Nepali kitchen and chai garden — Restaurant in Portland

The area they have for seating outside is really cute and looks like a vestige of something they had done during covid and decided to keep. The man we interacted with at the window who also brought us our food was lovely. When you can peer through their little ordering stall into the interior of the house, it looks like it's very beautiful inside and it would be very nice to sit there inside especially in the winter (if they open it again). The little seating cabinets they built outside are fine and I think they're going to work in shoulder season. They have made the unconventional move of turning a plastic tuffshed into a little crooked but comfy bathroom on the side yard.

The chai is very good. The momos are pretty great. They have the characteristically thick skins which are normal for Nepali dumplings and a stuffing of curried, ground pork which I think is a little unusual but it is tasty and juicy. The orange, tomato-based looking dipping sauce they served with it was mildly sweet and really had very little flavor.

We ordered the Nepali platter and it was pretty disappointing: The little chunks of "barbequed" pork came very dry and completely cold. 1/4 of the plate was filled with just peanuts with some different powdered things put on them as a kind of garnish condiment which although tasty, seems like a kind of subpar move, the cumin potatoes although tasty were half-uncooked and therefore inedible, the fried potatoes were nice but didn't really have a fatty sauce that went well with them. They serve their spicy green sauce in tiny thimble size containers with the single-user Solo plastic waste that I hate. Overall they are doing the wasteful thing of using single use takeout materials for dine-in which I think should be outlawed. Rant: In my opinion, every place that serves dine-in food should serve it on washable plates and every place that does dine out should only use compostable containers.

We ordered the Dhal Bhat and it was totally bland and boring. No interesting chunks in the lentils, no nice underlying broth base and nothing done to go the extra mile to make it delicious.

The garnishes they use are dry slices of carrot that look like they were cut up some days ago and frost burned slices of cucumber that obviously have been over-refrigerated.

Kind of seems like these guys are running on autopilot and have gotten good reviews from the neighbors as a form of charitable interpretation and love for the very valuable little slice of beautiful Nepali atmosphere this place brings to Portland. I've spent more than 4 months in Nepal and have had some excellent food there (even though truly delicious food in Nepal is not the norm) but THIS restaurant isn't the place to wow anyone with the food or represent the best of what you can find in...

Disappointing Experience at Nepali Kitchen – Charming Setup, But Food Falls Far Short

This place has a quaint, cozy setup — a little outdoor dining area in front of a family home. It gives off a peaceful, “café in the hills” vibe that feels inviting, and I truly wanted to enjoy it. Unfortunately, the food experience was a major disappointment.

We ordered the thali, vegetarian momo, and chicken curry, and none of the dishes met even the most basic expectations: • The thali came on a flimsy disposable plate, with sticky rice and two side items that were both confusing and flavorless. One dish barely resembled a curry, while the other tasted like a mix between raw salad and under-seasoned sautéed greens — nothing like what you’d expect from a proper Nepali meal. • The chicken curry was especially baffling — just chunks of chicken with what seemed to be only turmeric powder and salt. There was no depth, no aroma, no richness — just a pale attempt at a dish that should be comforting and full of flavor. • The vegetarian momos were overstuffed with bland filling, lacking any defining taste. Even the achar, which is usually a bright, spicy highlight of the meal, fell flat — completely missing that signature zing of Nepali spice.

The saddest part? Learning that this is the retirement project of a couple who, unfortunately, don’t seem to have the culinary skills to serve good food — let alone represent Nepali cuisine to people who may be experiencing it for the first time. While it’s admirable to start something out of passion, running a food business requires more than heart — it requires skill, taste, and respect for the cuisine.

Given how disappointing the food was fresh on-site, I can’t imagine the to-go version being any better. This wasn’t just below restaurant standards — it didn’t even reach the level of a decent home-cooked meal.

The setting has charm and sincerity — but sadly, the...

When the day is hot and you have been out exploring… What you want is an oasis and that is what the Nepali kitchen and Chai Garden is, a magical and mysterious oasis. I cannot tell you how inviting and special the place is, how you come around the corner and how welcoming and mysterious it is. I was charmed from my grizzled and scraggy beard down to the tips of my ancient old toes. The owner was beyond kind and welcoming, patient with this old and exhausted traveler. I felt transported to a far off land. I have traveled often in my life, to many exotic and distant places and so in someways, it felt like I was coming home. And the food was great. I loved the Keema Noodles and how often do you find Momo outside the mysterious lands? I found the small private tea houses charming and the gardens to be the perfect place of refuge. Nepali Kitchen is such a surprise, such a little wonder, as if you had wandered into a small novel and you were the pilgrim off on a trek to the top of a mountain, or maybe it was a dream of peace and meaning. Whatever it was the people were nice and the...