Sherpa House Restaurant and Culture Center — Restaurant in Golden

Long story short:

Worsening service, apathetic staff, long waits, forgetting dishes and waiting extra 20 minutes for meal to arrive (felt like Spirit Airlines, the restaurant). Used to be great, coming multiple times a week for friendly staff and lunch buffet. Now the buffet is gone, and the slow, overpriced dishes are not worth it. Seems like a restaurant setup to provide lackluster service while exploiting tourists with overpriced dishes. Will not be returning in the future, despite coming here for years.

Long story long:

Sherpa house used to be one of the best restaurants in Golden. The $12 lunch buffet, friendly and energetic staff, and overall atmosphere were wonderful! But since COVID, this place hasn't been the same...

The energetic, friendly staff have mostly moved on, and the lunch buffet never returned after COVID protocols were dropped. Now, you're stuck with the much smaller portion size, higher prices of the conventional lunch/dinner menu, and more apathetic staff.

Moreover, the service quality has noticeably worsened as prices have jumped on the conventional menu ($3-4 dollar increases). During my latest visit, the kitchen and/or wait staff forgot about my main dish when my party's food was brought to the table. This was after a 15-20 minute wait mind you. And they even remembered my naan bread to boot, showing some part of my order was completed! After clarifying my main dish was missing, they went back to what I assumed was to grab the dish still sitting fresh in the kitchen...

An additional 20 minutes later, my dish FINALLY came out. It hadn't been made at all!

How the computerized order system, kitchen, or other system failed was puzzling. But so too was the apathetic response for the main dish being missing. There was no "we apologize for the delay", just the stoic delivery of the food well late. I can understand a 5-10 minute delay (nothing ever goes completely smoothly), but radio silence for 20 minutes? This is a restaurant, not Spirit Airlines.

If I wanted to have cold naan bread and awkwardly devour my meal as my friends chatted around me, I can go pretend to be a college student just up the street. You know it's bad when someone in your party asks "Would you like some of mine?" Waiting that long for food that should have shown up the first time is awkward, annoying, and defeats the purpose of eating at a restaurant. It ruined the lunch experience, and seriously dampened my group's special occasion.

This is on top of a number of previous Sherpa House addicts having food poisoning and other rough service experiences. Since 2019, this place has really gone downhill, losing many regular customers. It seems geared now towards suckering in unsuspecting tourists and charging them for lackluster service, rather than providing a pleasant dining experience.

I hoped for more from Sherpa House after all this time, but will not be returning. And this is something 3 years ago, I could not...

Man Can Live on Yak Alone!!!

I had the pleasure of stopping into the Sherpa House during a visit to Golden, Co. earlier this year. After a long road trip dining on steaks, seafood, BBQ, Mexican Food and other foods, I was looking for something different. I had just checked into the Golden Hotel and I was on my way to Lookout Mountain Park. I was starving after an early appointment and a trip to Fort Lupton earlier that day. I asked the front desk what was the most interesting place to eat in Golden and they sent me down the street to the Sherpa House.

The Sherpa House is a 10-minute walk from the Golden Hotel with a nice stroll through the downtown area. Upon arrival, I know this place would be special as the house itself is decked out in Tibetan/Himalayan decor. Once I went in I was fairly surprised as to how busy it was. People from all walks of life were seated at the tables, and since I was alone I got seated right away. Lunch is a buffet serving a mix of foods from India, Tibet and Nepal all homemade and very fragrant. The one dish that caught my eye was the 'Spicy Yak Stew' so I filled up a bowl and grabbed a piece of fresh just made Naan. OMG is all I can say as this was one of the most delicious stews I've ever had with tender chunks of yak, vegetables and a savoury broth. I ended up having three bowls and only a little bit of the other foods offered and there plenty of choices on that buffet. Dinner service has a la carte items, serving Indian, Nepalese and Tibetan traditional dishes. Carnivore, Vegan or Vegetarians are served at this exotic food hot spot.

The interior is straight out the Buddhist temples of that area if the world. Gold accents, images of Buddha, Himalayan style patterns, carved wood furniture and accents adorn the inside of the restaurant. This is a great setting that helps to enhance the food and the experience. The Sherpa house also brews its own craft beer for those of you who enjoy that indulgence, please also note there are only one person bathrooms for men and women. I was very fortunate to be seated alongside two members of Golden CrossFit and went for a workout later that day. You will love the Sherpa House as I did. The service and staff are top-notch, the food is spectacular, and it's busy so please make a reservation. If you're ever in Golden Colorado make it a point to...

We went to Sherpa House when on vacation in Golden for a concert a Red Rocks. We love India and Nepalese food and were excited by the look of the place. It's in a real cool building and from the outside, it looked like it was going to be great.

I was pretty disappointed in our experience. We went around 6-7 and it wasn't very busy so we got right in. The front dining area was nearly full so we were lead to the bar area to sit. They had a garage door in this room I assume for their patio in the summer. But as it was 25 degrees outside, and the room was FREEZING! Even the servers had their coats on. I watched three tables ask to move from this area because it was so cold. We put our coats back on to tough it out, but it was still a pretty unpleasant atmosphere. I would have moved if I'd known they had an upstairs dining area that was an option. The server clearly saw that we were cold and uncomfortable but did nothing to make our experience better. I feel like this room should not be used in the winter or they should insulate their space from the garage doors better. I've been to plenty of restaurants with garage patios and this was NOTHING like I'd experienced.

The service was okay but it almost seemed like we were an inconvenience for the server. He couldn't have cared less about our experience and it just seemed like he was going through the motions. He did his job, but it wasn't exemplary in a

The food was about as mid as you can get. It had flavor and was cooked well, but it was just okay. We got the the Onion Bhaji appetizer and there 6 tiny onion fitters I got Saag Paneer and the amount of paneer in it was laughable. Probably like a 5 to 1 ratio of spinach to paneer. My husband got chicken Daal Bhat Tarkari and again, the potion was insanely small. He got like 3 pieces of chicken in a very small tin of sauce. The chicken was overcooked and chewy.

Overall, I would not recommend Sherpa House. It seems like it's popular because there isn't a lot of options in Golden, especially Indian/Nepalese food. On top of that, we paid $60 for a...