Himalayan Restaurant

Been here many times… Initially the food quality was amazing and then like all restaurants the quality went down… So here is the thing if you go for their buffet then get ready to suffer cuz it’s terrible… Some of the main dishes look scary and they are not even hot. Their appetizers are cold and under cooked esp the samosas. I took some of my American friends and even they couldn’t eat it. Only thing that had good taste was the rice pudding and the breads (naan). I have been going here since high school, but judging by the quality of the food I highly doubt I will go again. Hope things get better, used to love the food here. Only go if you are gonna order food at your table from the menu.

Let me just say, I’ve never climbed the Himalayan mountains, nor will I ever probably do so, but if I were to make that venture I’d definitely be stuffing my stomach with all that grandiosly amazing food they are serving here at The Himalayan, especially because this food can keep you completely and indefinitely full and satisifed. Anytime I’m starving and desperately need the fill the void in my stomach, my newly reinforced habit is to search high ns low for some authentically great Indian food. I do believe that I completed my mission parameters in seeking out great Indian/​Nepalese food here at The Himalayan… in other words, mission accomplished.
Now, I’d been to The Himalayan in Waukegan, but I hadn’t eaten there (I’d just picked at some of my fiancé’s food) so I can’t justly compare the quality of the food between the two locations, but I will say that I think this location is Des Plaines has better aesthetics, a better layout and has a little bit better staff than the other location. That staff were very friendly and quick to come out and take our order, but like others have briefly stated in their reviews, our waiter could have come over to check on us just a little bit more. However, I’m not going to complain too much about that because then I didn’t have to be caught off guard while rabidly eating my Tikka Masala.
Speaking of Tikka Masala, I’d ordered this entrée with lamb as opposed to chicken and it was impressively good. Typically I like chicken in my Indian dishes because it is so tender, but the lamb was in perfection combination with the Tikka Masala. Because I did order the lamb in my entrée the cost went up by about $ 2, but the cost was around the same as it is for any of the other Indian restaurants in the area — approximately $ 15. Since really getting into Indian food I’d become infatuated with Chicken Makhani so this was my first time trying Tikka Masala and I loved it! They made it so well here and they didn’t skimp out on the amount of lamb. Also, you can choose to get any entrée you want to be made anywhere from mild to «dang, that’s freaking hot».
I also ordered the Paneer Naan to go along with my Lamb Tikka Masala and I may have come to like that more than I like the rice with my entrees. This naan was delicious by itself and with the stew, but then again all of the naan in the restaurant looked and smelled delicious beyond belief. With everything combined it was a little over $ 20 for one person to eat (that includes tip and excludes any appetizers or drinks) so I consider that to be a fine dining experience because of the quality of food you’re receiving.
I will simply round out my review by stating that the Himalayan is probably my second favorite Indian restaurant in the area (and that’s only when referring to the food) with TAVA in first place and Maharaja in third place. The Himalayan gets a bright and shiny silver star in my book… but they were thisssssss close to receiving the gold medal — so you know it must be good!

This was my third time here. Nice Indian restaurant. I like the garlic naan. The fish curry was delicious. I was satisfied and will come back.

Authentic Indian food. Went there with a big group for lunch on Sunday. Tried the buffet– nice assortment of Indian dishes and wasn’t expensive either. Definitely worth a try

A friend and I were craving Indian so we went out to this place to check it out!
It’s definitely my favorite Indian place so far! I got the chicken tikka masala, rice and naan. My friend got the lamb Pasadena, rice, and naan! We also got the mango lassi! Everything was great! I really enjoyed my dish. I got medium heat and it was just the perfect amount of spice. My friend got spicy and she said it was nice and spicy! The naan is amazing! So fluffy and freshly baked.
I was a little surprised that our entrees don’t come with rice but if you pay $ 3 you’ll get rice and naan with your entrée.
The mango lassi was good but I’ve had better at some of the restaurants in Devon.
Overall the place pretty packed on Saturday night but no wait, good service, and decent pricing.

A local recommended this place to us (we would never have found it otherwise). It’s tucked away in the back of a very crowded mall system. But the restaurant itself is very spacious and open.
We went for the buffet on a Saturday and arrived towards the end of the buffet hours. Yet there was still plenty of fresh food and it didn’t look like it had been siting out for hours.
What a fantastic array of dishes, including a couple things I hadn’t had before like the Farsi Bhaji and Vada.
$ 11.95 for the buffet, which includes regular naan brought to the table. Wow, what a great deal for the suburbs. Service was pretty well-​paced too. We WILL be back!

Very nice food and masala chai. Less option in buffet but all items looks fresh and great taste.

Do not get anything else except the keralan fish curry and naan. That is all we come for because it is so good. Indian food in Chicago and America for the most part is pretty generic and lacklustre. This is one of the few indian places in the country that I have been to that does the best fish curry. And honestly their naan is also one of the best.

I just love this place and the food is really good thats worth the price! Their buffet during lunch is what i like the most! i do come here for their regular naan and garlic Naan! The man who make the Naans is just soo good! Also, i loove their chicken masala! Yummm. Just started craving it again while im writing this review.

In honor of Indian Independence Day, I won tickets on Unilocal for a fabulous prix fixe meal for two at Himalayan. Since we’ve been pinching pennies so hard they turn to dust lately, I was very much looking forward to this casual date night.
Everything we had was delicious. The Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani) was my favorite. The prix fixe meal was served with dosas, samosas, jasmine rice, two chicken dishes, and some other small sides. I especially liked the variety of chutneys and kept alternating, but in the end they were both so good I couldn’t decide which was my favorite.
The restaurant is located in a strip mall, and the inside is casual, no frills, with waiter service.
The food was really good, but the service was a little odd. Both of us could swear the waitress said that the prix fixe meal was something like $ 15 on regular days and their «special» was $ 19 on independence day. What sense does that make? Either way, our meals were good, and if I lived in the area I could see myself getting a Butter Chicken fix more often here.

Clean, spacious, and with some pretty good deals, this is a great place to get Indian and Nepalese food.
My friends particularly like to get Indian from here, it helps that it is pretty much the mid-​point between where we live. But it helps even more that they serve up some pretty good dishes. They have lunch buffet which also runs on the weekends and comes with naan. The dishes they serve during the buffet vary, so depending on what you’re craving you may want to check and see what’s there first before opting for the buffet.
I really love all the dishes we’ve gotten here, the spice level isn’t too high making it pretty enjoyable for most people (I’m pretty sure you can ask them to bump up the heat if you prefer). I typically prefer to go for the Value meals as it is just that (an excellent value) and you get quite to try quite a few dishes. You really can’t go wrong with nearly everything on the menu, and while we’ve generally stuck to the basics (chicken tikka masala, palak paneer, biryani, and such) there are some dishes you don’t get elsewhere that are worth trying too like the Farsi Bhaji!

This place is truly a hidden gem. It is one of my favorite places when craving Indian food. The lunch buffet is to die for — it’s a great way to sample new dishes to get a sense of what you like. I find myself craving several of their buffet options, although I can’t say I’ll ever remember what they’re called. To be completely honest, however, I don’t think I’ve tried anything I didn’t like. Himalayan offers an authentic touch that is not found in many Indian/​Nepali restaurant. You can truly taste the difference.
Always important to me is service and cleanliness. The service is superb from the wait staff to the management — the owners are often on location and are very kind. The environment is relaxed, friendly, and definitely clean. Give the lunch buffet a try — they offer a wide variety of dishes. You won’t regret it, but I must warn you: it’s addicting.

Food is great. Fast service and reasonably priced. Can’t wait for my next visit. Tip for people who love spicy food like myself. There are 4 levels of spicy ness and I chose the 3^rd. Definitely way to hot but out of fairness I was warned by the waiter.

Firstly Dont go to this restaurant if you want to try Nepal dishes.
When I had initially asked them to suggest Nepali dishes today, They were clueless and later they said they have 2 dishes i.e. Goat and Chicken Curry with a very innocent smile :-)
Second of all, Most of the dishes we ordered were not fresh except for Kadai mushroom which was decent but no gravy.
Momos were not fresh but tasted good, Bread and Goat Curry were extremely hard and of course Goat curry does not gravy at all.
This was my second visit to this restaurant. First time we visited was for Buffet on Sunday. Buffet experience was decent.

This place is single handedly responsible for my obsession with Indian food.
They introduced me, once a very picky eater, to a wide array of tasty sauces and naan flavors.
The tikka masala and shahi koorma are two of my favorites.
Always plenty of parking (strip-​mall) and not too noisy.
Service is decent, but the taste makes up for anything in that category (at least in my book).

I came here when I got engaged, and again two years later, because we were looking for Tibetan food, and this was as close as we could come. The food is really good and not overly expensive, they have a menu full of Indian as well as Nepalese dishes. Skip the appetizers or just get samosas, then go for the flavorful curry main dishes.
It’s a huge restaurant, and when it’s full it gets a little slow, but overall it’s a real oasis of tasty ethnic food in a land of concrete and strip malls!

I would give a 4.5 buttttt… there’s no option, and I really do think that aside from a couple things I observed they are a very good restaurant.
Food: AMAZING. Had the Keema Samosas, which were fine but a bit hard to eat (the meat was in such a small grounded up size that it poured out once opened) and Chicken Chili Masala, which while I ordered hot could have been spicier (need extra hot next time). However, it was a tad bit too salty, and considering I do know how to make a decent number of curries from scratch thanks to a very kind friend and another’s mother on how to make egg curries, makhanis, and tikka masalas, I promise I’m not being too knit picky on.
Service: My service was fine as long as it was with my main server. There was a male server who just seemed like he couldn’t wait to be gone and every time he had to work seemed very off-​putting. I’m happy he wasn’t my server but watching his interactions with others really just rubbed me the wrong way and made me feel unwelcome… I can only imagine how his tables felt.

This is a lunch buffet review only.
The lunch buffet price is awesome ringing in at only $ 10.95. We’ve been regulars at Tava in Morton Grove but their buffet price recently increased so we were looking for a new place to try.
This place has a great variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian foods to choose from for the buffet.
Plenty of parking.

I chose this locale for a meet up with some acquaintences yesterday. The person I was going with had been there previously and said it was a win.
Spoiler: Nope; definite LOSE!
Three of us ordered the buffet ($ 11). We were asked about three times if we wanted the buffet, not realizing the end of their lunch hour was near.
Needless to say, when we got up there, the pickings were verrrry slim (which now made sense due to the hour). I passed on the fish curry due to there being a few sad, questionable pieces in an oily liquid, but tried the goat with rice, the samosas, the lentils, and the veggies (sauteed in a sauce — NOT the one that looked like frozen Veg-​All). Two baskets of naan was delivered to our table.
The goat (when I picked through the bones) was tender and delicious — I’d give that 4 stars alone. Everything else was a total «miss» though: the rice was reeeally dry, the samosas didn’t have much spice nor veggie chunks (potato, pea.) and overall were bland. The lentils were cooked well but were also bland. The naan was pillowy and soft, but entirely tasteless. Water was refilled frequently.
We all had two moderate plates full of food and ended full, though the acquaintence — who is Indian, mind you — wondered aloud if they had used any fillers.
Overall I don’t think the buffet was a stellar option, but I’d give them another shot during peak times and maybe just order from the menu.

Reasonably good Indian/​Nepali food with modest portions (the dishes are on the small side but just the right amount for you to be full and not hate yourself).
I would definitely recommend the shrimp tandoori — it was great! Really large and juicy pieces of shrimp and grilled to the perfect tenderness and seasoned well.
The mutter paneer was average — I’ve definitely had better. It was a little too buttery/​creamy for my liking.
Overall a good experience — just not the most mind blowing-​ly good Indian food I’ve ever had.