Food Junkie #4: Tara's Himalayan Cuisine

One of my good colleagues sent me a Yelp restaurant review link for Tara's Himalayan Kitchen (formally known as Katmandu Kitchen). This Nepalese/Himalayan/Tibetan restaurant is located on Venice Blvd. in West LA, a few blocks from 405 Venice exit. My colleague who sent me lives in Hollywood and it would take him some effort to come to this place without knowing how good it is, so he wanted me to try this first. Well, he knows that when it comes to food, I wouldn't say no.

And, he was right. I decided to try out this restaurant the same night. Luckily enough I was able to grab a good friend of mine whose passion for food is as much as I do, if not more, so I was able to try more than one main dish. Anyways, below is the review I wrote to my colleague.

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So I went to Tara's Himalayan Cuisine last night. Supposedly they close at 10pm, and I got there around 9:20pm. I asked them when the last order was and they said "hmm around 10pm, it's ok, we can make it." I ended up staying till around 10:45pm and they did not complain a thing. All waiters/waitresses are very nice and polite. The atmosphere is semi-casual, ok for dating as well. There are 1hr- and 2-hr street parking around the restaurant. There are also a couple parking spots available just around the restaurant, but it's not easy to recognize that they are parking spots. If you can't find a spot, go into the restaurant and ask them where you can park. Someone there walked out and showed me where I can park last night.

DRINK (I didn't have alcohol)
Anyways, the food was pretty good. For drink, I had Strawberry Lassi. It's a flavored yogurt drink and it tastes pretty much like slightly sour frozen yogurt in liquid form. I liked it a lot. It's very refreshing. Some other Lassi has spice in it, too. My friend had some kind of hot tea and she said it goes well with the food.

APPETIZER
For appetizer, I had Vegetable Momos. It's basically dumplings with some beans and some other vegetables with curry-based dip. Pretty good. I only had vegetable momos since my friend is a vegetarian, but there are meat momos, too.

Vegetable Momos

MAIN DISH
For main dish, I had Chicken Sekuwa. Ovened sizzling chicken on the hot plate, marinated with herbs, garlic, ginger, etc. This was pretty good. I would recommend you include this in your order option. Rice comes with all dishes with the green sauce (I forgot the name). The green sauce can be applied to your dishes to boost up the flavor. Oh, when the dishes come, DON'T FORGET TO SQUEEZE THE LIME. I didn't do that till the end but dishes taste much better with lime juice.

Chicken Sekuwa

Besides white rice, I had Onion Naan. It's baked with minced onion and it was rather flavorful. Good to eat with your meal for sure.

Their specialty is supposed to be tandori dishes. My friend ordered Fish Tandori (salmon). To my disappointment, it did not have unique flavor that's different from other places. It was not bad, but you can get it somewhere else. I would not recommend this.

Fish Tandoori

DESSERT
For dessert, we had Gulab Jamman. It's a fried flour with very sweet syrup. For sweets lovers I guess it's good but it was way too sweet for me. The taste was good, though.

Gulab Jamman

Next time I go there, I want to try some lamb dishes. But I was pretty satisfied with Chicken Sekuwa this time.

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine is not a fancty gorgeous 5-star restaurant, but I would definitely go there again.

- Break down for 2 people -
Drink
1. Strawberry Lassi
2. Hot tea
Appetizer
3. Vegetable Momos
Main and Side Dish
4. Chicken Sekuwa
5. Onion Naan
6. Regular Naan
7. Fish Tandori
Dessert
8. Gulab Jamman
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Total Only $33

Good deal eh?

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine
10855 Venice Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 836-9696