Lhasa Fast Food

I have to say one of the great things about living in NYC is the diversity of food and neighborhoods which you go to in order to find that food and partly the fun of finding a place.
Lhasa Fast Food is one of those that maybe on in NYC. Firstly, you have to trek to Jackson Heights and yes that is beyond the borders of Manhattan. In fact it is in Queens. I heard the audible gasp from the Manhattanites.
Secondly, for the first timer it is like Magellan’s expedition to the unknown world. The no-​frills restaurant is found after following the paper arrow on the door directing you to head behind the mobile shop is like how he must have felt discovering the new world. Excitement, enthusiastic of getting there.
The menu is simple posted on the wall once you figure out what each items are. The service is friendly but don’t expect it to be fast. It is casual here. As the Tibetan Proverb, ‘At the bottom of patience is Heaven’ and that holds true here after ordering. Wait until it comes out as you are rewarded with a meal to savor.
The food is hearty, comforting and the momos are delicious. Enjoy it.

After hearing about momos, I really wanted to try it for myself in NY. I didn’t know where to go, but luckily I saw an episode on Eater which introduced me to this place! It was really helpful watching the episode as it helped me find this place and introduced items for me to order.
The entrance is a bit obscure because there is no sign directing you to this place. There is only a piece of paper taped on a door to lead you to this place. You enter through the cell phone shop, but DO NOT walk down the stairs. Instead, walk straight to the back and you will have found this hidden gem. It’s a bit confusing once you get in because there is no counter to order and no one seating you at the tables. I was confused on what to do so I followed other people’s lead and sat myself down. There are only six small tables, so you might have to wait for seats. My party ordered the beef momos and the momos in soup. The momos are similar to the Chinese soup dumplings, except that the skin is much thicker and there is much more meat. The beef momos were so tasty. The beef was so flavorful, tender and juicy. There is only just a bit of soup that is inside the dumpling, but it was still so good. The hot sauce they have is a perfect complement to the momos! The momos in soup were also good. The momos were the same beef momos and the soup was a spicy clear broth with red oil on top. I really enjoyed the soup because it was reminiscent of a Sichuan flavor.
Overall, food was fresh and delicious! But what really makes this place is the friendly staff. They are nice and will help you through the menu. Also, when you are finished, you just tell the staff what you had and pay in cash. So the staff really trust the customers and go on an honor system. You don’t have to tip on the tables either, but you can if you want in their tip jar.
If you’ve never had momos, this is the place to try them!

Lhasa is a very good pick for delicious, affordable Nepalese food in Jackson Heights. But some necessary warnings: this place is difficult to find — it’s in a mini-​mall, behind an electronics store in the back — and contrary to its name, it took a while for us to get our food. (Think 20 – 30 minutes.) It’s also a place just for a quick meal, not for atmosphere or service. If that’s all ok with you, then you’re in for a treat.
We ordered Tibetan noodles, phinsha (kind of like Vietnamese phở), and momos. Both noodle dishes were hot, filling, and filled with flavor and fresh ingredients. I’m not even a soup person, but they were a perfect antidote for a winter day. But the momos, they were excellent! Imagine dumplings with well-​seasoned meat, then pair it with a spicy red sauce. Wow! They were tasty, well-​crafted (e.g., the folds of the dumpling), and juicy, which is too rare among dumplings. Considering how affordable this place is, I’ll certainly be returning to Lhasa for a quick bite in the future.

Who would of thought that in the heart of Little India in Jackson Heights there would be a tiny home-​style Tibetan spot.
As a newbie falling into the hype of the secretive location I’d say the dumplings are the main attraction. Their shape and size are comparable to the soup dumplings but Tibetan variety has a thicker skin and has more meat filling options like beef or chicken. I ordered the dumplings in soup for $ 7. The soup was barely seasoned but was chock full of herbs and chili oil and pairs well with salty meat filling in the dumplings. The place is tiny with 5 or so tables.
I wish I’d tried more dishes but was full from a previous meal. The staff are really friendly. Overall I’m glad to have tried it but rather prefer the soup dumpling which are a lot closer to me and I’ll stick to Indian food when I’m in JH.

Come here for the momos. If you’re not familiar with momos, they’re a thicker skinned dumpling filled in this case with perfectly spiced beef and a slight bit of meat juices. They were the highlight of our meal here. They only cost $ 6 for an order of 8 or so (I think). We got two orders to share amongst the three of us.
The Tibet noodle and phinsa were good as well but not as excellent as the momos. The Tibetan tea is a nice beverage to warm you up, but if you haven’t had it before you should know it mostly tastes like butter and milk, not like any other tea I’ve ever had. The Tibetan tea here was better than the tea at Phayul, which I found too salty.
This place is hidden behind a cell phone store, do not go downstairs into the luggage store. Just wind your way behind the cell phone store to enter. There is seating for about 15 people and it’s a no frills atmosphere. It took 30 – 40 minutes to get our food dive they only have two people freshly preparing all the food.

After watching the video on Facebook promoting this little Tibetian gem, I bugged my boyfriend to take me here. It took us a little while to find as it’s hidden behind a cell phone store. There’s a little small hidden hallway you have to walk all the way to the back to in order to find the restaurant but if you’re looking to your right and you see a cellphone shop run by Southeast Asian people, you’re probably in the right place.
We came after work quite late around 9pm so most of the items we wanted to try were already sold out. Totally understandable and I was glad they don’t sell their overnight food!
We ordered the Momo’s and I had (I have no idea what the name is. but it’s like vegetables dipped in spicy/​oily sauce). A little TOO oily for my taste but I think that’s how Tibetan food are so I can’t complain.
Our server was great, attentive, and polite so we felt like respected customers. It’s always great to be at a restaurant where your server still puts up a smile after a long day of work. We all know that feeling. when you’re way too tired to crack a smile but you do it because you want to make others happy which in turn, makes you feel good.
Our bill was around $ 20 with tips so it’s definitely for someone on a budget or anyone looking to try a different cuisine.

This hole in the wall/​incognito restaurant is all about the food — fresh, authentic, delicious, satisfying and inexpensive! You know it’s good when it’s mostly packed with Tibetans dining there and also ordering take out.
My friend and I ordered:
— veggie momo (packed with chives and so delicious)
— beef momo
— phinsha (SUPER spicy but flavorful soup noodle)
— chicken soup dumplings
–Tibetan and sweet tea
Everything was amazing but my favorite was the chicken soup dumplings and the veggie momo’s. I could eat these everyday! My friend who loves spicy food struggled with the phinsha because it was so spicy and hot! Once it cooled down, he was able to enjoy it. The home made hot sauce in the squeeze bottle is very good and really complements the momo’s. They should bottle it and sell it! Be careful eating the momo’s because they are piping hot too! The Tibetan tea is buttery and salty in flavor while the sweet tea is very mild and helped temper the lingering effects of the spiciness on the tongue. The folks who run the place are very nice. I’ll definitely be back again to try some of the other dishes!

This restaurant was featured on Eater. I had to visit to try the dishes that looked so delicious. It was my first time venturing into Jackson Heights. The restaurant is located right by the 74^st Jackson Heights subways station. (Bf drove to Queens, we did not take the subway).
Do not walk downstairs into the luggage shop. The nice people there pointed us back upstairs. (They’re probably used to lost and confused looking people wandering into their shop). There’s a door to the right, next to the stairs where you enter into the cell phone shop and proceed to walk down the hallway to Lhasa.
Though it’s called Lhasa fast food, the food doesn’t actually come out quickly. It seemed like it is made fresh, per order, so be prepared to wait 10−15mins for your first dish.
Beef momo $ 6 for 8pcs — as others have said, they look like a larger, more doughy version of Shanghai soup dumplings. The flavor was very gamey to me, with some herb seasoning. It was interesting. Was mostly meat and had a bit of soup/​juice inside.
Soup dumplings $ 7 — this was essentially the momo in broth. Still good, just not what I was expecting. The broth was good, had clear noodles with scallions and spinach in it. Not spicy.
Phinsha $ 6 — beef slices with clear noodles, firm tofu, wood mushroom in a super spicy broth. This was super spicy. It tasted very good, but I only had a little bit of broth and noodles before I gave up. There was a layer of red spicy oil at the top of the bowl. This is good for people who can really take the heat, aka my bf.
The milk tea is off to the side. The ginger milk tea was good, just not enough ginger flavor for me. It was already sweetened.
Overall, $ 20 for a meal was a steal. I would stop by again if I was in the area. Remember to bring cash!

I came here to check out the momo’s here. If you don’t know what Momo’s are — they are Tibetan dumplings. These dumplings look physically like Shanghainese Soup Dumplings, but taste very very different — the beef is flavored with very fragrant herbs i can’t figure out what it is. They were juicy and delicious but not overly so like a soup dumpling. 6 bucks for 8 dumplings is very good!
Unfortunately, i didn’t get to try anything else on the menu except the Momo’s.
I’ll definitely be back to get at the rest of the menu!

This place is hidden so when you get to where you think it’s supposed to be and instead you’re at a random cellphone shop, go in and walk down the narrow hallway to this literal hole in the wall. Pretty sure everyone in the shop is so used to seeing people looking lost and confused and directing them to the back because the first thing they asked me as I looked back at my phone was «lhasa? :and points:»
Seating is scarce so you might have to wait a bit — I’d say it sits at most 15 people but it’s cramped as heck. The shop is run by two people who work surprisingly fast. Menu is simple consisting of only a handful of items. We got the beef momo and phinsha. This was my first time trying momo’s so I wasn’t really sure what to expect but these soup dumplings were really good and FRESH so be careful (no matter how many times I’ve eaten soup dumplings I will always burn my tongue on the first one -.-). it’s hot. Compared to the other momo trucks we tried (including an award winning one), the beef in these momo’s are a lot more seasoned and moist. There’s a hot sauce that gets passed around that you can use to add some heat to it. The phinsha was not as spicy as I expected it to be — it just looked so red and reminded me of tomyum soup — but that’s ok because I was sweating in there. It’s tasty with only enough spice to give it a kick. They also serve free himalayan (?) tea, also called butter tea, which consists of tea, butter and salt. I love all kinds of tea but I couldn’t get past the saltiness of it, was only able to handle a few sips.
Looking around and listening to the chatter, I believe a lot of Nepalese come here which says a lot about this little place. Everyone here, from the two locals we shared a table with to the waitress who tried her hardest to explain the menu, is just super friendly.

The momos here are quite delicious. I usually order then go shopping, come back and pickup. Actually think they were robbed of the golden momo last year, even though they won the year before. So much better than the competition.

This place is a hidden gem and you may never have known it existed if it wasn’t for Unilocal.We walked into the cell phone store not quite sure if we were headed in the right direction. After going through another set of doors and down a hallway we found Lhasa. It was a tiny shop with a handful of tables and full of customers.
I ordered the soup dumplings. I’m pretty sure he forgot about us because we had to wait quite a bit for our food. No big deal though we were not in a rush. I was expecting the soup dumplings that you may get in Flushing or China town, but this was a bowl of soup with dumplings in it. This was fine with me as it looked delicious. The flavors were quite good and the soup had a great kick to it. Be careful when the broth hits the back of your throat.

This is a hidden gem. The food is fresh, clean and tasty. My friend and I shared the spicy beef noodle soup, beef momo and soup dumplings and all were very good. The dumpling had good chew and good amount of meat. Three dishes and three drinks amounted to $ 21 and it was a struggle to finish the food. This is definitely on my list of top 10 good eats in queens.

This place is getting a little bit of hype now from the grapevine and some media that are covering it. It’s definitely a great place, and has that speakeasy feel which New Yorkers love to experience, and really it’s just a humble little restaurant. It’s so humble that dishes are cooked one at a time and they use a hot plate to make everything because they don’t have gas. So I would like to temper the series of 5 star reviews by saying that service can take quite a while; you must be patient to come here. Many seem to order their food to go, then leave the place and come back 20 minutes later to pick up. Still, notably good food amongst the rabble of Tibetan restaurants in the area.

I actually don’t remember what kind of momos I had when I went here in July — I think chicken — were they not so filling I might have sat there and eaten them over and over again, all day, until I exploded.
They live up to the hype.
Had a tough time finding them. Went down the stairs, ended up in a luggage store and then someone’s office where they were cutting fabric, back up the stairs, through the cell phone store, to the back room of delicious momos. A worthy adventure.

I feel as if my mom is cooking for me, yet the cooking is actually good.
You wait a little bit longer, but it is WELL worth it. Such a comfortable little hidden gem. I will definitely make this a hangout after work.
Momos are so fresh, from the herbs and spices used, to the excellent chewy dough wrapped around the meat. My stomach is full and I only spent $ 6. Now where can you get that in Manhattan?

I heard about Lhasa from the Village Voice Momo taste test in which they came out on top of 17 different Momo establishments in Jackson Heights. I am glad I saw the article, because I would have NEVER found this place otherwise.
It is located behind a cell phone store with only a 1-​foot laminated sign pointing the way from the street. You go down this glass alleyway full of iPhone cases and cell phone parts, then come to a set of stairs that says something about «Jackson Heights Luggage», but that’s not it! There is a small door on the right which looks like the Cell phone store’s backroom and one you go through that, lo-​and-​behold, you are in a sort-​of momo speakeasy!
There is just one guy who is cooking, cleaning, waiting and collecting cash from you so be patient. A small handwritten menu sits on one wall, of which most of the items are completely foreign unless you know Himalayan/​Nepalese food. We knew what momos and soup dumplings were so we got both.
There are two types of delicious tea they serve before the meal. One is a ginger-​milk tea, served warm with sugar added. The other is a savory broth-​type tea filled with flavor we could not pinpoint. Both were delicious.
The momos were out-​of-​this-​world. The juicy, beefy inside has a much higher meat to veggie ratio than other potsticker variants. The outside was perfectly steamed and (obviously) not too greasy due to not being fried. The soup dumplings were just as good as the momos, but the broth they were in was amazing. We emptied the broth from the bowl into cups so we could drink it all up. Delicious flavor.
It was all pretty cheap too, with an order of 8 momos, 8 soup dumplings and tea all ending up less than $ 20. A must-​try for momos in the area.

I’m surprised this little gem has only 2 reviews. Not sure when it was established originally, but it definitely deserves more attention. This is one of those hole in the wall places, literally! My friends and I were walking down the road looking for a sign and a storefront, though my friend finally said that was it was hidden behind a mobile (think cell phones) store. With the help of GPS, we ended up in front of a mobile store, still confused on the location of the restaurant. I see a small sign on the window and knew, that this was the random door way to lead us to lunch time goodness. We walk in and see two out of the 5 tables had diners. The menu was compact, and that’s what I love to see, quality on few dishes rather than a grandeur menu that lacks the most important aspect, good taste.
As two of us had never tried Tibetan food before, we weren’t sure what to order, so our Tibetan friend said that we would probably enjoy the noodle soup… and she ordered momo, which are dumplings.
— Noodle soup consisted of halal beef, daikon, and I forgot what else; but I do have a picture of it served into a smaller bowl.
— Momo I believe has beef as well, it was juicy though I wouldn’t consider it a soup dumpling.
Both were very good. The service was nice. The food came out pretty quick. Enjoyed the experience overall and definitely would return if I ever go back to NYC.
This gets its own line because I am that sort of person, it was cheap. TYBG.

Authentic, is the word
Great chicken Momos
Amazing Chicken Mok Thuk
Best place for Tibet in this area

I’m no momo expert, but I know delicious things when they hit my lips… and boy are these little Himalayan soup dumplings tasty!
I think it goes without saying that some of the most delicious food in New York City resides in Queens. It’s real, it’s cheap, and it’s a treat if you know where to look. And in the case of Lhasa Fast Food, you better have ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision because it’s really, really hard to find. In fact, it’s so hard to find, you’ll have to strut to the back of this mobile phone store (
) where Lhasa has a small kitchen in what looks to be an unused storage area in the back. If this were Manhattan, you’d chalk up a soup dumpling counter in the back of a cell phone store as a clever gimmick to attract as many Warby Parker wearing hipsters as possible (think PDT inside of Crif Dogs). Here at Tibet Mobile/​Lhasa Fast Food, it’s clear these are just hard working immigrants trying to make an honest living in the most cost effective way they know how. It’s a real American dream happening in front of your eyes and it’s an amazing experience to behold.
As for the momos, they’re right up there with the best I’ve tasted. They come with six total and they’re served fresh and piping hot. Filled with an herb-​intoxicating chunk of ground beef and the perfect amount of savory broth, it’s a tasty little bite that’ll satisfy any soup dumpling fanatic.
It’s a short skip from the Jackson Heights F. M, and 7 trains… so whether you’re on the way home and craving a quick nibble or you’re willing to travel the 20 minutes it takes to get there on the subway from Lower Manhattan, you really should bookmark this spot and give it a go. It’s one of those things that make New York City such a snazzy place to call home.