Himalayan Beers Complement Mountainous Delights at Nepalese Diner

Hidden in a La Mesa strip mall like Shangri La in microcosm, Himalayan Cuisine is San Diego’s best Nepalese restaurant—though granted, it’s also San Diego’s only Nepalese restaurant. Decor is akin to Indian dining, with assorted Buddhist and Hindu motifs alongside paintings of Nepal villages and mountains. Servers wear traditional patterned garments and fezzes, greeting customers with a basket of crunchy, cumin-seed-flecked lentil wafers.

Recommended appetizers include the Momo  ($8 to $10), a steamed dumpling available in vegetarian, chicken or lamb and partnered with tantalizing dipping sauces of varying spiciness. Sooth the heat with a variety of Himalayan beers such as Mustang ($6.95) and Real Gold ($6.95) from Damkauli, Nawalparsi, Nepal.

Daily lunch specials run $6.95, or try as many as 40 entrees divided into Vegetarian Tarkari, Chicken Dishes, Lamb Dishes, Seafoods, Tandoori Dishes and Biryani. Good choices include Mixed Tandoori ($16.95), a steaming hot platter of chicken, shrimp, and tender lamb kabob on a bed of sizzling green pepper, onion and cabbage.

Or try the Himalayan Balti ($14.95): tandoor baked chicken, lamb cubes, shrimp and vegetables cooked in Himalayan curry. Be warned: On the spicy scale between 1 and 10, even 2 might necessitate a Mango Lassi drink ($2.95) to dampen the blue flames shooting out of your nostrils. Himalayan Cuisine’s owner Khem Kharel immigrated to San Diego from Nepal more than two decades ago.

Open more than three years, the restaurant has established regulars who cheerily walk in and say, “Namaste!”