Everest Sherpa: Ann Arbor's Only Nepali Restaurant

Ann Arbor is a city where you can eat Korean barbecue, Nikkei tiraditos, Vietnamese pho, and Japanese ramen all within a few blocks of each other downtown. Nepali food is a different story. It lives at Everest Sherpa, a strip-mall restaurant off Ann Arbor-Saline Road that has served Nepali food since 2017 and remains the city's only kitchen doing so. If momos are not already on your rotation, they should be.

The restaurant covers both Indian and Nepali dishes. That overlap makes sense: the borders of Nepal run against India, and the cooking traditions bleed into each other in the way you'd expect. Chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, the familiar dishes of a North Indian menu are all present. But the Nepali side of the menu is the reason to walk in.

What Nepali Cooking Actually Is

If your only frame of reference for Himalayan food is the vaguely defined "Himalayan" restaurants that sometimes pair Indian curries with a few Tibetan-adjacent dishes, Nepali cooking as a distinct tradition is worth understanding before you go.

The national dish of Nepal is dal bhat: rice, lentil soup, and a rotating selection of vegetable preparations, often with pickled accompaniments. Sustaining, layered with spice, built around warming aromatics like cumin, coriander, and turmeric rather than the cream-heavy sauces that define much of North Indian cooking. Dal bhat is less about richness and more about depth.

Then there are momos. The dumplings of the Himalayan region, they have spread across the Nepali diaspora worldwide. Steamed or fried, stuffed with meat or vegetables, served with achar: a tomato-based pickle sauce with enough heat and tang to cut through the richness of the dumpling. They arrived in Nepal from Tibet and have become as central to Nepali food culture as the dumpling is to virtually every other Asian culinary tradition.

Thukpa is the noodle soup of the high country: noodles in a broth built on spice, vegetables, and sometimes meat. Think of it as the Nepali answer to ramen, which is a rough comparison because the flavor profile is entirely different. Earthier, with cumin and coriander where ramen reaches for ginger and miso. But it fills the same role: a warming bowl that is complete on its own.

What to Order

The momos are the entry point for anyone who hasn't been before. Everest Sherpa offers them steamed or fried, stuffed with chicken or vegetables, and serves them with the achar that is the whole point of the experience. The sauce has heat and acidity in the right proportions. The menu runs $10-$12 for momos.^{1Menu details and price points from current posted menu, as reflected in The Best Indian Food in Ann Arbor. Menu and pricing may vary.}

The achar here is made from tomatoes with enough dried chili to register. It is not a soy dip. It is not sriracha. It is the specific sauce these dumplings call for, and without it the momo is a different and lesser dish. Order the fried version first if you're undecided -- the crisped exterior and chewy wrapper hold up better to dipping.

Thukpa is the cold-weather call, though a well-made noodle soup does not require justification in any weather. The dal bhat gives you the most complete picture of what Nepali home cooking looks like: rice, lentils, and the rotating vegetable preparations that shift with the season. It is also the most filling option on the menu.

The chow mein runs with a Nepali spice profile rather than the soy-forward seasoning you'd expect from a Chinese-American take on the dish. If you've never had Nepali chow mein, it reads as familiar enough to be approachable and distinct enough to register as something new.

On the Indian side: the chicken tikka masala is competent at $14, and the garlic naan is, by the same account, better than competent.^{1Menu details and price points from current posted menu, as reflected in The Best Indian Food in Ann Arbor. Menu and pricing may vary.} But the reason to make the trip to Oak Valley Centre is the Nepali food.

The Room

Oak Valley Centre is a shopping plaza off Ann Arbor-Saline Road in southwest Ann Arbor, not a dining destination the way South Main or East Liberty are. Everest Sherpa occupies a storefront there, in a space that previously housed Lotus Thai. It is a drive from downtown or campus, not a walk. It is worth the drive anyway.

The restaurant opened in September 2017 under founders Pem Dorjee Sherpa and Moni Mulepati, who also own the Himalayan Bazaar downtown, according to the Ann Arbor Observer. Chef Lama and his wife Louisa took over ownership in March 2022, after three years developing their Momo Cha concept in a Midtown Detroit food hall, according to the restaurant's official site. The room is modest and practical. The food is the reason to come, not the decor, which is a fair trade for a restaurant doing something this specific.

Why It Matters

Ann Arbor has good Indian food, a Korean dining scene that has grown considerably in recent years, and a Japanese corridor on South Main that has become quietly interesting. What it still doesn't have, outside of Everest Sherpa, is any other representation of Nepali cooking: its own distinct tradition, with its own ingredients, techniques, and dishes that don't map cleanly onto the cuisines that already exist here.

One restaurant is not a scene. But one restaurant that has spent almost a decade doing something nobody else in town attempts is worth paying attention to. Everest Sherpa is the answer, and it is worth the drive to Oak Valley Centre.

Everest Sherpa is at 2803 Oak Valley Dr, Ann Arbor. Check the official site for current hours before visiting.