Himalayan Grill — Restaurant in Flagstaff

This is one of the most excellent restaurants I have been to in recent years. Entree prices are between $12 and $17 with chicken dishes being the cheapest and fish being the most expensive. Lamb dishes are middling. The atmosphere is wonderfully exotice with tibetan prayer flags hung across the ceilings and walls and various buddist art pieces decorating the shop, which is peacefully dim and decorated in dark hardwoods and fine linen tablecloth. Tkhey have a free appetizer of a type of thin cracker bread with herbs mixed in and cooked until crispy served with three delicious toppings rich in herbs and spices that are unfamiliar to me but very delicious and refreshing all the same. For my entree I ordered chicken tika masala, a dish made from chicken marinated in yogurt and tomatoes and cooled in a sumptious sauce of yogurt, tomatoes, and heavy amounts of spice. The restaurant offers various levels of spiceness for your food ranging from 1 to 5. I ordered at a 3, it is usually safely between pedestrian and taking paint off of a car, however it was not as spicy as I had hoped and if you are looking for heat I recommend a 4 or 5. That aside it was a very pleasant warmth that worked well with the flavours of the dish without obliterating your sense of taste. The dish came served with a large platter piled high with rice to be shared between everyone at the table, and the masala itself cane served in a wonderful bronze bowl filled to the brim with delicious, bubbling curry. My entree was exquisite, and I would have been more than willing to pay $20 or even $30 dollars a plate for such flavorful and delicious food. The chicken, as a result of being marinated for a lengthy amount of time in yogurt and tomato, was very tender, juicy, and succulent. It came apart easily with a fork, however it was not at all dry. The sauce was a pleasant light red color, with spice visible throughout. It was thick enough to stick to the chicken, but thin enough that it did not stick in your throat. The spices used were on another level. Deeply aromatic, a perfect blend between sweet, spicy, and savory. I could eat it every day for the rest of my life and not tire of it. In fact, I humbly request that I be buried in it. After I finish writing I am going to proceed to shamelessly direct all of my friends, coworkees, and family members to patronize the Himilayan Grill. I am thoroughly pleased and plan to return as soon as I can get away to Flagstaff for...

On the 29th of December, 2018, our party of 4 adults, 1 infant and 1 child made its way to Himalayan Grill. The place was crowded and we had to wait for about half an hour before we were seated. Ordinarily, the wait is a good thing - it shows that there is enough demand for the food being delivered by the restaurant and it also heightens the consumer's expectations. When we were finally seated and our orders were taken, it took an hour and a half for our appetizers to come by and another 30 minutes for the main course. In the meantime, our water was over and the waiter wasn't around to refill our glasses. Since it was 10:30 pm by the time the food came, we decided to pack our food and take it to our hotel rooms where we tasted the horrendousness which was passed off as Indian food. For one, every dish tasted the same. Then, the lentils were undercooked. The kasuri methi (fenugreek) powder was so generously used that it overpowered every single flavour and left a bitter aftertaste on our palettes - pretty symbolic of our experience with Himalayan Grill.

Over the years, I have formulated a few truths about restaurants and food quality, and Himalayan Grill reinforced each one of those:

If a place is highly rated but it has a full fledged bar, then know that the reviews of the food aren't accurate. No drunk man is quite in a position to be a food critic.

If you're in a touristy place, then just do NOT go to an Indian restaurant. Indian food isn't pizza. Pizza is like sex - even when it is bad, it is good. It takes skill to amaze with a pizza but nobody ever says that they cannot eat a Pizza Hut or a Papa John's. But it is very easy to mess up Indian food and Himalayan Grill showed me how.

When you see a place plaster on their walls accolades from their past (2008 best Indian restaurant, 2009 best Indian restaurant) then know that the place is stuck to the past and the food is terrible. Those accolades merely tell you that in an era gone by, the place was good, but now,...

Absolutely Disgusting Experience – Avoid This Place at All Costs!

If I could give zero stars, I would! This place is a disgrace to Indian/Nepali cuisine and an insult to anyone who trusts them with their food. I went to Himalayan Grill in Flagstaff with a strict vegetarian guest, only to find pieces of chicken mixed in their so-called “vegetable biryani.” That alone is completely unacceptable and offensive, but what made it worse was the staff’s attitude—they didn’t even have the decency to apologize for their disgusting mistake!

How do you mess up a VEGETARIAN dish by throwing meat into it? This isn’t some minor issue; this is gross negligence and blatant carelessness. What if this had been someone with religious restrictions or severe allergies? It shows they don’t care about their customers’ dietary needs or basic food safety.

Instead of fixing their mistake, they acted like it was no big deal and completely dismissed our complaint. No apology—just an arrogant attitude as if we were the problem for pointing it out. This level of ignorance and incompetence is shocking.

The food was mediocre at best, but the lack of hygiene, respect, and customer service is what really makes this place a nightmare. If you have any self-respect, do yourself a favor and never eat here. There are plenty of better Indian/Nepali restaurants that actually care about their customers and their food.

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