Dancing Yak Restaurant & Bar
Restaurant · Mission Dolores
280 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Highlights
Art-filled Nepali eatery serving momos, curries & cocktails
Art-filled Nepali eatery serving momos, curries & cocktails
"Lowkey spacious restaurants don’t get a ton of credit in the Instagram-friendly restaurants of 2025, places with cursive neon signs beating you over the head with big throngs of diners going so beyond the phone-eats-first mentality one wonders if they even know what they’ve ordered. Dancing Yak is the immaculate other, the antithesis, the tonic. The restaurant’s held it down with lush Nepalese food since debuting in 2018. Get a plate of Sacramento-raised goat curry, a glass of the sake-like Nepalese raksi, and unwind." - Paolo Bicchieri
"The crowd at Dancing Yak is pretty typical for a casual weeknight dinner with families and their kids, couples on dates, and groups of friends where one guy is inevitably trying to look like Allen Ginsberg. The food here - from the curries to the samosas - is great, but the thing that keeps us coming back are the chicken momos. They’re some of the best dumplings in SF, and bringing an unsuspecting person here to get them will win you instant points." - will kamensky
"You can come here for a large plate of chicken tikka masala during lunch hours, but our choice while the sun is still out is to get an order of momos and call it a day. Both the chicken and vegetable versions are great, and the portions are large enough to hold you over until dinner." - taylor abrams, jess basser sanders, will kamensky
"It’s been scientifically proven that eating Dancing Yak’s momos will raise your serotonin levels—at least for the next hour, or however long you spend at this colorful Nepali restaurant in the Mission. The momos are juicy and packed with flavor, but they’re even better dipped in their spicy tomato and roasted soybean sauce. Order some immediately if you need a guaranteed pick-me-up in edible form." - julia chen 1, lani conway, patrick wong
"This Mission spot serves up meaty, vegetarian, and vegan options, all while under the gaze of a painting of a big red yak. Start with the momos, filled with a combination of mixed vegetables with chives and homemade masala, before digging into the baigun tarkari, a hearty minced eggplant cooked with onion, garlic, and spices like cumin and turmeric. Keep in mind: you can request all house specialties and curries as vegetarian or vegan, so this is a great spot to try as many dishes as possible." - julia chen 1, lani conway, ricky rodriguez
