Himalayan Kitchen

Address: 360 S State St, Salt Lake City, UT. 801.328.2077.

Review: With an hour between a mediation and a collections hearing, I thought Indian food sounded like a good bet for lunch. Since Himalayan Kitchen is a veritable hop, skip, and a jump from the Matheson Courthouse, the decision to eat there was simple.

Himalayan has a lunch buffet, but, let's face it, 99% of buffets do not contain high quality food. So, instead, I ordered the saag paneer and two types of naan. The first items to arrive were the naan. Their arrival was a bit awkward though, since the entree didn't arrive for another ten minutes, which mean the naans were cold when the eating got going. In any case, I had the regular naan

and sweet naan (naan stuffed with raisins, nuts, coconut, and cherries).

As I said before, by the time the entree arrived the naan was cold and stiff. However, even if it had been warm, the regular naan would have been only okay. If didn't have much flavor and lacked any sponginess or elasticity (not that there should be a lot with naan, but some). The sweet naan was, likewise, okay. I could sort of tell the primary flavor was cherry, but could not taste any coconut or raisins. The nuts gave a little texture, which was nice, but not much. Overall, the predominate flavor was sugar.

And introducing the saag paneer.

Saag is a spinach sauce studded with onions and other spices. Paneer is homemade pressed cheese. Himalayan's version was, again, okay. It lacked the complexity and deeply spiced flavor I've found in other saags. The paneer was adequate but couldn't make the dish.

Also, the rice was plain. There was no spice or herb to it, so it didn't add much more than starch to the saag paneer.

In all, what I had was alright, and nothing special that makes me want to return the next time I find myself between hearings.

Rating: 5/10 (5/10 is average).