Sherpa Restaurant

Sherpa is a Nepalese, Tibetan and Indian restaurant on Korte Leidsedwarsstraat, about two minutes on foot from Leidseplein in central Amsterdam. Momos are the reason most people come: steamed or fried dumplings served with three sauces and a bowl of broth. Expect to pay roughly €18 to €22 for a main, expect a small dining room, and book ahead on weekends.

Sherpa at a glance

Detail	Information
Address	Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 58-62, 1017 RD Amsterdam
Phone	020 223 0562
Email	[email protected]
Cuisine	Nepalese, Tibetan and North Indian
Opening hours	Daily, 16:00 to 23:00 per the restaurant’s own site
Typical main course	€17 to €22
Nearest stop	Leidseplein tram stop, two-minute walk
Best for	Momos, plant-based diners, sharing across regions
Less good for	Chilli heat seekers, large groups wanting space

How long Sherpa has been open

Sherpa’s own website dates the restaurant to 1989. Several third-party listings and older articles instead say 1979 and call it the first Nepalese restaurant in the Netherlands, a claim no primary source confirms and one the restaurant does not currently make itself. Treat 1989 as the reliable figure. Either way, the same family-run kitchen has held a central address for well over three decades in a district where most restaurants turn over within a few years.

What the menu covers

Three regional traditions share the menu, and they taste genuinely different rather than reusing one sauce base.

Nepalese dishes

Dal bhat anchors this section: lentil soup with rice, vegetable sides and pickle, eaten daily across Nepal. The curries here work with ginger, garlic, cumin and coriander instead of heavy cream, so they land lighter than their Indian counterparts on the same card. Set menus pair a dal or noodle soup starter with a main and dessert.

Tibetan dishes

Momos arrive steamed or fried, filled with minced chicken, minced lamb or seasoned vegetables, alongside a mild tomato and sesame sauce, a sharper coriander sauce and momo soup. Thukpa puts noodles, chicken, vegetables and momos in one bowl. The Sherpa Feast is a mixed steamer with noodles and rice, and the menu flags a twenty-minute wait for it.

Indian dishes

Butter chicken, tikka masala, korma, tandoori grills and breads cover the familiar ground. This section earns its place: it gives a cautious eater somewhere to land while everyone else works through the momos.

What to order, and what it costs

The prices below come from Sherpa’s online ordering menu and can differ from the dine-in card, so confirm before ordering.

Dish	What it is	Recent price
Tshel momo	Steamed dumplings, seasoned vegetables, vegetarian	€18.50
Jasha momo or kothey	Steamed or fried, minced chicken	€19.95
Mismas momo	Mixed chicken, lamb and vegetable	€20.95
Lusha momo or kothey	Steamed or fried, minced lamb	€21.95
Jasha thukpa	Chicken and noodle soup with momos	Around €18

For two people, one momo plate to share, one Nepalese curry or dal bhat, and rice or bread is a well-balanced order, with a thukpa added if you arrive hungry. Kothey and momo use the same filling, so choose kothey if you want a crisp fried base and steamed if you want the softer wrapper. Ordering momos across two fillings tells you more about the kitchen than doubling up on one.

Vegan, vegetarian and spice levels

By central Amsterdam standards, the plant-based selection is unusually wide for a restaurant that also serves plenty of meat and fish. Listing site RestauPlant counts 19 vegan and 18 vegetarian dishes on the menu, spread across momos, curries and rice plates rather than confined to a single token section.

• Vegetable momos and vegetable curries cover most plant-based orders
• Dal bhat is vegetarian by default and often vegan, depending on the accompaniments
• Rice dishes and many curries contain no wheat, but momo wrappers do
• Heat is mild across much of the menu, and the kitchen is used to adjusting it on request
• Check dairy, ghee and gluten with staff rather than assuming, since recipes and suppliers change

Opening hours and booking

Listings disagree, so check before you travel. Sherpa’s own website and most Dutch directories show 16:00 to 23:00 every day, while OpenTable shows an earlier 13:00 opening from Thursday to Sunday. Delivery closes earlier than the dining room, generally between 21:30 and 22:30. If you want a late-afternoon table, phone ahead rather than trusting a single listing.

Reserve on 020 223 0562, by email, or through a booking platform. The 19:00 to 21:00 window on Friday and Saturday fills first, and the dining room is small enough that walk-ins at those times are a gamble. Mention the Sherpa Feast when booking if you are heading to a show, since it needs about twenty minutes on top of the usual wait.

Getting there

• Tram to Leidseplein, then two minutes on foot into Korte Leidsedwarsstraat. Check the GVB journey planner for current lines, as Amsterdam has renumbered routes in recent years
• Metro to Vijzelgracht, then about ten minutes on foot
• Roughly twenty minutes on foot from Amsterdam Centraal through the canal belt
• By bike, use the racks around Leidseplein and Marnixstraat
• By car, Q-Park Marnixstraat is the nearest garage, though central parking is expensive and driving into this area is rarely the easiest route

Who Sherpa suits, and who might skip it

Go if you want Himalayan food in a warm, compact room near Leidseplein’s theatres and bars, if someone in your party eats plant-based, or if you like ordering several dishes across regions and comparing them. Skip it if you want serious chilli heat, because much of the menu is mild by design, or if you need a spacious, quiet table, because both the room and the street outside are tight and busy.

Diner ratings are consistently high. Tripadvisor showed 4.8 out of 5 from more than 1,700 reviews and a top-ten placing among Amsterdam restaurants when this article was last checked. Rankings on that platform move constantly, so read the figure as a signal of steady satisfaction rather than a fixed verdict.

Frequently asked questions