Little Nepal Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in San Francisco

Little Nepal is a cute little restaurant in Bernal Heights on Cortland Ave. It is run by a Nepalese family and offers Nepalese and North Indian food.

You do not need a reservation and the wait was minimal on a weeknight.

What I loved is the ambience and the music. This place magically transports you to a monastery in Kathmandu.

The reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 4 was the food. We had the paneer ledo and bhanta ledo, and upgrades it to a combo for $3 each. A combo adds half a naan, black (lentil) dal, potato mixed veggie and a shot of tomato chutney. Ledo translates to light cream sauce in a tomato based gravy. Bhanta is eggplant and paneer is cottage cheese.

Both the entrees of Paneer and Bhanta Ledo’s were lacking flavor, and the naan was bland. The black dal was watery and probably should’ve been cooked for another half hour to concentrate.

Free papadum was the saving grace. To be fair I’d rate this restaurant 3.5 but I do not have the option to add half a star.

Service was great and charming. Perhaps we should have asked for medium spicy but no one asked us our preference.

Also, we were spoilt having dined at Lotus SF in the mission last week, where the food blew our mind.

Go to Lotus for the friendly service and perhaps try their meat dishes (we tried veggie and were underwhelmed) and try their momos...

Again I wish that Google would allow me to give out 1/2 stars as this place would get 4.5 stars all around. So we have all been to either an Indian or Nepalese restaurant before, I assume, and we all know that feeling, the first few bites were very tasty and then I started to feel like a pregnant mountain duck... Well not here at 'little Nepal' . Let me back up, I ate here just about 20 years ago for the first time. No I have no recollection on how good the food was. But it was the same location, same restaurant name and cuisine, that I know. 20 years fast forward, who knows how many changes in ownership and chefs I went back to try the place which opened just 5 weeks ago. I love it , the food is light, a great blend between Indian, Nepalese and some Californian. The staff at first is a bit reserved and shy but opens up quickly as you talk to them. We must have chatted with the head chef for almost an hour, going over recipes, up-bringing, mountain and restaurant names , it was a delight to say the least. Now to the food. We worked ourselves through the menu. Fig salad, mango chicken, coconut rice. Lemongrass chicken, curry salmon, naan... None of the dishes disappointed and we didn't feel stuffed or pregnant like a mountain duck. I love this place and highly recommend it. I will go back and it won't take me...

We've eaten both at the restaurant and had delivery. We've always enjoyed the food. The food is like Indian food but not (I know, that was not a great description)... let's try: wonderful sauces full of flavor, but not as heavy, oily or creamy.

Tonight's meal was the best we've eaten from Little Nepal so far. We always order the Lamb Chhoila (so, so, so good) and we try to order something we haven't yet had. The lamb Chhoila never disappoints, melt in your mouth, busting with flavor cubes of lamb (in the future, I plan to order 2 lamb Chhoilas and a veg curry combo, and that will be plenty with leftovers to spare). Kukhurako Pakuwa was awesome too, chicken in a tomato sauce full of spices. We ordered the chicken as a combo, so it comes with naan, rice, potato, lentils and a spicy sauce situation. And last but not least, Saagko Tarkari. We both looked at it and said 'looks meh,' but it was delicious, Indian greens meet Southern greens.

For two, the lamb Chholia, Kukhurako Pakuwa combo and the Saagko Tarkari was more than enough. We like leftovers. I lied, I like the idea of leftovers and pretend to eat them, while my hubs actually eats the leftovers.

They quoted us 45 minutes for delivery, it was literally here in 15. AWESOME. ...