MoMo House Nepalese Restaurant Coming to Vienna

MoMo House, a restaurant serving Nepali cuisine, is coming to Maple Avenue in Vienna.

The new restaurant is located in the former Sweet City Desserts space at 131-A Maple Avenue W. Construction is currently wrapping up and the restaurant is hiring staff, according to signs posted in the papered-over doors and windows.

Reached via phone, MoMo House’s Roju Basnet said it will be a “full-fledged, family-run restaurant,” with a full-time staff that will include her dad, mom and two brothers. Basnet said her dad recently moved to Northern Virginia from Massachusetts and has spent more than 20 years in the restaurant industry, while the rest of the family — including her and her husband, who will be working at the restaurant part-time — have service industry backgrounds.

The family, Basnet said, is originally from Nepal and is fulfilling a longtime dream of opening their own Nepalese restaurant.

MoMo House will feature a variety of Nepali dishes including various types of momos (dumplings), thali (platters) and sekuwa (kebabs), along with street food items like noodle and potato dishes.

Basnet said the Vienna storefront is “a perfect spot for us.”

“We’ve been looking for a perfect space for almost two years now, this has been a long-term plan,” she told Tysons Reporter. “We’ve looked at a ton of space and when we came across this space in Vienna, it was just ideal. It’s right on Maple Avenue, there’s a lot of potential to serve different communities.”

She said the restaurant will serve a “big Nepali community” that lives in the area, but it also expects to serve locals of all stripes.

“Vienna is a beautiful town,” said Basnet. “It’s so open to different ethnic groups and different communities.”

The restaurant is hoping to hold its grand opening on Tuesday, Oct. 16, though it is still working on its final permits and, as with all restaurant openings, the date is subject to change.