Himalaya Authentic Pakistani & Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

After shuffling down Elizabeth Street a couple of hundred metres, Himalaya Pakistani & Indian Restaurant makes up for the lack of dining room windows in their new space using colourful, Indian-inspired murals. On one wall, the Taj Mahal is swathed in fiery skies and reflected in the still water that stands at its base; while on another, four elaborately clad figures interact against a natural, leafy backdrop in shades of blue, yellow and green.

This Surry Hills restaurant is one of five outlets owned by the group, who, just like the Manjit’s group that I reviewed last week, also own a function centre that caters to Indian weddings. As the name suggests, they’re serving desi food from the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora, which can broadly include Pakistan and Bangladesh. They attracted my interest with their weekday long lunches, which run until 4.30pm, making them perfect for people who never quite manage to step out of the office at the assigned lunch hour.

The Tandoori Chicken Thali ($19) is basic but covers all your lunch needs, spreading them across the compartments of a shiny, stainless-steel thali tray. Two smoky pieces of bone-in charred tandoori chook, served with green capsicum and long loops of onion, are complemented by a chicken curry of your choice. If you like heat, opt for the one labelled chicken curry rather than butter chicken. While it isn’t going to blow your head off, it’s tasty with sweet sweated onions and whole cardamom rather than cream or coconut. There’s also a soft and pliable naan sliced into quarters, rice and pappadums hiding frost green mint chutney that’s more yoghurt than it is mint.

The Lamb Thali ($19) comes in a similar format, switching out the tandoori chicken for two tubes of flavoursome seekh kebab that have also been roasted in the tandoor. They’re made from minced lamb mixed with onion, fresh herbs and spices, rolled onto metal skewers, which are pulled out before serving. The lean, well-spiced kebabs are served with a lamb curry that has had a long slow cook in a gravy with a round and balanced tomato base, until the pieces of lamb are nice and tender.

The restaurant’s main menu is also available at lunch time. Craving something with a bit more kick (everything I tried on the thali plates was very mild) I hit up Paneer Tikka Masala ($16.95). Labeled as medium-hot on the menu, the home-made cheese arrives in a dense tomato sauce broken up with sweet onion and still-crisp green capsicum that is almost sweet against the mild, lip-tingling heat. There’s a generous amount of tender, rather than chewy, cheese in this decently proportioned serve, and the dish leaves me with a satisfying aftertaste. Rather than rice, I choose to team it with a Peshwari Naan ($4.50) that has a bright orange interior stuffed with lots of fruit and coconut. It’s particularly enjoyable against cheese and the acidity of the tomato-heavy curry.

Service is variable during the day, with just one floor person, who often spends more time on their phone than they do looking after the dining room, but I suspect that would improve with more...

Pathetic is the word for the quality of food that they are serving. I ordered 2 chicken curries and 5 naans last night through Uber Eats and I clearly mentioned that make sure naans are cooked well but the naans were under cooked and chewy and you could see that under cooked dough. Coming to gravies, I haven't seen any restaurant using that amount of oil in gravies. It was feeling like the chef have poured a couple of tablespoons of oil on the gravies but for what. Oil does not make the food tasty and a misconception being carried by your untrained chef. The oil was that much that the delivery guys became oily during delivery as the oil was just oozing out of the boxes. It was just pathetic and I feel now all the reviews on Google are just not actual reviews but bogus. The worst ever Indian food I had in last 5 years in Sydney. If I was eating in your restaurant I would have asked you guys to change the curry but a disadvantage of getting...

Not worth it!!!

Firstly, I’ve been there on 2-04-2022 and the girl was so fu###ng rude. She was so rude i cannot even tell u. All the tables are full with left over foods and she haven’t picked it up!! Even though where i was sitting someone before me already used that table and the table wasn’t clean and all the left over just there! The food was disgusting 🤢 the rotis haven’t cooked properly and covered with dry flour. I should check the reviews before going into this restaurant.

And if the owner of this place and himalaya Granville are same they should change the staff as the restaurant in Granville that one is the best one in sydney if u really wanna enjoy the Indian and Pakistani food..

Sorry to say but i wasted my $30. The customer service was terrible.. she is very rude lady. U...