Meet Rocky. The taxidermy yak pictured above greets diners at Himalayan Wild Yak, which opens today at 4 p.m. The 5,000 square-foot Nepali restaurant comes to Brambleton from a team that includes founders of Alexandria’s beloved Royal Nepal.
Dip Raj Jarga Magar and Tuk Gurung sold their stakes in Royal Nepal in order to focus on Himalayan Wild Yak. They are joined by culinary and bar manager Keshar Jarga. Each is a native of Nepal who contributes his own recipes to the menu.
The eponymous bovine isn’t just a figurehead at Himalayan Wild Yak. Yak appears in a number of dishes on the sizable menu. An appetizer of grilled yak is marinated and cooked sous-vide for eight hours to ensure that the lean, sometimes-tough meat is anything but before it hits the flames. There’s also yak sausage, yak biryani, and yak fried rice. Yak butter makes a liquid cameo. Cups of tea are enriched by whipped yak butter, but also milk, pink salt, and sugar.
Yak isn’t the only unusual meat at the restaurant, either. Buffalo appears as smoky, grilled choila as well as inside momos–dumplings also available filled with chicken, vegetables, or pork. Goat and lamb aficionados are also in for treats, in the form of curries and a crispy goat-intestine appetizer. Not as compelled by the exotic? Dishes like butter chicken, tandoori chicken, and chana masala that are common on Indian menus also make the cut here.
Sophisticated cocktails and mocktails are available alongside top-flight wines and spirits. Base Camp combines rye with pecan liqueur, cinnamon, and bitters. The barrel-aged Make Your Night Smoky is composed of Bourbon, maple bitters, and peated Scotch, all smoked as the name indicates.
Himalayan Wild Yak is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
22885 Brambleton Plaza, Ashburn
Feature image courtesy Himalayan Wild Yak
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