Nepal's Cafe — Restaurant in Estes Park

Nice little place for a taste from the Everest. What is a better way to spend a meal at a city in the mountains than to have a meal at a restaurant influenced by the mountainous regions of Tibet and east India, home of Everest, Nepal itself? My experience was great at the place. The people were helpful and courteous. I brought 3 generations with me, and I had to make sure that my kiddos can also eat the food. They're very helpful to tell me what's spicy and what are not. The Kothe momo (fried chicken dumplings) is a definite recommendation! The spicy dipping sauce was by far my favorite, and the non spicy dipping sauce I'll gladly pour over plain white rice for the flavor and eat it straight up! The Samosas was lighter than the golden brown I had hoped to see, but the potato (aloo) filling was great. It came with a green minty chutney, which I like. The sweet and sour sauce (another chutney?) I didn't care for it. The lamb biryani was fantastic! It was served without the bones, for those who are particular about that. The spices are cooked whole, so be sure not to bite into them if you are not used to biting into cloves, cinnamon bark, cardamom or star anise. Hey, isn't it comforting that at least you (or somebody else, like me, telling you) can recognize the actual spices used in the dishes? The Saag Paneer was good, perfectly salted spinach with mild cheese curds. The saltiness comes through with the white basmati rice that comes with it. Just don't eat it with biryani, because the multitude of spices simply overpowers the Saag paneer, which is essentially you destroying the purity and simplicity of the spinach and curd taste. The cheese naan and aloo paratha... I don't recommend. The cheese naan was a little forgettable. The "aloo paratha" was meant to be fancier, which is potato (same potato mixture in the Samosas) stuffed into a bread toasted over oil (expecting some crispiness). Instead "aloo paratha" was more like "aloo naan", because the texture bread texture was fluffy naan. I'd recommend regular naan instead, and order some curry to dip the naan for a more satisfying meal. The Mango Lassi is great! It's rich, so I recommend sharing instead, if you don't mind. Have a try of their Limboo Pani, lemonade with an Indian twist (ginger!) because it's refreshing! One final anecdote, so take it with a large grain of salt... When I asked for recommendations, I was pointed to their shrimp dishes, to which I was slightly disheartened, because I very well know that Nepal is a country that does not specialize in seafood (mountains, remember?). It is not to say that seafood is absent from their diet, it is just not a significant part...

I really wanted to love Nepal's Cafe but it just didn't do it for me.

To start off, it took us a while to get seated - the waiters sort of passed us by. Then, we were seated at a table in a corner by the window. A bug was trying mightily to get out of that window, so that was kind of annoying. Not gross, as the door was open, so it had probably just flown in - but definitely annoying. Also, the restaurant was very poorly ventilated and quite hot.

The service was so so. The man who brought us our food and the women who checked us out were both quite pleasant, but the man who brought us our menus and filled our water glasses was very gruff, despite our smiles and words of thanks.

We had chicken momo, kothe (fried) momo, and garlic naan, since there are no momo places in our hometown. We were a little disappointed. The naan was definitely the high point - it was soft and flavorful. The kothe momo were...decent. Not super flavorful, but they had a nice crunch and as always the tomato dipping sauce was tasty. The spicy tomato sauce they gave us to try was quite spicy - tasty, but I mostly avoided it!

The chicken momo were very disappointing, though. They honestly looked and felt and tasted more like frozen potstickers than momo. The bottoms were soggy and the creased tops were hard and dry. Very little taste.

Again, I really wanted to like this place. Maybe some of the curries are better; I don't know. As it is, I prefer Himalayan Curry and Kebab for momo...

Went there during 4th of July holidays to pickup some takeout, right before they closed. I ordered okra potato and Nepal curry. I asked if Nepal curry was vegetarian or not - they confirmed it was vegan. Later that night I saw a piece of chicken in the Nepal curry. I ate the okra potato however.

The next day I came back to report this to them. The two younger ladies asked if I’m lying or added a piece of chicken myself to get back the money. I was prepared for 10 different responses - but NOT THAT. I told them that I even ate the other dish and also showed them a photo from the Nepal curry box. Somehow they couldn’t believe the photo and wanted to actually see the food. They offered to make it again for me, but after hearing all that I wanted a refund. And guess what - they said they couldn’t give me a refund since I came too late - I should have called them the previous night itself apparently. I even told them that it was way past their business hours which is why I was coming back. There was another older lady who cursed my husband for pointing this out - I could even understand what she told me and asked her to apologize. She did not do that either.

Lucky for me the curry was still in the refrigerator and I hadn’t thrown it away. I went back to get it and got my money back. Please reconsider going here if you’re worried about cross contamination and cannot eat certain kind of food - for both personal reasons and...