Karma Ghaley opened Himalayan Cafe in 1996, a few years after he moved to Brisbane. At the time, there were barely any restaurants serving South Asian food. “Brisbane was lacking something different, some food culture. As soon as we opened, it was packed. We didn’t have enough seats at first. A lot of people had to sit on milk crates,” he tells Broadsheet.

The Fortitude Valley of the early 2000s was an entirely different beast from the Valley of today. Save for a Night Owl and some old pubs, after dark, the Brunswick Street side of the Valley was dominated by the alternative crowd and a scrappy live music scene. Fast forward a decade or two and the Valley has become decidedly chic. James Street, with its upmarket boutiques and eateries, is fully gentrified, while innovative venues like Martin Boetz’s Short Grain and Andrew McCrea’s Perspective Dining have found homes just off Brunswick.

But through all this change, the 100-seater Tibetan-Nepalese restaurant on the quiet end of Brunswick Street (technically in New Farm, but spiritually in the Valley) has remained a constant.

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Under the restaurant’s awning, hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags hang above the seating area. As the rice paper menus tell you, the flags “contain prayers for peace and harmony”. So that “when the breeze moves these flags, the prayers are recited by the wind”. Artefacts and decorations – large tapestries, Buddhist statues and trinkets – are everywhere. The rear of the restaurant houses an intimate space with raised floors, carpets and low Himalayan tables, where diners sit and eat cross-legged on the ground.

Both the space and the menu are more or less impervious to change. Ghaley has little concern for passing food trends and social media (all Himalayan Cafe has is a Facebook page). “After Covid, we downsized the menu. Every year, we change it a little. We don’t like to change too much because people ask where those dishes are,” he says.

Despite that, the menu is still expansive by today’s standards. It starts with an array of Himalayan breads: a flat piece of fluffy, yeasted white bread topped with melted cheese and served with a light, herby yogurt. Soup and entrees follow: lamb and veg momo, phali (savoury oven-baked Tibetan pastries) served with tomato chutney and muya kea (cumin and herb spiced lentil soup).

“Most of the recipes come from family, but our chef was here for the last 25 years, and he has passed down the recipes from generation to generation,” Ghaley says. “We’ve always had many gluten-free and vegan options. The food is just very simple and doesn’t need extra ingredients.”

The curries are categorised by protein: goat, lamb, beef, chicken, prawns and vegetarian. The goat curries are Himalayan Cafe mainstays – currently, there’s the Bakhara Himalayan, an aromatic diced goat, potato and pumpkin number, and the goat chilli, a warmly spiced variation with mushrooms, cauliflower and capsicum. White meat and prawn curries like the sherpa chicken and lawsoon haleko bhujnya are lighter and delicate, with swirls of sour cream and coconut milk.

For sweets, there are deysee (Himalayan rice pudding with nuts and ice cream); juju dhau (house-made yoghurt); and house gelato, with flavours like Himalayan spice and Himalayan ginger, made using Milano Gelateria’s ice-cream base. Himalayan lassis and bhocha (Tibetan buttered and salted tea) are also available.

Himalayan Cafe
640 Brunswick Street, New Farm
(07) 3358 4015

Hours:
Tues to Thu 5.30pm–9.45pm
Fri and Sat 5.30pm–10.15pm
Sun 5.30pm–9.45pm