Himalayan Kitchen — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

I have mixed feelings about this establishment. The food is fantastic. If you're wanting some tasty curries with some great vegetarian options, then this is a good choice.

The atmosphere is so-so. I have eaten here a few times over the last couple years, and always found the atmosphere to be a 5 out of 5. Sadly, this element has taken a bit of hit since then. While the interior design, lighting, and music is lovely as always, unfortunately, a nightclub has moved into the space above the restaurant. If you dine in the evening, loud, music pulses through the ceiling, causing the overhead lights to flicker, clashing with the romantic music playing inside the restaurant itself.

And finally, I should mention the service. Oh boy. To be fair, the service has never been amazing in my experience, but I do feel that every time I've gone, the service has been a little less satisfactory.

To illustrate this, let me describe our last visit, 2 evenings ago on our wedding anniversary. The staff weren't mean or grumpy, but they were neglectful and disinterested in serving us. Our order was taken quickly by our friendly server, but after our food was brought to us, we never saw them again. Our water glasses were never refilled, and they never even checked to see how the food was, etc. When we asked for the check, our server half-heartedly asked if we wanted more water. I was thinking, I don't need more water NOW - we're done eating and are gathering our things to go. 😵‍💫

To make things worse, our server brought us an incorrect item. I pointed this out to her, and rather than saying "Whoops, my mistake - let me bring you the correct item," she proceeded to gaslight me and say that I ordered incorrectly. I've ordered from this type of restaurant many times - I know the difference between Aloo and Paneer. Regardless, had I ordered the wrong item (which I most certainly did not) it would have been little to no trouble for her to bring the item I wanted.😠

Lastly, I should mention that the portions of rice are extremely small. Each entre is to receive one serving of rice. Apparently, one serving of rice is half of the smallest bowl they have in the restaurant. To receive more rice, one most order a separate side. Why the penny-pinching on rice? It's literally one of the most inexpensive food items ever. 🙄

So, in summation, I would lightly recommend going here. Lower your expectations on the food and evening ambiance, and you might have a great time. I highly recommend the Chilli dishes (they are found in Himalayan Specialities portion of the menu.) I always get mine with Paneer, which is a homemade cubed cheese, and it never dissapoints! Consider audio recording yourself when you order in case the staff tries to tell you that you ordered something different. It's sad that I must recommend that sort of thing, but clearly the staff has not been trained well on proper restaurant...

horrible customer service. the online ordering was down, so we had to call to order. it went to voicemail 6 times. when ordering, we asked them to read back the order to make sure they got everything, and they missed one of the items. we told them to add the item, and they said they did. when we got there to pick up the food, we asked them to make sure that everything was there, because we drove a good distance. they told us that everything was there. surprise surprise! the item that they forgot when taking the order that we told them to add wasn't in the bag when we got home. in addition, none of the food containers were labeled, which didn't exactly make things easy for us. when we called to tell them, the person who answered the phone was VERY short with us. the food was hit or miss; some was pretty good, but the rest... there were unpitted fruit, unshelled seeds, and bits of chicken with BONE IN THEM in the chicken biryani. my mom just about broke her teeth on the bones and the pits! she ended up having to throw her food away because she was scared that she was going to choke or break her teeth on one! the raiti was super thin and smelled... absolutely rancid. the rest was mediocre. between the questionable customer service and dangerous food quality (if my mom had unknowingly swallowed one of those pieces of chicken bone, she could've ended up being hospitalized), the prices are outrageous. we were willing to pay the prices even if the food was just okay just to support a local business, but this was just ridiculous. I wish I could've left a good review, I really do, but when you charge that much for food that puts people in danger... no. We definitely won't be returning, but I hope the quality improves and the place stays...

I’ve eaten Indian food all over the U.S. Dozens of different restaurants. This food is hands down, not even close, the best Indian I have ever had. Don’t get why the average isn’t a solid 5 stars because the food is out of this world.

Edit: For those complaining about the service. They've had to lay off most of their staff since Covid because they don't have reliable customers anymore. It's ridiculous to me that these same people who complain about the service are probably the ones that haven't regularly eaten at restaurants over the past year and then expect this establishment to instantly be able to handle hundreds of customers on a weekend that show up out of the blue. Most of the past few months I've visited, I'm the only one in there (even on weekends) and there were no problems with the service...because no one else was eating there. Just a handful of customers at a time. Now it is (hopefully) picking back up, but it will probably take some time for the restaurant to hire more staff and adjust. Or they might feel the need to wait and make sure there isn't going to be another huge drop in demand before they hire again. Restaurants are collectively struggling like never before, and can't predict what their futures will be like, so I think some compassion is in order before criticism. The food is great and always has been, nothing wrong with how the business is run, the owner is a valued member of the community, and they'll adjust to increases in demand...