LOCATIONJust a five-minute trek from the CBD.
PROFILED BY DE GROOTSThe tangerine walls warm you as soon as you step inside, and the feeling continues to every Tibetian-statue-filled nook and corner. The restaurant’s floor mats are a popular time-out zone for the younger set, while mum and dad enjoy their meal. Owner Deepak Bista’s nearest and dearest are framed around the room in photographs celebrating his restaurant’s proudest moments. (he is known in both the Adelaide academic and Australian Nepalese communities and is also a self-confessed tea expert). Deepak offers jari buti chiya on his menu – a Nepali herbal tea concocted from “high altitude medicinal plants”. More medicinal beverages beckon from the considerably lower altitudes of the dining room cellar. It seems to invite you to sniff around and pick what you fancy. The wine list however, impresses with the Mt. Everest of reds – Penfolds Grange Hermitage. Linen cloths dress the tables, a nice distraction from 80’s style metal-framed chairs (which thankfully are nicely padded), and are ideal for a feasting session from the menu’s popular platters or bustling banquets.
Curries are also of high appeal. If you are up for one with more kick than a Tibetan yak, then Sagarmatha offers lamb cooked in a Nepali style “very hot curry sauce” crowned with fresh coriander. Hotheads will also love the chilli chicken with its blend of heat, onion, capsicum and soy sauce. Chef Nyingje Sherpa Lama balances things out with melt-in-your-mouth meats from the charcoal clay oven. There is also a traditional Sherpa noodle soup, with baby spinach and omelette strips, and a side of jhaneko daal in Nepali style (cooked lentils seasoned with fried cumin seeds, chilli, ginger, garlic and Himalayan aromatic herbs). For bread with a difference, try the sel roti made with banana.
Roz Taylor