Yongewa Kitchen

I have been here soooo many times to get more Veggie Momos and the super tasty Tibetan dumpling soup (Then Thuk). I had been meaning to write a follow up for a while, because everything has only increased in their tastiness, and the owner and employees are all really nice people.
Sadly, I discovered that they have closed in the last week and there is a new restaurant going in, not Tibetan. I don’t know what I’ll do without those Momos! Still crossing my fingers that I was hallucinating, but I fear the worst. Thanks Yongewa, you were wonderful while you lasted. And for shame, Cotati, this is why we can’t have nice things!

Our family loves Yongewa Kitchen! The food is consistently fresh and delicious. Their service is always attentive without being intrusive. Our favorite dishes are sesame chicken, orange prawns as well as any of the fried rice which always has just the right amount of super fresh veggies. Let’s support this great, local gem!

Nice, quiet atmosphere. Very friendly owner!
Reasonably priced, good food. Free glass of wine with dinner on Tuesdays & Wednesdays.
My sister and I ordered the veggie soup and the owner suggested we share since it is a big portion — Always nice when the sole objective isn’t to upsale the table. It was simple & delicious. My favorite was the veggie momo (basically a veggie dumpling). I could have eaten the whole order on my own.
The meat eaters in my family said they enjoyed their pork momo and and chicken dishes. (kung pao and cashew chicken I think)
We had two appetizers, 3 entrée’s, 2 orders of rice and 3 (free) glasses of wine for about $ 50. Not bad!

My husband and I have been here several times and the service is always good. Unfortunately there are never many people in there, which is what prompted me to write this review! (my first Unilocal review)
The food is very fresh and light. Even the fried dishes don’t leave you feeling like you ate heavy food.
Also, the prices are great! I’ve never been disappointed here, give it a try!

If you’re looking for a good place to eat in Cotati, try the Yongewa Kitchen. Our party of three went there for dinner. We enjoyed excellent service and ordered quite a bit of food. Everything we ordered was delicious. I highly recommend this place,

As Unilocal recommends for 2 stars– Meh, I’ve experienced better
The restaurant was empty when we arrived, except one drunk customer at the bar who was getting really philosophical …
We were waited on immediately. Pot stickers came out and they were overdone. the fried side was hard as a rock, the filling had absolutely no flavor. The pot sticker sauce was a combination of chili oil and chili flakes, not what you would expect, but we went with it, we were starving.
My Husband ordered a Nepalese dish, it was cooked with rice noodles. It had no flavor (we added lots of soy sauce) funny thing it came with rice on the side. I am not very knowledgeable of the Himalayan foods but rice and noodles together just do not make sense to me–
I ordered the orange chicken which tasted like lemon chicken with a splash of Pineapple thrown in. The Chicken had been fried to death, and was hard on the inside. the sauce had little citrus flavor (no orange, yet orange in color, hhhmmmmm) this too had to be slathered in soy sauce.
It was late, I was starving after working 12 hours, we ate it. Our waitperson Never asked how our food was, this always makes me angry, I like to comment when I am in the restaurant, and not spew on Unilocal…
One positive note, a free glass of Wine with our meal on Wednesday night. This did not make the food any better.
We will not be back

After returning to Cotati after 5 years, it is exciting to see what restaurants have sprouted up. Thought they did a nice change of décor from Nicolino’s. The pot sticker were spot on. The chow mein had good taste and wasn’t greasy as some tend to be. We got the house specialty of Tibetan Momos, which were delicious. We questioned the sweet and sour pork as the sauce was a bit thin and artificial, however the quality of pork they used was white meat and higher quality than most. Our waitress appeared a little scattered, but the owner made up for it by coming out and checked on his patrons. We would have given this restaurant 3.5 if we could.

So unhappy with the food, what a waste of money!!! The beef was over-​cooked and like rubber. The dishes looked nice but nothing had a distinct flavor. I would never try this restaurant again. The waitress was super friendly though and that is the only reason for the 2 stars.

The food was just okay. The shrimp was overcooked. The portions are smaller then other Asian places but was normal. (Most have huge portions) staff was nice. No wow factor.

Been looking for a good local Chinese food restaurant. The fried rice was good, a little bland but better with some soy sauce. The lemon chicken is very good. Sweet and sour pork tasty. Did not like the orange prawns. The orangy flavor is not complimenting the shrimp and would not order that one again. Lastly, the chow mein has a very good flavor. My advice to the cook is use a hair net! Fished two long hairs out of the chow mein and that is NOT okay! Tough to get past that. Food was take out so can’t speak to the service.
Overall, gave four stars for big portions and good flavor. Not factoring in the hair in the hopes that that is a one time thing.

I don’t write long involved reviews (I don’t write many reviews at all), but let me say that this place is a new favorite.
We went for lunch today. The atmosphere is lovely, the people delightful, and the food delicious!
Visit Yongewa Kitchen soon and often. Try it, you’ll be hooked.

I am always game to try something new. In the mini restaurant row in downtown Cotati, the restaurant scene has recently acquired an international flavor w/​the addition of a Tibetan restaurant. Being the adventurous person I am, Yongewa certainly piqued my interest and curiosity. Yongewa also features a wide variety of Chinese food but I’ll restrict my review to Tibetan entrees.
From the little I know about Tibet, I’ve to confess that in my mind, a Tibetan conjures the image of a Buddhist monk garbed in yellow robe and is a strict vegetarian. Wrong! They are in fact heavy meat eaters as explained by Tashi whose family owns the restaurant. I wanted something authentically Tibetan and my server recommended Kham Then-​thuk ($ 9.50), a steaming bowl of beef noodles soup w/​veggies. When asked the kind of veggies that would go into the soup, she said «…broccoli, zucchini, celery…» and I interrupted her «Whoa! These veggies are probably not available in Tibet!!» My guess was right. The kitchen promptly substituted them w/​cabbage, Napa cabbage and bell peppers. «Then-​thuk» as far as I can tell was the equivalent of Chinese hand pulled noodles except they looked and tasted like flat pasta sheets. The broth had a subtle beefy flavor w/​all the fat from the meat trimmed off. The broth was bland and tasted MSG free (yay!) quite unlike the Chinese versions that tended to be overloaded w/​MSG. Tashi personally hand cut those noodles for me which I appreciated. The hot bowl of noodles was gratifying, perked up my energy level for the rest of the day just high enough for me to contemplate scaling the Himalayas.
Momo is one of the most well known and beloved Tibetan delicacies. Short and simple, they are dumplings and the fillings can be either meat (6 for $ 7.50) or veggies (6 for $ 6.50). In Yongewa, only one meat momo was available… Sha Momo. It was a dumpling filled w/​ground pork and assorted veggies. They were steamed and looked like Chinese dumplings in their traditional ‘plump round purse’ shape. It is a simple dish, healthy and tasty although I find that Yongewa’s momos were not as juicy and had a lower squirtability factor compared to the Chinese versions. A nondescript side of ‘how’ sauce was provided for Momo dipping that was nothing more than some salty chili oil.
A Tibetan meal is quite incomplete w/​o drinking the Tibetan butter tea known as Po Cha. ($ 2.50). I had my first sample and it was quite different from any tea I ever had. Po Cha was a filling and stimulating brew of tea that was butter rich, milky (yak’s milk in Tibet) and salty and drunk at all times of the day and throughout the year in Tibet. It may be hard to imagine the blending of three distinct flavors… a creamy, buttery and salty mixture. The tea needed getting used to and I’m sure it can be addictive once you acquire a taste for it. Maybe you can even attain spiritual enlightening after a few glasses.
The peaceful and colorful Buddhist ambiance caught my immediate attention when I walked in. Both the left and right walls were beautifully painted in bright red and adorned w/​attractive Tibetan paintings. Right against the back wall was a bar that appeared also like an alter w/​a picture of the Dalai Lama and contained other unique color symbolisms in Buddhism. Tibetan chants were faintly heard in the background giving me an awesome experience of being transported thousands of miles away to the exotic land that is Tibet!

Finally a great Chinese Restaurant in Rohnert Park/​Cotati! The Tibetan food offering is small but it’s good too.
I can’t say enough about this place: everything I’ve tried has been fresh and delicious.
Please try it so they stay around! Downtown Cotati has had a lot of turnover with restaurants but this one is definitely a keeper!

My husband and I have been trying to find the right Chinese restaurant in our area, and we FINALLY have! Fresh, flavorful, and not ridiculously greasy.

We had dinner here for the second time in a week. One favorite dish is the orange prawns. The batter is light and the sauce is excellent, not too sweet and there’s a bit of smoky flavor in the pineapple that compliments the prawns that are cooked perfectly. We had the sesame chicken, which we really enjoyed. The best part of the meal was the calamari that are presented on top of fried chilies and garlic chips. Next time we are ordering a plate of those each! We love the atmosphere, the great service and being able to watch a good basketball game. Cotati needed this restaurant! It is a gem!

Tried their food to go first… Pork and string beans in a brown sauce, so much flavor! Sesame chicken, excellent. Pork Momos, irresistible. Made us want to head in to eat… Another great food experience… The chicken, mushroom and snow peas was great. Light wine sauce, fresh vegetables… Great! Will be back.

I would give this place another star if I could. Delicious Chinese food with clean bright flavors. Am in love with the Kung Pao chicken and Sesame Chicken. Just moved to the neighborhood myself, a working mother of twins and will be getting takeout from this place once a week from now on. Thank you Yongewa!

I really wanted to like this new place as I go to Cotati often and enjoy this type of food, I always try appetizers first so I tried the chicken wings the worst wings I have ever had no sauce just a deep fried wing was really strange no seasoning? I gave them another try and had the pot stickers OMG all dough and no filling was really bad! The two stars are for the nice man who helped me.

Yongewa Kitchen prominently states they are a Tibetan Restaurant. Not just a Himalayan or Nepalese restaurant. Most cross over to Indian food, but Yongewa is a Tibetan restaurant that crosses over to Chinese food. Got all that? *smile*
Let me just say, I love the food and atmosphere in this restaurant!
I have frequented all the previous tenants of this location. Prior was a pizza restaurant, Brixx Pizzeria for a few years. Before that, Nicolino’s italian restaurant which was here for maybe fifteen or more years? Even before was a restaurant simply named Mediterranean. As wonderful as Nicolino’s was, Yongewa Kitchen just knocks it out of the park!
There is so much character and uniqueness from the generous use of Tibetan cultural colors, symbols, textiles, and pictures throughout the restaurant. Yet, I do not feel that it is overdone. It seems just right.
The menu appears largely a Chinese food list of dishes with a couple handfuls of Tibetan named dishes. What surprised me with my Chicken with Mushrooms and Snow Peas plus Chow Mein was that this Chinese dish tasted unusually good. I am not able to specify what slightly different spices or oils were used to accomplish this. Only that it tasted better than the same dish I’ve had countless times at traditional Chinese restaurants before. Same deal with their Hot ‘n Sour Soup; something noticeably different and delicious! Just can’t put my finger on it.
What was obvious to me was the owner/​chef prepared my dish with a great deal of love. Maybe that is the secret ingredient. They were happy when I mentioned that I had some Tibetan heritage in my ethnic background.
In Rohnert Park, we have a Himalayan/​Nepalese restaurant, Shangri-​La. We also have a coffee house serving coffee grown in Nepal, named Himalayan Beanz. In Sebastopol, there is an nice Himalayan/​Indian restaurant, Himalayan Tandoori & Curry House. I also go out of my way to find great Himalayan restaurants all over the SF Bay Area.
Of all these other restaurants, only Yongewa serves Tibetan Butter Tea. It is my most favorite hot drink ever! It reminds me of other lifetimes full of peace and contentment. Tibetan Butter Tea is not a chai. It actually has a little butter in it. Tibetan Butter Tea is tonic for my soul.
I think what touched me most of all was seeing the children of the owners moving about through the Tibetan cloth curtains and how they turned and smiled at me. One of the members of the family, Tenzin, was extraordinarily kind and he even sat with me for a while for friendly talk.
I love Shangri-​La food in Rohnert Park. I also love Tiny Thai food in Cotati. Now, I have a new favorite, charming, excellent food place to fill my tummy and soul. It’s called Yongewa Kitchen in Cotati.
Review 0124

Good new casual restaurant in downtown Cotati, in the old location of Brixx, and before that, Nicolini’s. (In fact, they have Nicolini’s old phone number!!)
Clean and friendly, and well lit. Perhaps a smidgen over-​lit. Though they mentioned being open just a week, they seem to be working well, with only very minor kinks.
Never had to ask for water refills, and never had to wait for attention.
The veggies in the Kham Then-​thuk were excellently done, and *not* overdone.
I like that they offer wine in splits, but wish we could order just a single glass of a house wine (sometimes just one is indeed enough).
Worth checking out, especially for locals.