Eat
PasaYa Kitchen.
Friend's Kitchen. Newari khaja on Irving, not a dumpling hunt.
Location
What people get wrong
Closed Monday on Hamro Find. 56 Irving, 3011. Magic Momo at 588 Barkly, West Footscray 3012, is the other Nepali door. We last walked this on 2026-09-20. Hours move with the week. Checking the shopfront keeps the night easy.
What is Pasa Ya Kitchen known for?
Pasa Ya Kitchen is known as Irving's Newari sit-down: a Friend's Kitchen that cooks Kathmandu Valley khaja, mustard-oil choila, and a momo list people already search. You walk in from the market side of Irving, not from Hopkins, and the room is doing a different job from the Ethiopian cluster further along the same street. The house names itself plainly: Friend's Kitchen. Hot from our Bhutu. Newari food from the valley, not a generic Indian search that dumped dumplings on a map.
You are not walking into a critic palace. Time Out, Broadsheet and Good Food have not given this door a card. EatClub has: forty-six diners at 4.7, meals logged from December 2025 through September 2026, food that lands, staff who are kind in a room small enough that kindness shows. Hamro Find verified the shop in May 2026: opened 2025, Nepali-speaking staff, cash, EFTPOS, card. The suburb uses 56 for a Newari plate between market trolleys and the Irving Ethiopian strip, or instead of both.
The identity is the snack plate, not the dumpling. Khaja is how Newar households put a table down: beaten rice, a lentil pancake, grilled meat in mustard oil, bamboo-shoot potato, pickles. Momo is on the board because Melbourne asks for momo. Delivery tills even like the chow mein first. That is a bag, not a thesis. Stay for the choila.
Fully licensed is a house fact, not a rumour. Nepalese-inspired cocktails, mocktails, selected wines, Himalayan beers. The home page embeds an OpenTable widget under Jwajalapa, the Newari hello, if you wanted to warn them. Pickup and a dine-in menu live on pasayakitchen.com.au. Delivery is a second URL, pasayakitchenonline.com.au, plus the usual apps. You can sit. You should sit.
What should you order at Pasa Ya Kitchen?
Order the Newari khaja set if you came for the plate this room exists to cook. Hamro prints it with choila, aloo tama, beaten rice, bara and pickles, in the high twenties. The delivery khaja names wo, the black-lentil pancake, plus saag, bhatmas, egg and aalu, and it will not put bhutun on a vegetarian plate. Ask which pancake is in the pan. Ask chicken, buff, lamb or mushroom for the choila. Mustard oil, fenugreek, garlic, chilli. That is the smell you wanted when you walked off Irving.
Choila on its own if the table is two and you did not need the full set. Buff if you eat buffalo. Chicken if you did not. Mushroom if the table went meatless and still wanted smoke. Chatamari is the rice-flour crepe with egg, onion, coriander and a meat topping. Wo is the lentil pancake with ginger, garlic and egg. Chatpate if you wanted puffed rice, noodles, potato and house chutney in one bowl. Sekuwa if you wanted the grill, chicken or lamb, with puffed rice and bhatmas. Sukuti sadeko if you wanted dried meat tossed with spice, chilled or pan-fried. Say which.
Then decide whether you came for Newari offal or you came to pretend you did. Fokso fry is goat lung in egg batter, mustard oil, subject to availability. Jibro is tongue. Bhutun is goat offal with ginger and onion. Dyaaku-laa is the slow goat stew, bone-in, skin-on, the other khaja path if bamboo shoot was not the night. Timur ko chutney is charred tomato, garlic, chilli and Himalayan peppercorn. Put it on the table. Yomari at the end if they still steam the sweet rice dumpling, two pieces, dairy and nuts.
Momo is the search term. Steam them with house achar. Jhol if you wanted the tomato and sesame broth. Kothey if you wanted pan-fry. Chilli momo if you wanted soy and lemon. Eat the chow mein if that is the bag you came for. Do not leave thinking this was a dumpling shop with a side of Nepal. Do not order injera. Lalibela is 91 Irving. Do not order bhuna. Madhumoti is 95. Do not come Monday.
Hours, payment and queues at Pasa Ya Kitchen
Hamro Find lists Monday closed, Tuesday to Thursday 11am to 9pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 9:30pm, Sunday 11am to 9pm. Phone (03) 7048 4285. The house page also prints a call-or-text mobile, 0493 535 883. Official site: https://www.pasayakitchen.com.au/. EatClub, OzFoodHunter and Uber Eats print a lunch window, a dinner window, and Monday open. Those are delivery and deal cards. We cite Hamro for the door.
Walk-in. Cards, EFTPOS, cash on Hamro. Licensed, so a beer with the khaja is a house offer, not a BYO hope. Book on the OpenTable widget if the table is more than two. This is still a young Irving room. Monday is the wasted trip. Sunday the market hall across Irving is locked and this kitchen is listed open. That pairing is the one that works. Monday both are shut.
Public holidays will shuffle a 2025 kitchen whether a widget says so or not. If you wanted momo on a Monday, that is a different postcode, not a reason to stand in front of a locked Irving glass.
How do you get to Pasa Ya Kitchen in Footscray?
You get to Pasa Ya Kitchen by walking Irving from Footscray station to 56, market side, a street number before the Ethiopian rooms, not a shop inside the hall. Look for the Friend's Kitchen fascia, not a banh mi queue on Hopkins and not an injera stack at 91. The market is across the road. Madhumoti is further along at 95 if the night was going to be bhuna after choila. Name both. Do not hunt Nepali food only on Hopkins because Hopkins is the postcard.
Irving deck if you already parked for the market. Street parking is the other fact directories print. Do not test a 2P through a khaja set you actually sat for. After dark stay on Irving toward Barkly or Hopkins. Paisley is not the night cut.
West Footscray station is the wrong train if you wanted 56 Irving. That stop is for Barkly 3012. Same city, different door. If a friend said Nepali Footscray, ask which postcode before you leave the platform.
What do people mix up about Pasa Ya Kitchen?
They mash it with Magic Momo because both sell momo and both put Newari on the board.
- 56 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011. Phone (03) 7048 4285.
- Closed Monday on Hamro Find. Tuesday to Sunday from 11am.
- Friend's Kitchen: Newari khaja, not momo-only.
- Not Magic Momo at 588 Barkly, West Footscray 3012.
- Licensed sit-down. OpenTable widget on pasayakitchen.com.au.
Questions people ask next
- Is Pasa Ya Kitchen open on Monday?
- No on Hamro Find, verified May 2026: Monday closed, Tuesday to Sunday from 11am. EatClub and Uber Eats still print Monday with a lunch break. Call (03) 7048 4285. Last checked 2026-09-20.
- Can you book a table at Pasa Ya Kitchen?
- Yes. The house site embeds an OpenTable widget under Jwajalapa on https://www.pasayakitchen.com.au/. Walk-in is normal. Phone (03) 7048 4285 or text 0493 535 883.
- Is Pasa Ya Kitchen licensed?
- Yes. The house page lists a fully licensed room: Nepalese-inspired cocktails, mocktails, selected wines and Himalayan beers with the food.
- Is Pasa Ya Kitchen the same as Magic Momo Kafe?
- No. Pasa Ya is 56 Irving Street, Footscray 3011, closed Monday. Magic Momo Kafe is 588 Barkly Street, West Footscray 3012. Get off at Footscray station for Irving, West Footscray for Barkly.
Where we checked
More in Eat
Madhumoti Restaurant
Bhuna on Irving. Lalibela is the neighbour, not the kitchen.
95 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Cafe Lalibela
The Irving injera that started the argument. Little Africa is a different suburb.
91 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011
Footscray Market
Irving produce hall. Closed Sunday Monday. Park Irving.
18 Irving Street, Footscray VIC 3011