New St. Paul restaurant: Nepal meets tavern fare at Pizza Maya (original) (raw)

Naveen Shrestha has been infusing a taste of his native Nepal into his Twin Cities restaurant endeavors for some two decades now.

After helping open Highland Cafe and Bakery in 2007, with a popular curry dish on the menu, he debuted Himalayan Restaurant on Lake Street in Minneapolis the next year. Another venture, Snelling Avenue spot Monkey Temple, was ultimately short-lived — it opened a few months before the pandemic — but earned plaudits for its British-South Asian tavern fusion.

Now, after a significant redevelopment project on what was once the site of a produce warehouse on West Seventh Street, Shrestha opened Pizza Maya last month.

Most of the appetizers on the menu lean toward American bar fare — think fried pickles, chicken wings, cheese bread. There are also Chicago Italian beef and chicken parmesan sandwiches; the pizzas are on tavern-style thin crusts, cut into squares.

Momos, classic Nepali dumplings, are served with two sauces alongside pizza at Pizza Maya, a new restaurant on West Seventh Street, on May 8, 2026. The dumplings are made by Mr. Momo, a Minneapolis company that also supplies momos to other Twin Cities restaurants. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

I’m most interested in the way Shrestha continues to bring classic Nepali and South Asian flavors into his menus, so I opted to start with momos. The dumplings, which are a little smaller than golf balls, are a hallmark of Nepali cuisine and also, I would argue, tragically underappreciated around here.

The momos come from Mr. Momo, a production facility on the same Lake Street block as Himalayan Restaurant that also supplies the dumplings to a variety of other Twin Cities restaurants. At Pizza Maya, you can get them steamed or fried, and filled with chicken, Italian sausage or vegetables.

Steamed is the way to go, of course, and I found the chicken momos to be perfectly juicy; tangy and earthy from cabbage and ginger and cilantro. You can pick a pair of sauces, which also come courtesy of Mr. Momo: mild coconut curry, fire-roasted tomato, garlic chili or “blazing mango.”

(If you have food allergies, look alive: The fire-roasted tomato sauce contains sesame seeds, which you would not know from looking at the Pizza Maya menu.)

As for pizza, there’s a buffalo chicken pizza with pickley giardiniera, a prosciutto pizza with hot honey, a mushroom pizza and several others, plus a build-your-own option — but the standout is the momo pizza. It’s topped with chicken momo filling, onions, mozzarella, grape tomatoes, arugula and some of that fire-roasted tomato sauce, and it’s clever and delicious. (The greens were also dressed before being placed atop the pizza, an intentional step I appreciated.)

A sign for Pizza Maya, a new restaurant bridging Nepali cuisine and American tavern fare, hangs in the lobby of the restaurant on West Seventh Street on May 8, 2026. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The menu also includes desserts from Hot Hands Pie & Biscuit, the bakery that neighbors the former Monkey Temple spot, and batched cocktails from Tattersall.

The restaurant space itself is fairly large, which means you can choose your seat to match the vibe you’re going for. Booths in the front of the main dining room lean classy, for a fun lunch or a night out. You can grab a bar seat. Or, head over to the bright, airy indoor patio, with garage doors for the summer.

Current hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

(GPS users, take note: Perhaps this will soon be solved, but as of this writing, Google Maps misplaces the location of the restaurant. Pizza Maya is not in the same building as, nor directly across the street from, Bennett’s Chop and Railhouse; it’s kitty-corner and about a half-block down West 7th Street.)

Pizza Maya: 1324 7th St W #500; 651-401-6292; search Pizza Maya — MN on Facebook or @pizzamayamn on Instagram