A well-loved Nepalese restaurant with Northern Virginia roots is continuing to succeed at its second location in Ballston, serving up a unique delicacy: yak.
Himalayan Wild Yak opened at 1010 N. Glebe Road in March, joining an Ashburn location that has become a favorite of The Washington Post and Northern Virginia Magazine since opening in late 2021.
The restaurant seeks to lean into traditional Nepalese cuisine while also branching out into Indo-Chinese dishes like chow mein and butter chicken.
Starting this week, the restaurant is also starting a new tradition: a “Yakky Hour” special. From 3-6 p.m., appetizers like samosas and roasted wild boar are $9 and cocktails are $8.
For Keshar Jarga Magar, who moved to the States from Nepal about 12 years ago, sharing cultural heritage through food is a family affair. He co-owns Wild Yak with his brother, Dip Jarga Magar, and their business partner, Tuk Prasad Gurung.
The Magars hail from a small village outside Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city.
“The food was always a way of bringing people together,” Keshar Jarga Magar said. “My mother cooked with heart and tradition every day, you know. Every meal tells a story. So, that’s where I first fell love with flavor.”
Above all, the menu’s star is yak, a mountain cow sourced from farms in Pennsylvania and Colorado and native to the Himalayas. The restaurant serves it in momos, a popular Nepalese street food; roasted with fried rice; or in korma sauce, among other preparations.
“It’s leaner than beef,” Keshar Jarga Magar said. “It has a very, very rich flavor, and it’s gamey — but not like a very gamey meat.”
The co-owners want guests to have an authentic experience from start to finish. They accomplish this through dishes like the Nepali set meal and flourishes like complimentary sel roti, a sweet fried rice flour ring often served at Nepalese parties and weddings.
Colorful napkins at each place setting, made of traditional Dhaka cloth, were sewn and delivered in a suitcase by the Magars’ father, a tailor.
“We are more than a restaurant, for sure, because we are a window into Nepal,” Keshar Jarga Magar said. “We want every visitor to walk away full of heart and like, a big smile.”
Photos 5-6 via Himalayan Wild Yak/Facebook.
