Cozy little restaurant with that special flavor that may just be missing in your everyday luncheon or dinner. There is about two Himalayan/Nepalese places in downtown Pasadena, and this is one of them. The other one may have been more on the exotic side as they had yak. The menu on this one had closer relation to Indian food than the other one, with some more curry-flavored dishes. Nevertheless, the food still stands out. Pretty tasty. Interior is about small to medium-sized and a group of 2-6 should fit okay. Parking is available on one of the parking structures (90 min free) around or behind the restaurant. read more

I finally got around to eating at this long time Pasadena favorite. It's in the heart of Old Town and a easy get to place that I've walked and driven past many times. My wife and I were planning on going somewhere else, a new place I'd seen online. Anyway, there was too a long wait there, so we decided to head for something else, after all, there's a ton of good places to eat in Old Town. We turned the corner there was this place. We decided to finally try it. And damn, it was a way better and perfect place to come. Great tables, calm aura, attentive service, great menu, and delicious food. Everything we had was great. There's a reason this place has been around so long. read more

This place has a very relaxed and chill vibe. Feels a bit like you're in India. I got the shrimp appetizer which was pretty dank. For an entrée I got the curry chicken with rice. The portion size was excellent, and both my roommate and I had some to take home. The price was average for a sit down dinner in old town. 60 bucks for an appetizer, 2 entrees with extra sides, drinks and tip. I'll definitely be going back when my mom comes into town! read more

Himalayan Cafe - A healthy (large) portion of curry chicken - Himalayan/Nepalese Near Me - Pasadena, California

Had the masala and it was very flavorful. Excited to come back and try new things. Real good food !

We ordered food for pickup and it was delicious. The vegetarian selections were great. All the food we got was labeled as being mild and it was while still being flavorful. I will be visiting whenever I'm in Pasadena. The vegetable korma ended up being our favorite. We also loved the vegetarian appetizer platter. read more

Mango lassi was yummy. Other than that everything else was salty. Mo-Mo was pretty good but I would suggest getting the chicken instead of the vegetables. Lamb naan wasn't as flavorful as I thought it would. Lamb roll was interesting. It was lamb meat with some spices wrapped inside of a tortilla; kind of like a burrito. I think this place is too expensive. And food was just so so. read more

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We ordered delivery from Himalayan Cafe for the first time. I'm so glad I did! It's amazing! Lamb Vindaloo, medium spicy, was some of the best I've ever had. Dal soup and sag paneer came with our order, even though I didn't order them. Both delicious. Thali chicken great! I didn't try the Naan but my kids thought our usual place makes a better one. I can't believe I didn't snap a photo! : ( read more

I love Himalayan Cafe. It offers a great lunch buffet that is very reasonably priced. I have also ordered dishes, including vegetarian, off the menu and the portions were large enough so that I had leftovers. The staff is very friendly and attentive. read more

Pleasantly surprised at this great restaurant. Decided to have a semi-early dinner and walked by what used to be a ramen house called Kansai. I was quickly approached by one of the multitasking servers and sat at a nice 4-top so that I may have all the elbow room I required. The service was really warm friendly and inviting. The food was very similar to Indian food but with a slight twist. Portion of meat was a bit small looking on the large plate they provide the combination on, but I was very full by the time I was eating my kheer (rice pudding dessert). The food, from the appetizer papadum, to the garlic chicken, to tandoori chicken, and lentle soup, were really good. Being a complete naan addict, they brought out a very simple, traditional, crispy on the outside yet soft on the inside version with no garlic or sauces doused over it. I had to get seconds. They offer a couple of Himalayan beers. I've never had the chance to try any and my server who had yet to fail with his recommendations, brought over a lager (at 5.5%) called "Mustang" that was a nice compliment to the food. It's a really cool spot to check out when you're hungry while finishing up errands or meeting friends and need a place to hang. Can't wait to go back and try some of the lesser known dishes! read more

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Delicious! They steered the 3 of us to order dishes for family-style dining at the outside tables. Everything was excellent - samosas, lamb tikka masala, chicken korma, garlic naans, basmati rice, and rice pudding for dessert. Will definitely come back! read more

This place is delicious. I ordered the Lamb Biryani and it was TASTY. I usually don't leave Yelp reviews, but the service was amazing. Thanks, Malik! read more

Ordered food from here. What I received was not what I ordered. I received a completely different order. I called the place and spoke with a manager and he told me the order was correct and that I was a liar read more

Chicken Tikka Massala to DIE FOR! Great service, food and ambiance. I will be back read more

Himalayan Cafe - tikka masala - Himalayan/Nepalese Near Me - Pasadena, California

Literally the best place to order from in Pasadena when craving chicken tikka masala or any other gravy dishes. Great customer service. For what you pay the quality of the food is amazing. read more

My friends and I stopped by this place because they had a coupon on the Clipper magazine. We weren't expecting much but I read the reviews here and they all looked good so we wanted to give it a shot. When we went there, we were surprised that the original Japanese restaurant was not there anymore. So this Himalayan place was new (to us). The servers were very friendly and the food was good. The food was light and actually delicious. We ordered Chicken Tikki Masala, Garlic Naan and some lentil curry. They are all very good. Actually I enjoyed the himalayan masala tea the most. There was even refill for it. The mango lassi was also good. The chef actually came out to talk to us and saw that everything on the plates were cleaned out. I think that's more meaningful to him than whatever we said. The dessert was also very good. The pistachio ice-cream was very refreshing and the Kheer, which is like a rice pudding, was very light. I like desserts that are light so you can keep eating without feeling too sweet. I will go back again especially with the coupon to get the second entree for free. That makes the price very reasonable. read more

We went here on the 2nd day after they opened last year and it was great. I had the garlic chicken sekuwa and singada. Both were really tasty and filling. I definitely want to go back again. Update: July 2012 I finally had a chance to go back a few days ago and ordered the chicken mo-mo as an appetizer this time. Amazing. Those were some of the best dumplings I've ever had and the sauce adds a lot. The waiter had recommended those on my first visit. I also ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala. The masala was a bit more subdued in taste but quite good. I wish they had included more chicken though as it wasn't really enough to justify the price. read more

The food quality has seriously declined while the prices have increased. We had been coming here for years but the last 2 times the food was bland & the portions exceedingly small. The cheese pakora was the only thing that tasted good. The Samosa was hard as nails, the chicken was rubbery & the saag paneer had zero flavoring. The 1st time we noticed the lack in quality of the food, we thought it was a fluke but after this 2nd time, we are done. read more

Hmm. New owners?? The last TWO times we ordered food from here in December and November the food tasted less than spectacular. No flavor - little spices. Recipe change? New chef? How sad. read more

I love this place! The food was fantastic i ate so much i couldnt walk after lol. My favorite dish was the chicken chilli with some Mustang beer on the side. When straight thru i give this place 5 stars and two thumbs Up read more

The curry is extremely watered down and lacks flavor. Look elsewhere for quality Indian food.

Casual tasty cafe. I'd heard a lot about Himalayan food and it's basically like a mashup of Chinese and Indian. Service here is quick and friendly, food is good and inexpensive. Great spot for a casual lunch or dinner. read more

Not worth for the price. The salad was dry and didn't have any dressing in it. We also ordered a rice pudding which was supposed to come with pistachio but the waiter brought us plain rice soaked in milk! When we asked where the pistachio was, he said they were out. At first, he kind of frowned like he didn't know what I was talking about. Then I said that there was supposed to be pistachio as shown on the menu. He then remembered it. Also the service was kind of unfriendly. I felt pressure when asking a question or trying to order something. Not a pleasant dinning experience. Will not be going back. read more

I've only had their all you can eat lunch buffet for $12, which is an amazing deal price and taste-wise, and chock full of great options. They always have the staples: chicken tikka masala, chicken curry, channa masala, basmati rice, salad, and AMAZING unsweetened hot chai tea. I highly recommend this place to anyone in the area who doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg for a meal, like most places in CA require! Thank you for the great meals. read more

Such great food here! My gf an I love to come in for the lunch buffet; always fresh options, naan and they offer chai tea with the buffet!?! At 10$ a person, its quite the steal. The servers are always courteous and attentive with keeping the place clean and refilling your water. One of the few places in the area that I will miss when I leave! read more

Been there last night...ordered thali set.. Dal was already sour,looks like it had been cooked and frozen longtime ago..saag paneer had no paneer in it...good hospitality though..that owe them one more star.. read more

Quick tips! 1. Free 90 minute parking without validation behind the restaurant. 2. Lunch AYCE buffet is $10. After passing by Himalayan Cafe for years now, I always wondered what kind of food they served. This faithful little shop is sandwiched between a Thai restaurant and a small convenience store. It is across from Little Sheep, my normal destination, and is really humble in its outward appearance. This review is only for the weekday lunch buffet that they've generously laid out. I am no stranger to Indian buffets or Indian food. In fact, I love the different types of curry, sauces, and everything else you can get. The buffet area is a little small and spans about 8 feet of different curries and other stuff. On the right, there is rice, fried battered vegetables, grilled (not tandoori) chicken, and various vegetable curries. In the middle, there is their chicken curry and chicken tikka masala. On the left, there is four different sauces, a cucumber based salad, cut fruit, and rice pudding for dessert. Each table is graced with an order of their flat naan like bread that comes out fresh and hot. The basmati rice was very fluffy and fresh. Truthfully, I forgot what kinds of veggie curries I had, but I did try something with chickpeas in it. The major part of my meal was the chicken curry and the chicken tikka masala. The chicken curry had a hint of how Japanese curry usually tastes like, but with more pronounced flavor. The chicken tikka masala, was in my opinion, way too watery. Usually, I like a thicker sauce on the chicken because it just made the plate feel soupy. The sauces were excellent! There was a yogurt sauce, a tamarind sauce, a cilantro sauce and a mystery ginger mango sauce. By far my favorite was the tamarind sauce as the ginger mango sauce was too gingery and the cilantro sauce was a little under seasoned. I didn't try the cucumber salad or the fruits because I was stuffed with chicken by the end of our meal. The waiter was very kind and courteous and the service was awesome. They constantly came by to fill our water cups and refill our bread. Now you may be wondering, "well Calvin, this sounds pretty good! Why the two stars?" Well because by late night both myself and my friend were feeling very sick into the late afternoon the next day. Maybe we just caught them on a bad day, but this small case of stomach issues would probably be a reason for me not to try this place again. Surely the $10 value is great! But you really get what you paid for! Regardless, it was great food, just ymmv. read more

Food was great. Lamb Sekuwa Thaali was fantastic. Veg momo was OK too. We will definitely visit the place again when we come to LA. read more

Himalayan Cafe - Himalayan/Nepalese Near Me - Pasadena, California

The cafe itself is very small. When I walked in with friends and siblings, only one person was there, sitting in the corner (presumably picking up food). The waiter was courteous and was always ready to help us with anything. Not really a complaint, but I noticed our waiter was really "aggressive" with pouring the water lmao. He would pour it all the way to the brim of the cup but it wasn't in like a careful manner, it was reckless; he overpoured and water spilled onto the table. The food was really good. I don't have any photos but I really enjoyed the food. I hot a lot of chicken lmao, it kept me full for about 2-3 hours, and that usually doesn't happen. Just one star off for that waiter being hella aggressive with the water lmao. Overall I would recommend. read more

Its a cold night, so I was craving for some comfort food. Had to run errands in the area, so we decided to give it this place a go. We ordered chicken vindaloo, Aloo kauli, chicken momo, potato Naan, and rice. Yes, all for two people. It took awhile but when the food finally came out, the server put down a chicken Tikka masala. We told him we ordered the chicken vindaloo, but he insisted that we indeed ordered the masala. Really? He goes on to check his notepad to tell us that he wrote down masala. He made it so obvious that he just wanted us to eat the damn masala and since it would've taken awhile if we had demanded for vindaloo, we just took it. And even before tasting the main entrees, I was pretty sure I won't be back. They didn't even comp us for putting down the wrong order.. Shrugs. But for the food, it was decent overall: Chicken Tikka masala: good. Heavy. Chicken chunks. What you'd expect. Aloo kauli: tomato saucey. It was pretty good to mix the two curries together to balance out the flavors. Chicken momo: SKIP. Not worth $11. Basically your typical dumpling with curry powder infused inside. Potato naan: my favorite Himalayan dish. Overpriced but good. Rice: we really shouldn't have ordered. Couldn't finish. But it's just rice. TL;DL: Don't waste your money unless you like servers with attitude, but do order the potato Naan and any curries, but skip the momos. read more

You know I never really give reviews but I'm staying at a hotel here in town and saw this place on yelp. A young man delivered our food and forgot utensils, I gave him a call and he rushed back not only with utensils he brought us a few sodas. The food is fantastic and the service is great. read more

I hate giving poor reviews at a time like this BUT when a restaurant does not believe a customer and basically accuses them of lying then I feel they deserve honest feedback. We did not receive a part of our order and the restaurants response was insulting. read more

Absolutely amazing service with a cultural vibe of Nepal. The food here is amazing and so is the staff. The hospitality is very professional and the food is very delicious! I would highly recommend momos, pakauda, biryani and many more. That is just my preference! Over all a great service and great quality of food. The buffet here is very fulfilling and the price is on the budget. Hats of to the chef's for making delicious food. read more

Himalayan Cafe - Himalayan/Nepalese Near Me - Pasadena, California

6 years of coming regularly here, love the buffet, great & personable service & Zen - friendly atmosphere ... Remains my favorite restaurant solo, or coming with friends, juuuust love it read more

Came here for their lunch buffet on a Sunday. For $10/person, this place is a steal. They have a number of options and free chai. Service is pretty friendly and attentive. Naan is delivered to your table. Overall a great experience and super friendly on the wallet. read more

The food was decent, nothing too exciting but not bad. Most of it is just like the dishes you'll see at any Indian restaurant but there were a few options I hadn't seen before. We had the Chicken Mo-Mo and a chicken and lamb dish off the Nepali section of the menu. It's pretty expensive for what you get, but Pasadena and the place is always empty when we walk by, so I guess they have to make up for it somewhere. Parking is easy, it's right around the corner from a 90 minutes free garage. I saw another review that someone got food poisoning but it was from the buffet, so I figured we'd be fine. I made sure to only order hot/cooked food just in case. Bad gamble and lesson learned - if someone writes a review that they got food poisoning, hard pass. read more

This place is so good. The best daal I've ever had. Quaint, unassuming, good prices, good service. It's hard to find Himalayan food, so if you're craving momos, you can't go wrong here! read more

I love this place so much. I've been here several times and I've never been disappointed. The food is incredibly delicious. I found out about it through Groupon & I was incredibly pleased by the service and the food. Definitely recommend their mixed grill & their saag panner "spicy". :) read more

This establishment brought me closer to a landfill than the Himalayas because the overall experience was garbage. Their pseudo Hindu postings and dècor carried a great lesson - patience is the most important practice here because you're going to wait 25 minutes for your food, and to reach enlightenment by leaving you'll need to wait another 15. I ate lunch here as a party of three with no one else in the entire restaurant, yet the staff decided to clean and cater to every empty table but ours. Once the food finally appeared, they presented a bland mixture of food that ruined any ambition of traveling to the Himalayas forever. read more

I thought this place was good but not great. I went in for an early dinner, and the server kind of ignored me even though I was the only customer. I ordered the vegetarian combo, which comes with naan, rice, raita, lentils, and two veggie dishes of your choosing (I went with the chana masala and an eggplant and potato dish). It was a good amount of food, and it was tasty, but I was not blown away by any of it. Even though I was pretty full after eating most of my main course, I was curious to try the carrot dessert that had been mentioned in multiple Yelp reviews. I ended up finding that to be rather disappointing. To me, it just tasted like mushy overcooked carrots with cashews, though perhaps they added some spices and sweetener that I couldn't taste. There was something about it that reminded me of baby food. All in all, my experience at this place was decent. If I happen to be in the area again, I might give it another try, but I'm not particularly eager to return. read more

Maybe I'm missing something, but two Himalayan restaurants in the same small city seems like overkill, especially when the flavors are in close proximity to Indian food which is already prevalent in the area. Still the buzz has been good on this late to the party establishment, so we decided to give it a go and it turned out to be a good decision. The first thing to know about this cafe is that they don't play around with the spices. There's no toning down for the white bread clientele, which is a breath of fresh air in a neighborhood not known for big flavors. Hot here means hot, food for thought. Papadum is just average here, neither the sauce nor bread left much of an impression. Things got better next though. Himalayan Mixed Grill with lamb tandoori, chicken and shrimp sekuwa was quite nice. Unique flavor, spicy but not overwhelming and the beef was well done but not dry which is difficult to achieve. Chintzy on the shrimp though, two very sad, small specimens. Lamb Vindaloo was really lovely, pleasantly hot curry sauce and very distinct flavoring. Shrimp Pakauda was pretty good, a nice light batter with a sweet bery tasty dipping sauce. They do sauces right here, good distinct spices abound. The dishes here have a lot in common with Indian food but unlike some so called Himalayan restaurant's like Tara's, you definitely know you are eating Himalayan cuisine and not Indian food. After eating here, it's obvious there's room for another Himalayan restaurant in Pasadena. The flavors here are all their own, and quite memorable over all. It isn't perfect though. Servings are on the small side. Service is friendly but nowhere near as good as advertised, being nice is great but clearing tables of empty dishes, refilling drinks and bringing the check in a timely manner are important. Overall, very nice. Best Plates: HImalayan Mixed Grill, Lamb Vindaloo, Shrimp Pakauda, Naan Palate: Mildy adventurous Food - A- Ambience - B Service - B Value - B read more