Toronto is one of the most diverse cities globally, with people from all over the globe living together in a relatively small area. One of the many benefits that level of diversity brings is having tons of different restaurants that serve foods from all different kinds of cultures. We are big foodies here at the Onside, so we talked to GTA-based entrepreneur Anupam Paudel, a co-founder of Momos and More, a Nepalese restaurant in Scarborough that specializes in, you guessed it, Momos.
Why did you start momos and more?
I started Momos and more because I felt that there was nothing in my area selling the signature food of Nepal, and I wanted to fill in that gap. In some other areas of Toronto and the broader GTA, you can find restaurants and stores that sell Momos, but in Scarborough, I found it much harder to find. So I thought to myself, if I can’t find it, I might as well start one myself. I love Nepalese food and am a foodie in general, so bringing Momos and other Nepalese delicacies to people who aren’t familiar with it is a great honour.
What prompted you to start a business during the pandemic?
While starting a small business during the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t ideal, I believe that opening Momos and More during it is still better than waiting for it to be over. Everyone is unsure when the pandemic will be over, or at least at the point where it becomes far less of an issue. So to me, I had two options, open the restaurant now, even with the added risks and cost due to the pandemic, or wait and potentially lose out on the opportunity to open the business entirely due to future unseen circumstances.
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How has business been since you started?
My business partner and I could not be happier with our reception. We’ve had much interest in a business that has only recently opened, especially considering the pandemic and going into lockdown for the fourth time shortly after opening. We have stayed away from having people come into the restaurant and sit down to eat. Since we have been open, our business model has been focused on delivery and take-out orders. We handle the deliveries ourselves to cut out the middleman apps and help keep the costs down for the customers and ourselves. Our Momos have been a big hit with customers.
What separates you from other restaurants?
The first thing that I’d like to say is that while we plan to offer more Nepalese foods in the future, I think our focus on Nepalese-style Momos separates us from other Nepalese restaurants in the city. We sell authentic Nepalese momo with modern twists to suit people of different dietary needs, which sums up what makes us different. In some parts of the city, especially in areas like Parkdale, you can find restaurants selling more Tibetan-style momos.
What are your goals for the future?
We have a lot of big goals for the future. Like I said, one of the main things that we want to do going into 2022 and beyond is to add more items to our menu. This includes different kinds of momos as well as entirely different Nepalese delicacies. On top of adding more items to our menu, we would like to have people dine inside our location and not wholly rely on deliveries and pick-up orders. Outside of the business, we obviously would like to see the pandemic finally wind down for good so that we can get back to the normalcy we had before.
Momos and more hasn’t been open for too long, and it has already gotten a fair amount of attention and praise from its local community. As Anupam mentioned, the restaurant will open up dine-in when the pandemic starts to wind down. However, with the recent surprising uptake in cases due to Omnicron, it will take time to see when that happens. Either way, it seems that Momos and More have a bright future ahead of delivering authentic Nepalese cuisine to the Scarborough community.
For more information kindly visit: https://momosandmore.ca/
Author: Matt Filart, Toronto, Canada. If you have stories to share kindly email: – filartmatt@gmail.com
