Yeti - Nepalese, Glen Ellen

14301 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen CA 95442
(707) 996-9930
Parking: in parking lot
Hours: 11am - 9:30pm
http://www.yetisonoma.com/

Last Visited: May 9, 2010

Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 2-3 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$

My mom's friend is vegetarian and loves going to Yeti. I had never been here before, but on this cold and rainy afternoon, it was just the type of food to warm you from the inside.

The restaurant setup is a bit unusual. You walk into a corridor and there is seating in the rear, but seemingly nobody around. Take a couple of stairsteps down and you'll enter another room containing the open kitchen, a bar, and more seating along a set of windows across from the bar. This particular building has been around for a while and it's dark wood features definitely gave it a bit of a brooding feeling, but the scent of warmed spices tickles your nose as you enter the restaurant.

We sat near one of the windows and immediately noticed how wobbly the table was. However, the sudden storm that was about to downpour outside distracted us as the servers quickly went to remove the table settings on the patio at the sign of rain.

After ordering, we each enjoyed a fresh salad with a mustard vinaigrette that accompanied our dishes. Alfalfa sprouts topped mixed greens, a tomato wedge, and avocado that wasn't ripe enough to be served. While the vinaigrette was fine, it was overly abundant in quantity and the avocado was not a welcome addition; it probably should have been left off of the plate and for that, the otherwise four star rating was dropped to three stars.

While the salad seemed to be far from typical Nepalese, the other dishes that came were very good.

There was a pretty significant wait time between the salad and the main dish. Also, the lamb dish came quite a bit earlier than the tandoori. Yeti could use some work on the timing considering that the party size was small which made the difference in serving time less acceptable.

- Lamb Curry over Rice - Listed under Yeti's Special Lunch Delite, this dish starts with a side salad followed by the main dish. A good helping of basmati rice topped with a few peas for garnishes is served with a very tender and well spiced lamb curry. The pieces of lamb are fork tender and there is no need to worry about that game flavor that is often associated with lamb. The spices in the curry definitely warm you from the inside and both the rice and curry are served very hot in temperature, perfect for cold weather. The portion is also more than adequate. $12

- Yeti Special Tandoori Lunch - The special lunch comes with a side salad, choice of rice or naan, chicken tandoori, dal makhani, seasonal vegetable curry, and yogurt with fruit. A vegetarian version (replaces the chicken with saag paneer) is available for three dollars less. It took a while for the tandoori dish to come, but we could see the chicken being cooked in the open chicken in the tandoori ovens. The chicken is marinated overnight in yogurt, ginger, and garam masala, then cooked and served with a large wedge of lemon. The lemon juice adds freshness to the heavy spiced meat. There were only two pieces of chicken (dark meat) in the small dish, but both were very flavorful. The naan was huge, super fresh, puffy, and hot. The picture tells the story. The three small containers contained dal (lentils with onions, chile, ginger, fresh cream, cilantro, tomatoes, and beans), vegetable curry, and saag (creamed spinach). All three were very tasty. There was also a piece of papardam, a crisp wafer thin cracker served alongside. The seasonal fruit in the yogurt was apples. It was a refreshing dessert that cleared the palate, but it didn't seem to keep with what I envisioned to be traditional for this type of food. The lunch special is a good way to try multiple dishes and certainly will be filling. $15.99

I liked the food at Yeti quite a bit, but found their prices to be reasonable for the area, but a bit high for similar types of restaurants in the Bay Area. Yeti is catering to a small town upscale crowd. They definitely offer something different than the Italian and American restaurants you find in Glen Ellen and Sonoma. Serving sizes are generous and the staff is friendly, but the set up is a bit disjointed and there are still some things such as wobbly tables and serving timing that could use refinement. It's a nice change of pace if you want to check out something new.