Review of The Mount Everest Restaurant – Ajax

It’s amazing what you find once you’re actually looking for something.  (For example, check out this YouTube video and follow the instructions, cool!)

Since we ate at Zeera’s in Pickering, Book Boy has fallen in love with Indian food.  Now we’re finding Indian restaurants all over Durham Region!  Our latest visit was to The Mount Everest Restaurant in Ajax.  Find out how the dinner went and discover some amazing facts about the real Mount Everest in Tibet.  Also discover a great website where you’ll find recipes for Indian Fare with a Worldly Flair!

Details: The Mount Everest Restaurant, 611 Kingston Road West, Ajax, ON, (905) 686-5553, www.themounteverest.ca.

Ambiance:  An intimate space (meaning pretty small) with about 5 booths and 3 tables.  The Wednesday night that we went, 3 of the booths were already reserved!  The hostess greeted us warmly and the fragrant smells of Indian fare surrounded us as we sat at our table.

Kids Stuff:  Unfortunately nothing to keep the kids occupied (which translated to a lot of “I’m Hungry”s from Book Boy… arghhh…).

Kids Food:  For the kids, we ordered the regular rice, naan and butter chicken.  Book Boy thought the rice would be regular steamed, white rice.  Instead, it was a saffron steamed rice but Book Boy still loved it.

Coolest Thing About Restaurant:  The quality of the food was great.    There’s also good value for the dollar with great prices and very large portions.

Worst Thing About Restaurant:  I should have been more prepared when even their brochure says “Our dishes are cooked with fresh spices and ingredients when you order.  We apologize for the extra time this might take and hope that after your meal you will agree that the wait was worth it.”  There definitely was a longer wait than at most restaurants.

Three interesting bits of trivia about Mount Everest:

1) Mount Everest’s name in Nepal is Sagarmatha (which means goddess of the sky) and in Tibet, they call it Chomolungma (which means mother goddess of the universe).

2) Some notable firsts related to Mount Everest:

First person to climb Mt. Everest was  Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, Nepal, 1953.
Youngest Person to climb it was Shambu Tamang of Nepal at 16 years old in 1973.
The fastest climb was done by Hans Kammerlander of Italy on May 24, 1996 in 16 hours 45 minutes.

3) Here’s a short but great video of what it looks like at the top of Mt. Everest!

Indian Food Recipe Website: If you want to try and make your own Indian food, you need to check out beyondcurry.com.  Chef Dama is a great chef as well as an entertaining cook.  On his site, you’ll find links to his many cooking videos where he takes you through how to make many popular Indian dishes step by step.  A must see site for both amateur and experienced chefs alike!

Chef Dama himself!

Overall Experience:  Great food, great prices, long wait and small space.  If time is at a premium (and when is it not) and your kids aren’t good at sitting for long periods in one place, then this isn’t the place for you.  But if you can handle the wait (or can bring some of your own activity or colouring pages), definitely check this restaurant out.

Kids Quote: Book Boy’s comment after finally getting and tasting his food – “Daddy, the wait was worth it!”.

Rating: 3.0 stars out of 5

Other Posts That Might Interest You:

1. Review of Halibut Time – Ajax
2. Review of Massey’s Restaurant – Pickering
3. Review of Eggs Up Grill – Ajax