For the last five years, Mahima Shrestha and her father, Madhab Shrestha, have cooked a fusion of Nepalese and Indian food out of a cramped ghost kitchen unit in the Town Center at Aurora.
As Momo Dumplings, the pair specializes in a style of dumplings popular across Southeast Asia, and especially in Kathmandu, the mountainous capital of Nepal, where Mahima was born. They wrap, steam and sauté their momo in Indian curries, the recipes for which the elder Shrestha picked up while working in restaurants in London.
Even though the momo are only available on delivery apps or for pickup, though, Denver Post readers deemed them, by popular vote, to be the best dumplings in metro Denver last month during our annual food bracket challenge.
It was a nice win, but Mahima’s real goal is to move from the commercial kitchen to a full-service restaurant next year, she said.
Mahima, 31, didn’t meet her father until she was 12 — Madhab worked in London to raise money for Mahima and her family in Kathmandu — but she credits him for drawing her toward the restaurant industry.
“He gave me an identity to sell food,” she said.
But it would take a while for that to happen. After reuniting in Nepal, her family moved to California in 2012. “But the mountains, they were teasing me,” she said about Colorado, which draws a lot of Nepalese residents because of its similar climate.
A cousin serving in the U.S. Army beckoned them to the state, where he was stationed. “He told me, ‘Come down here. It feels so much like Nepal, you won’t even miss it.'”
After finishing high school, Mahima studied business and was hired by a leasing company. Her father returned to the kitchen, first at Little India Restaurant and Bar in Lakewood and then at Mehak India’s Aroma in Cherry Creek. But after the COVID-19 pandemic made life hard for restaurant workers, Mahima suggested that the two strike out on their own.
They opened Momo Dumplings inside the Aurora ghost kitchen in 2021.
Momo are immensely popular in Nepal, where they can be found everywhere. There is nostalgia to the image of washing down momo with a can of Coca-Cola, Mahima said.
Surendra Pokharel, who runs Mantra Cafe, a Nepalese and Indian restaurant in Denver, agreed with that assessment. The momo is so dependable, “it’s like a burger here in the U.S.,” Pokharel said.
The development of this special kind of dumpling came about because of the multiple cultures that met in Kathmandu, Pokharel continued. “When there was very good trade in Tibet and Nepal, people exchanged their culture, exchanged their food and language and everything.”
The varieties at Momo Dumpling are made using pre-packaged dumpling wraps (the type found at Asian supermarkets like H-Mart) and chicken, lamb and vegetable fillings the Shresthas prepare in advance.
In the center of the incense-cleansed room, Mahima and Madhab, with the assist of Mahima’s husband, Samir Shrestha, stuff and fold hundreds of momo by hand, capping each one with a gentle pinch and twist of the finger. They arrange them in neat rows on metal trays and store them in a freezer, ready to steam for the next catering or takeout order.
Tubs of garam masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander and a special “momo masala” on a shelf are used for the Indian curries and sauces that Madhab mixes with the momo once steamed. His recipes include a tomato-based tikka masala, a creamy korma made with cashews and coconut powder and spicy vindaloo.
Their pace is quick, the atmosphere breezy. They’ll sit for hours and talk as they fold, Mahima said. They’ll cater orders together and set up their stand at the Southlands Farmers Market in Aurora and the Parker Farmers Market. (They also supply momo to three restaurants they refused to name out of confidentiality.)
Earlier this month, the 65-year-old Madhab, who spoke Nepalese as he worked, underwent a major surgery. He took about a week off but was back in the kitchen to prep for two catering orders, Mahima said.
“I would not do anything without him,” she said. “Not even a step in this kitchen. I would shut it down tomorrow.”
That’s because she doesn’t want to lose out on any more time with him — time they weren’t afforded back when she was a child growing up mostly under the care of her grandmother, while Madhab was in London and her mom was away working.
She was wary of the restaurant industry and its trappings at first. But when her son was born, the ghost kitchen gave her and Samir the flexibility to be with him at home.
“For me, that was important to give to a child, at least for the first three years of his life,” she said.
It also helped them save up for the next big thing, to a location with more — any — visibility. There’s one potential unit on Havana Street, Mahima said, and another on Tower Road.
“There’s one in RiNo that’s catching my eye,” she said. She’s sought the support of municipal small-business programs in Denver and Aurora and hopes to relocate Momo Dumplings by next year.
Momo Dumplings is open for takeout, catering and delivery at the Aurora Eatery, 14200 E. Alameda Ave. #1039B, Aurora. Orders are made online at
