Himalayan Kitchen, the Encinitas Nepalese and Indian restaurant that has built a devoted following along the Encinitas Boulevard corridor, was ordered closed by county health inspectors following a routine inspection on April 22, 2026. The closure — recorded by the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality — comes as a jarring setback for one of North County’s most celebrated South Asian dining destinations, a spot that has appeared on regional best-of lists as recently as last fall.
What Inspectors Found
The April 22 routine inspection flagged six violations across several categories. Two were classified as Major — the threshold that triggers an immediate closure order under county health regulations. According to records on SD Food Info, those major violations were Proper Cooling and Vermin. Accompanying them were a Minor holding temperatures violation and three Out of Compliance findings: Food Storage, Equipment/Utensils/Linens Storage and Use, and Premises/Personal/Cleaning Items/Exclusion Measures. No score or grade was recorded for the inspection.
The Proper Cooling violation is particularly significant from a public health standpoint. State food safety law requires cooked food to be cooled from 135°F to 70°F within two hours, and then to 41°F or below within four additional hours. Failure to meet those time and temperature benchmarks allows dangerous bacterial growth — including pathogens such as Clostridium perfringens and Bacillus cereus — and constitutes an imminent health hazard under San Diego County’s inspection framework, according to county inspection guidelines.
The Vermin violation is the second Major finding and independently sufficient to require closure. What makes the picture more troubling is the simultaneous Out of Compliance finding for Premises, Personal/Cleaning Items, and Exclusion Measures — the structural category that covers the physical barriers meant to prevent pests from entering a facility in the first place. As Hoodline noted in its coverage of the recent Pizza Port Ocean Beach closure — which carried an identical pairing of violations — when a facility fails on both active vermin presence and physical exclusion infrastructure simultaneously, it suggests a lapse in preventive maintenance rather than a chance encounter with a stray rodent.
A North County Favorite Caught in a Countywide Surge
The timing is striking given the restaurant’s recent visibility. As recently as October 2025, Eater San Diego included Himalayan Kitchen in its updated roundup of the best Indian and South Asian food in San Diego, highlighting its Himalayan chicken soup and a Nepali specialty featuring eggplant and chicken cooked with spices. The restaurant’s catering program — known for tandoori and biryani dishes alongside traditional breads and desserts — has also helped build its profile across North County…