Kat's 9 Lives

As always, I did a lot of research online where would be a great place to try with the family. Ironically when I told my Dad about this place he pulls out the Chinese newspaper to show me another place for Himalayan food it was the same place, Himalayan Cuisine. From then on, I knew that it wouldn't be a good sign! haha Still we decided to try out their Recession Lunch deal for $5.99 while we were in Vegas. Since we had a car AND a GPS ^_- we found this place easily off the strip. It's located in a small strip mall. The decor inside was colorful and laid back.
At first I thought this place could have potential but then I saw that the water had little specks inside. Okay, I am not drinking that because it looks dirty either from the glass or the container they keep the water in. Before I even noticed this, I had already ordered my signature Mango Lassi. Although I don't know if that was much better but at least I couldn't see anything and I stuck to only drinking that for the entire meal. Luckily my parents can eat without drinking any fluids and was able to make it through until we got to the car where we had tons of bottled water. =P (P.S. I was still playing around with the panda and the photos looked so cute with it that I chose them ^_^)
So here is the low down on their "Recession Lunch". They write out the day's selection and they have levels to this lunch deal. The $5.99 deal is where you only choose one dish. If you want to get an appetizer or soup of the day with a dish then it's more. They also have another tier where you can get 2 dishes plus an appetizer or the soup for even more. In reality, it wasn't that great of a deal for being in Vegas. I decided to just order 2 full lunches and try a Himalayan specialty. Since I have heard Ms. Lin talk about Himalayan Momos, I decided to try them. It's 6 pieces of dumplings filled with Ground Lamb Keema for $8.99. Boy did I make a mistake. Maybe it's just this place but they were not good. Himalayan cuisine is suppose to be rich culinary mix of Nepal, Tibet, and India. The seasoning was not done right to help alleviate the gamy flavor of the ground lamb and the skin was reminiscent to Chinese dumplings, but nowhere near as good.
I wanted to try the Vegetable Samosa with Mildly Spiced Potatoes and Green Peas. This was very similar to the samosas in Indian cuisine. They give the typical Tamarind and Mint Chutney sauce. The crust was not bad but the flavor was just alright. I like the ones that TP's Dad makes much better! ^_^
Shame on me for being greedy and wanting to try out their Tomato Soup. Granted, my panda looks so adorable hanging over the plate wanting to get his paws on the soup and salad. lol The soup is "thick" slow cooked Tomatoes blended with Himalayan Spices and diced Paneer Cheese. Or so that was what the description SAID! Booo! Where was my paneer!! =*( If you can't tell, it's a very very flat and small soup with sad veggies next to it. The soup was very very very thin and light like a broth. I was hoping for a thick flavorful soup reminiscent of Tikka Masala, but this was definitely not it. This was kind of a waste of the extra charge IMHO.
For our main course we both chose the Chicken Tandoori and Chicken Makhani since they were the only 2 meat dishes in the entire selection! Why would I pay for vegetarian dishes? lol The choices were really limited. I thought the Chicken Tandoori was pretty flavorful and tender. The outer pieces were much better in flavor because it didn't really soak in on the bigger pieces of meat. You only get 2 small pieces of meat. The Chicken Makhani was very similar to Chicken Tikka Masala. This was very flavorful and went perfectly with the Rice and Naan... BUT... where was the meat? If you look at the picture, all you can see is the sauce... which was delicious, but where's the substance?? They weren't kidding that it's a recession! Even the food has receded to somewhere else. I thought the Naan was really nice and well done. It was one of the best parts of the meal.
All in all you don't get that much food for the price. For everything we paid around $35-$40 for a "Recession Lunch" that was not very filling. If this is a real measure to Himalayan cuisine... then I don't know... so I will assume it was just a fluke. Some of the food was not bad but some were just not worth it. You really get what you paid for, although I feel the prices weren't that cheap. >_<# It's not hard to do better in Vegas I must say.

Himalayan Cuisine
730 E Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89119
(702) 894-9334