It’s hard to believe this venerable Eastern cafe in The Grove is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. The Grove has grown up all around the small restaurant, becoming a bustling dining and club scene. Everest remains largely unchanged, a quiet retreat with a slightly spiritual aura. Prayer flags and other Nepali touches contribute to this, as do the soft-spoken servers, who appear to be from Nepal.
The menu is a hybrid of Indian, Korean and Nepali cuisines, so expect some heat in your dishes unless you request otherwise. And there is a smattering of serving styles, from roasted tandoori entrees to creamy Indian sauces and thali platters. The food is exotic and generally very flavorful, which also could explain its popularity.
On one visit, we ordered the Meat Platter with shrimp ($15.50), which was served thali-style on a sectioned plate with pickled items, vegetables, Nepali red curry shrimp, rice and daal (lentil soup). The shrimp was very good, with a pungent, thick sauce. And the pickled vegetables—pea pods and cucumbers—were mouth-puckering: tart, vinegary and salty. The only disappointment was the soup, which was somewhat bland.
The Special Everest platter ($11.50) was quite good and included samosas, pakoras and momo dumplings. The samosas had a crisp flour coating and a potato-pea filling, while the momo were soft rice skin pockets available in vegetable, pork or chicken. The stars of the platter though were the pakora, large slices of zucchini and eggplant with a thick and crunchy coating of bread crumbs, deep fried and deliciously hot and oily.
An order of Lamb Sekuwa ($16.50) was a very generous serving of two large strips of lamb from the leg: firm and lean. They had been roasted in the tandoori and came sizzling on the classic hot platter with a variety of sautéed onions and pepper. The meat was mostly tender and had plenty of flavor, seasoned with a rub of Nepali spices (cumin, coriander, garlic, etc.). It, too, came with some accompaniments: basmati rice, the same bland daal and naan, which was dryer than most I’ve had since it lacked a yummy top layer of oil/ghee.
Less exciting by far was the Lamb with Baby Spinach ($13.50), a stewed dish with tough lamb cubes, some of them not well-trimmed of their connective tissue. Only a few of the pieces were cooked tender and absorbed the slightly spicy, thin tomato sauce—a disappointment. But an order of Shrimp Everest Special Sizzling Takara ($15.50) was quite good, with a spice-laden tomato paste coating that adhered to each shrimp and offered a delightful treat with every bite.
A dessert of Gulab Jamun ($3.25) was excellent, with three small house-made cheese balls deep-fried and swimming in delicious honey syrup. And the Mango Lassi ($3.25), an inspired East Indian concoction of yogurt, fruit and milk, was a treat.
[amuse bouche]
the scene | Pleasant Nepalese restaurant with prayer flags and a casual vibe
the chef | Dr. Devi Gurung States
the prices | $3.50 to $10.75 starters, $10.50 to $19 entrees
the favorites | Nepalese Shrimp Platter, Tandoori Lamb, Gulab Jamun dessert, Mango Lassi, pakoras
[chef chat] » dr. devi gurung states
What made you open a Nepali restaurant in St. Louis? | It is not only Nepali! My wife and partner Connie is from Korea and is also a chef. Since the age of 16, working in a restaurant in Katmandu, my dream was to own a restaurant.
How is Nepaelse food different from Indian food? | Indian food is generally spicier. And we don’t use curd or cream, so the gravy is thinner.
favorite ingredient | Vegetables
favorite dish | Tofu with fresh vegetables and baby spinach
4145 manchester ave. | 314.531.4800
