Everest Kitchen reopens today

Today, exactly three months after Typhoon Soudelor shut down the Everest Kitchen in Garapan, the restaurant will reopen and will be serving once again their healthy and delicious menu items.

Owner Laxmi Shrestha wasn’t on island on Aug. 2, but was heartbroken upon learning of what had happened to their restaurant, especially since she couldn’t return at once as her visa was still being processed.

The Shrestha family will be reopening the Everest Kitchen today, which will now hold buffet lunches. The restaurant in Garapan was also revamped after Typhoon Soudelor’s damage and now features Nepalese items as decors. (Frauleine S. Villanueva-Dizon)

“My daughter and my sister, they carried my plants inside and hid it so I still have some,” Shrestha said.

Everest Kitchen is opening up as a revamped restaurant, with the help of frequent customer and friend Lisa McWilliams.

“I got lucky because my friend helped me with my dream to rebuild,” Shrestha said.

One of the first things you’ll notice is the new façade, which has a fresh signage and glass windows. Inside, the place boasts even more of the Nepalese culture as the walls are now lined with items from the South Asian country.

McWilliams, an interior designer, helped Shrestha with redecorating the place.

“Before it was a Nepalese restaurant, but I didn’t feel she was telling anybody it was a nice Nepalese restaurant with beautiful food,” McWilliams said.

A painting done by Shrestha’s daughter Elina greets guests. It shows Mt. Everest with Nepal’s national flower and bird, the rhododendron and the Himalayan monal.

Plates, pitchers, and cups traditional to the Nepalese flatware are on display on the other wall.

“She wanted to do something décor-wise for Everest Kitchen. So she brought back all these beautiful Nepalese brass and gold, and also the special fabric called Dhaka fabric,” McWilliams said.

More paintings and pictures showing Nepalese dresses and other traditional ways are also on display in various parts of the room.

“Pretty much everything you see inside, she hand-carried to bring a little bit of Nepal to Saipan,” she added.

Everest Kitchen also has new items on the menu while retaining its usual healthy and “made from scratch” trademark using fresh and raw ingredients.

The restaurant will now be offering lunch buffets from Mondays to Fridays, which will offer nine different dishes at $12.

Everest Kitchen will also introduce platters that will have all the signature Nepalese and Mediterranean food such as the baba ganoush, hummus, falafel, yogurt sauce dipping, pita bread, and side salad.

Other items are mozzarella salad, club sandwiches, and homemade burgers.

In about a month, Everest Kitchen will open for dinners again and soon, they hope to open for breakfast as well. They hope to set up part of the restaurant as a café and a healthy juice bar.

“Food is my life. For me, food is everything,” Shrestha said.