Sherpa’s Ascent

Fave place in Boulder. Has been since day 1. Authentic food — amazing atmosphere — friendly staff. If you like chai — don’t miss out. They brew in house and it’s
.

Joined one of my best buddies for his large birthday party dinner here and as usual, I bite taxed the hell out of everyone’s meals. Poor, poor dining comrades.
After trying everyone’s meal, I was most envious of the birthday boy’s beef momo platter. The dumplings were perfectly doughy and the meat filling was flavored well. I’ve still had better momos but it was my favorite plate at the table.
Shrimp biriyani came in a close second to the momos — generous with veggies and had some good sweet, sour, and salty notes. Only complaint is that it was on the oily side for my taste.
My salmon vindaloo was good but fairly one-​noted — heavy on the sour component without much complexity.
The chicken sherpa stew was good, albeit a little bland.
Naan was totally dry and bland.
Veggie curry was totally fine, though again, pretty flavorless for a curry.
Service was very kind though there were long breaks between check-​ins.
I think the beers on happy hour were only 2 bucks? That’s crazy.
Overall, I found the food to be under-​spiced, underdeveloped, and overly pricey. Totally warm and cozy dining environment, though.

It’s amazing how influenced we humans can be by others recommendations. I’m visiting the Boulder area and sitting here now at Sherpa’s in dissappointment. Maybe those novice Indian food connosiers think this is all that. Trust me… it is not. I travel extensively and seek out Indian fare, so I can assure you this was a huge dissapointment. I think they put the same sauce on everything they serve. The food was very blannd. We had to send the Lamb Korea back because it was tough and very wild tasting. The presentation was no good as well. In a nice old house off Walnut, but that is all they have going for them.

This was the first good meal I had when arriving in Boulder. mind you I had been here for a week and eaten out every day before coming to Sherpa’s.
All around the food is excellent here and the staff is great. I come to get my lamb fix as the biryani is top notch. They have a small bar with determined staff who can whip up practically anything if they have the ingredients.
A cup of chai & vanilla pudding are an excellent way to end the evening.

Nice chai. Ridiculous $ 2 beer happy hour. Very friendly people. Pretty patio. Old school Boulderness. I highly recommend it.

We went on a Saturday night and got a table right away. Our waiter was friendly and brought a complimentary order of Papadums with dipping sauces.
We ordered a round of beers and the Lamb Vindaloo and Momo Platter– Tibetan Dumplings.
Everything was, eh, ok. My Lamb tasted tough and lacked any real taste.
Later that night I was insanely sick. Food poisoning. My date and I ate the same things all day except for the lamb, so by process of elimination, it’s safe to say it was the Vindaloo.

It was OK… We would try it again in hopes of much better service.
The food was decent for the most part, however we were not asked our preference in spice which meant we received fairly bland & somewhat disappointing food. The Saag was our favorite part– great taste, just needed some spice to make it exceptional in my opinion.
The service left much to be desired. We received water right away… After waiting 20 min husband then got up and asked someone if we could order… 5 minutes later we finally met our server & were able to order. My husband ordered a beer that he never received & we later had to ask to be taken off our check. We would have said something earlier but we really didn’t see the guy serving us until my husband got up again to go ask another person to get our check (someone else delivered our food). And then, after receiving the check & waiting another 5 min or so he had to get up AGAIN to to get it corrected & paid.
A bit of a frustrating visit.

Exceptional value for Boulder, food is excellent. Lunch with water is $ 10 with tip. The Vindaloo is not as hot as most places. Patio is great on a nice day.

Fantastic Nepali food, they also have outdoor seating, it’s a great location for a date!

Never been treated so rudely as I was here!
The food was delicious but not worth being treated like total crap.
This is how it went down…
My friend and I looked down at our watches and saw it was 910 so we RAN down Pearl St and out of breath asked them if they were still serving at 920 being they close at 930. «Sure!», they said. But once the server comes over it was ugly. To expedite the meal for their sake we asked for their two most popular entrees.
Once the meal came we asked for silverware which was returned with a nasty glare and then slammed down on table. Then he throws the check on the table. Our food was taken before we were done and 2 mins later the «owner» asks us leave before finishing our beers. We said we weren’t leaving until we finished or he could reimburse us so he handed us cash. Unbelievable! I’m a server myself and understand how it is when you’re over it at the end if the night but we did nothing to deserve this.
Bottom line: if you don’t want to serve someone late and they’ve asked you if you’re still serving say NO!!!
Total jerks!!!

Good Indian and Tibetan food, but the service is somewhat lacking. If they were more attentive, I would easily give them 4 stars. I highly recommend the chicken tikka masala and Sherpa stew!

Probably one of my favorite restaurants, for the food. The service is usually a bit slow and I have felt, at times, rushed out or like I was an inconvenience. But if you can handle the pace, you should give it a try. The owner is very nice and the chefs are incredible.
I never go when it is packed and have never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table. I have gone with just a few friends and also large groups of 6 – 10.
My favorite thing is the chicken tikka and garlic naan. I’ve also tried the vegetable korma and mango lassi. All delicious. The atmosphere is quaint and comfortable. Outside on the patio is my favorite. I will always go back when in town.

Delicious Indian food! The best I’ve ever had. We all ordered different dishes and tried everything. It was all incredible. The waitresses and waiters will give you recommendations if you ask! The patio is the best place to sit on a nice night – so relaxing!

The Good:
Well, our food was decent…
The Bad:
It breaks my heart to leave an unhappy review of one of Boulder’s oldest and most unique restaurants. I’ve enjoyed many good meals here for a decade, but our most recent visit makes us never want to go back and be treated so rudely again. Our server was, in my words, unprofessional and dismissive — in my boyfriend’s words, «they were straight-​up assholes to us.» When we sat down, we were immediately served delicious pappadams which was great because our server sure took his time acknowledging us. After a while, no one had greeted us or taken our drink order, and when our server finally walked up and tried to take our order without greeting us or asking about beverages or appetizers, he seemed annoyed when we asked for a drink list. We had to try pretty hard to order beers (sorry!) and appetizers (how DARE we!). We had a table full of appetizers when our food was delivered, so felt rushed, which sucked. No one bothered clearing empty plates and we were definitely not asked if we wanted another drink. We weren’t the last table or anything, the patio was nearly full, but we it seemed like they were trying to get us to leave as fast as possible… we are PAYING you, please be nice, it’s literally your job. No hello, no thank you, no goodbye… just rude.
The Food:
Decent…the pappadams were delicious but the dumpling entrée was literally just dumplings on a plate with cold (cold!) dipping sauce… their curry is not my favorite, it lacks the depth and layers of flavor I love about curry, it’s simple and bland and seems like it’s not cooked very long. The saag was good but seemed like it had been microwaved…
The Service:
See «The Bad.»
Overall:
Sherpa’s is a cool & unique concept in that it’s ran by actual Sherpas. Unfortunately, they seem like they’d rather be back in Nepal — they treat their customers like dirt for paying their bills. They don’t want to be servers, they don’t think of themselves as servers and are rude, unprofessional and dismissive. Please hire real servers, sherpas. Or be nice because we are paying you!

I was recently in Boulder visiting my daughter who is a vegetarian. She asked if we could go here & I was glad she did. Food was great as well as the staff. It’s a converted house in a residential district with lots of charm.
I had a lamb dish that had hoped would have been a bit more spicey, but other than that, all was good.

Sherpa’s is my go to restaurant in Boulder, Colorado for good Indian/​Nepali food. Their lentil daal is my favorite, and the prices are reasonable.

Sherpa’s has the best chicken mahkni in boulder. I order it extra extra spicy and it’s perfect. I tried the fried combo appetizer for the first time and it was delectable. I mean heck, not many people don’t like fried foods but this had a little sampling of everything I wanted to try. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is that they don’t have my favorite drink experience. I think they could amp up the bar selection a little

Easily the best Indian/​Nepalese food I have had in Colorado. We came here for dinner and got Panir pakora, the saag with chicken, and jal fregi with chicken. All the food was excellent. I would definitely come here again to satisfy my Indian food cravings.

Solid lunch option with a daily special that is about $ 8. Comes with choice of veggie option (aloo gobi?) or meat option (Chicken Tikka Masala). Lunch comes with dahl, rice, naan. They also provide a complimentary basket of pappadum, which are baked lentil wafers with yogurt and chutney dipping sauces. They also have great momo’s which are a Tibetan dumpling.
My favorite dish was channa masala, a garbanzo based dish that is no longer on the menu, that is the reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5.
The atmosphere is interesting as is located in a historic house a couple of blocks from the Pearl St. Mall. If you are staying at the St. Julien it’s a block to the west and worth a visit.

I brought my work team here for our back to school kick-​off meeting. All-​in-​all I have to give this joint a thumbs up. Now, I’ve only had Nepalese food a hand full of times, but good food is good food.
To get things started, they brought us out some Nann, of the garlic variety, which was excellent. We ended up ordering two more baskets of it throughout the meal.
For my entrée, I went with the Chicken Kabob Tandori. Now, despite what you think you may know about a chicken kabob, this chicken was not on a stick. It was served more like fajitas on a cast iron, simmering hot skillet with onions and peppers. Despite the confusion on my part, it was excellent. I was surprised to see the chicken had some kind of bright orange sauce on it that was clearly put on before it was cooked, but like I said it was excellent, and very tender.
The green sauce that came on the side with the rice was a little bland, but that’s okay because I mixed it all together and made little wraps with the nann.
Others in the group had different forms of Chicken and Lamb, everyone was happy when they left. They do have vegetarian dishes as well.
Oh, and maybe the best part is that they have $ 2 draft beers during happy hour, and they are solid craft beers! Happy hour goes till 7, go check them out. The setting is cool too, it was an old house and it has a bunch of cool mountaineering artifacts on the wall.