

Pyaazi - onion and jalapenos battered and deep fried. Not as spicy as I expected

Basmati rice - nice and fluffy.

Kwati - Eight bean soup. Excellent. Tied with the Choyala as my favorite.

Chicken Choyala - cooked in a Tandoor with what they call Kathmandu style herbs. It had a nice "grilled" taste with an equally nice spicy kick.

Tofu Aaloo - with potatoes and spices. Kind of bland

Chicken Tikki Masala - isn't this classic Indian food? Creamy but on the bland side.

Mustard greens - no matter how you cook it, it still has that compelling bitter taste.

Kheer - rice pudding that had just the right texture and sweetness.

After we'd get our food, the attendant would put the covers back over the trays. While it may be for the intention of keeping the food hot, it was sending the message "John Pinettes are not welcome here".

Bottom Line: I like Himalayan Restaurants - the food, the service, the layout, the way it's run, the way they care about making it a success. Comparing it against Indian food, our taste buds say Himalayan does it better than others we've tried in the TC. Nonetheless given a choice of eating whatever ethnic food I wanted, Indian food isn't near the top, meaning Nepalese food isn't near the top. As such Himalayan falls into the category of infrequent restaurant stops for us.

2401 E. Franklin Ave
Minneapolis, MN