My friend and host Vicki is working in the Black Hills tourism industry this summer, as is another friend of hers. They were doing their thing last night when a local restaurateur invited them ‘and a friend’ to his restaurant today for a free meal in exchange for a review on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor and, of course, letting tourists know about his restaurant. Lucky for him, the friend they invited is a travel blogger!

The restaurant is Himalayan Indian Cuisine and it is located in the Keystone Mall in Keystone, just a couple of miles from Mount Rushmore. I’m not familiar with the cuisine from that part of the world, so I was eager to try it.

Exterior of Himalayan Indian Cuisine restaurant.

Simple, clean decor.

We showed up around noon and were greeted warmly. We asked for suggestions and took them, ordering three main dishes as well as an order of plain naan (flat bread) as well as garlic and cilantro naan that we could all share.

These are the dishes we ordered:

1) Vegetable korma: Mixed vegetables and paneer (fresh cheese) cooked with creamy onion sauce and garnished with cashew and coconut powder:

Vegetable korma

This had really good flavour and texture. I don’t think the gals were wowed by it, but it’s just because one of the other dishes was so insanely good that it overshadowed everything else. I really enjoyed the vegetable korma and how the sauce seeped into the rice. It was also good mopped up with naan!

2) Tandoori chicken: bone-in marinated chicken leg with onions and peppers

This didn’t feel exotic to me to the way the vegetable korma did. The chicken was very flavourful and tender, with a flavour and bright red colour that I was not accustomed to. It came on a hot grill, the way fajitas come.

Tandoori chicken with onions and peppers.

3) Chicken tikka masala: chicken breast cooked in a creamy tomatoey sauce with spices I’d never had before that made it a little sweet. This was our absolute favourite. We pretty much fought over the bowl to mop up the last dregs of the sauce!

Chicken tikka masala.

Our meal came with unlimited basmati rice:

basmati rice

And, of course, we had the naan (this is the garlic and cilantro one, I forgot to photograph the plain one):

Garlic and cilantro naan.

We piled rice on our plates and then added the saucey goodness over top:

Rice and saucy stuff, yum!

The food was so good!!! It had such flavour and was very fresh. Prices were reasonable, too, about $15 per dish, and naan was a couple of dollars.

If you’re heading to Mount Rushmore this summer, do yourself a favour and stop in Keystone for some Himalayan Indian Cuisine instead of visiting the overpriced American restaurants that dot the region. I can’t believe I discovered new flavours in a tourist trap town like Keystone. Thank you so much to the owner for an invitation that was a treat and a blessing!