BINI’S KITCHEN >

For six years and counting, Binitha Pradhan has been the Bay Area’s foremost dealer of momos, the hearty, pleated Nepalese dumplings that proliferate on the streets of both Kathmandu and Queens. Her devotion to her craft — mixing spices that she’s dried and ground up herself, making dumpling wrappers from scratch and sticking to a Nepalese culinary mode rather than compromising with Indian menu items for the sake of her American audience — has earned her a loyal following. Until recently, you could get Pradhan’s food only at Off the Grid events, local Whole Foods hot bars and her lunch-only takeout window on Market Street. But now that Bini’s Kitchen has a brickand-mortar, sit-down restaurant, momo fans have a place to call their own. Our favorite detail: One of the walls in the SoMa space is covered with a mural depicting Pradhan’s life story, featuring cameos by fellow La Cocina alums, women she’s worked alongside and her son. The other cool thing: Pradhan’s ambitions for the restaurant include hiring women who have escaped from abusive relationships and keeping prices accessible to the residents of the affordable-housing complex perched atop the restaurant. Order: Momos, of course. They come with three filling options: turkey ($8 for eight), vegetable ($8 for eight) and lamb ($10 for eight). The Nepalito ($11), a Bini-style burrito, comes with chicken, pork or a five-bean Nepalese chili called kwati.

1001 Howard St., San Francisco. 415-583-1862 or www.biniskitchen.com. Lunch Mon.-Fri. Credit cards accepted.

— S.H.