Namaste Restaurant & Bar opening in St. Louis Hills

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Courtesy Namaste

Napali Thali at Namaste includes (clockwise from l to r) chicken curry, vegetable curry, daal (lentil soup), yogurt, gulab jamun (dessert), papadam (seasoned flatbread), saag (garden spinach), raw vegetables, mango pickle, and rice

If you want to succeed in the restaurant business, it’s typically wise to bring a popular cuisine to a neighborhood lacking it. That's exactly what the Chuhan family is doing with Namaste Restaurant & Bar, a Nepalese and Indian restaurant slated to open in mid-October at 4915 Hampton in St. Louis Hills.

Courtesy Namaste

The kitchen will turn out traditional Nepalese dishes and Indian fare. “In many so-called Nepalese restaurants, the focus is on Indian food,” says Robert Chuhan, because of its popularity and familiarity. “We will offer those items, too, but we will focus just as much on true Nepali foods, done in the Nepali style, with Nepali spicing,” including a blend of cumin and curry, as well as cilantro powder.

Since Nepalese cuisine uses no cream, little sugar, and is more vegetable-centric, it's considered by some to be healthier than Indian food, though naan and roti are common Nepalese staples as well. Roberts says Namaste’s chutney, which enhances the taste of many Nepalese dishes, is different, too.

The most dynamic and comprehensive menu item will be the Napali Thali, a meal on a platter that includes vegetables, proteins, pickles, garnishes, naan, dessert, and yogurt. Another representative dish is the momos, dumplings filled with chicken or vegetables and then steamed, fried, or added to soup. Other traditional soups, such as bhuttan (pan fried goat tripe with onion, garlic, ginger, and Nepali spices) and thukpa (a Nepali version of chicken noodle soup) will be featured as well.

Indian dishes on Namaste’s menu include samosas, tandoori chicken, biryani, the famous Chicken 65, and cross-cultural desserts such as kheer (rice pudding) and gulab jamun (pastry balls in rose water and sugar syrup).

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Courtesy Namaste

The renovation is nearly complete at Namaste, and the dining room and kitchen are immaculate, thanks in large part to Robert's mother.

Photo by George Mahe

Situated in the former Giancarlo’s Ristorante, the 80-seat space has been vacant since 2014. The forthcoming restaurant is “basically my brother’s dream,” Robert says of his brother Arzun, who's cooked at several local Indian, Nepali, and Ethiopian restaurants. As demolition turned to renovation, however, it became “everyone’s dream,” he adds of the four other family members who are partners on the project. 

“We all live together,” Robert adds, "and now we’re all working together."

Robert's parents were born in Bhutan and emigrated to Nepal in 1992, he explains, where they lived for years in a refugee camp and eventually owned their own clothing shop. They knew that a better life existed in the United States, Roberts says, but “it took 20 years for them—and us—to get here.”

The family arrived in the U.S. in 2010, when Robert and Arzun were in high school. Due to the language barrier, it wasn't easy for their parents to start a business here, Robert adds: “My dad first worked in restaurants and did landscaping, and then both of my parents got jobs as sewing-machine operators. My dad currently makes uniforms for medical workers. Right now, my mom is the 'cleaner' at the restaurant; she cleans and recleans every inch of everything, all the time. And we haven’t even opened yet.”

Robert opines that “most every immigrant’s story is the same: The parents don’t necessarily know where they’re going, but they know they’re going to a better place, a place that can provide a better future for their children.

“My parents always told us that America was a land of opportunity, and I believe we all landed an opportunity with Namaste. I’m really thankful for that.”