Gakyizompe

Amazing freaking food. Amazing, Amazing, Amazing! The food is by no question 5 stars, but this place is really a hole in the wall with a creepy bathroom and no liquor license — hence the 4 star rating. The menu consists of Himalayan and Nepalese options and in my opinion, boasts the best of both in all of Sunnyside. And the SAUCES!!! All of the sauces are incredible: tasty, full of flavor and ranging in heat. My chicken lollipop likes to swim in a soup of sauce and i love every second of it, every time. The prices are very reasonable; any time i visit the bill always amounts to less than $ 15 per person and sometimes $ 10 for a ton of consumed food as well as doggy bags :)
A few of my favorite things:
–Chow Mein (Chicken, Pork all are yummy)
–Cold Chicken Noodles
–Spicy Bhutan Pork or Chicken with cheese
–Crispy Momo
–Chicken Lollipop

Great food!
Awesome mono and great appetizer. Great place to eat Tibetian for the first time

I really loved this small, mom and pop, hidden gem establishment. The service wasn’t the fastest but the employees were charming and friendly. The food was absolutely delicious and the prices were very reasonable.
I ordered a Thali and got to try many different small dishes. It was fantastic! A great value and great taste!
I will definitely return.

They have the best food. If u haven’t visit here, I highly recommend u to go their and try Aima date. It’s super delicious.

I LOVE this place. I grew up on Tibetan food and this was a nostalgia trip for me. The food is so authentic, portions are really good and reasonable prices. The wait staff are friendly. I love the chicken chowmein and chicken fry momos! I also got the Chicken Aima Dhatsa which is a spicy Bhutanese dish made with American cheese added to it. It really hit the spot and was such a unique number. Highly doubt you’d find anything like it in NYC. Definitely a must try

Was really hoping to love this place after reading about it on Eater. Unfortunately I was not impressed. While it was totally empty on a Friday night and so cold inside that even the waitress was wearing her winter coat, this didn’t bother me. I really wanted to have an amazing meal. The food fell far short. We ordered the potato appetizer which was my favorite dish of the night (though not very impressive). Also got the hot beef noodles and it was extremely salty– almost inedible. Also had the pork momo dumplings. The first bite was great and we both thought these would be the winner of the night. After the first bite though, you realize that your brain was tricking you into thinking you loved it but then you realize that no– there is something off about this filling and you do not enjoy it. Will not come back here but am still secretly hopeful that we ordered wrong and there are some redeeming dishes on the menu.

Awesome place to hangout with friends. If you want to try a Tibetan food for the first time, this is the place to start. Love #chowmein #spicybeef One of the favorite place of mine. Try it you will not regret it.

Momo dumplings are definitely having their moment in the spotlight. Just this month, I listened to a segment about them on Dinner Party Download, and read an article from Sietsama on Eater. So of course, we went to the one reviewed by the latter.
Gakyizompe is on a quiet block, with a very nondescript storefront (it shares an address with some sort of income tax business). Once you’re inside, it’s very minimally adorned, except for some framed photos of people in Himilayan garb, a picture of the Dalai Lama in the front, and a flat screen TV with YouTube playlists of Tibetan music.
Their menus aren’t very detailed. They have photocopied black and white versions, which were probably created once they realized that most people have no idea how to order Himalayan food. From what I gather, much like the Himalayas themselves, the cuisine is a mishmash of all sorts of national dishes — Indian, Chinese, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Tibetan. Symbolic of the political situation over there? I’ll let someone smarter than I interpret that.
Anyway, we went with a couple of things that were mentioned in the Eater article and then went a little crazy with momos.
If you don’t know what momos are, they’re fun-​to-​say-​out-​loud dumplings (sometimes in soup, but most of the time with broth inside). Imagine large Shanghai soup dumplings, but with a much denser wrapper.
All told, our feast consisted of:
1) Pork chow mein
–Not the greatest. Our waitress left the restaurant to make a delivery, and I’m pretty sure the chow mein was just sitting in the back because it was cold. Also, super greasy. This one’s a skip.
2) Mixed vegetable momo
–Our first momos of the evening were pretty good. The mixed veg ones had Chinese style mustard greens and were surprisingly sweet. Not too much soup inside. I wouldn’t exactly call it light fare, since the skin was very thick.
3) Ruethang momo
–This one was in a orange-​red broth, and the momos consisted of beef and mustard greens. The soup wasn’t heavy or meaty. Great for a cold night.
4) Mutton thali
–The mutton thali was okay, but not great. As is the case with goat/​chivo, there was more bone than meat. Portions were tiny too. It also came with tiny sides of split peas, potatoes, and yes, more mustard greens.
5) Aima Dhatse Pork
–This was by far the most interesting. It was listed as a Bhutanese national dish. It was cheesy, bright orange, and the pork was so incredibly fatty. It also came with a side of steamed spiral bread, similar to what you can get in some Chinese bakeries.
And because we’re fat and wanted to get the most out of our first momo experience, we did a second round of:
6) Chicken momo
–So glad we took a second plunge into momo territory, because this was by far my favorite. Just the right amount of meat, and the chicken was spiced perfectly. Not too salty.
7) Beef momo
–At this point, I knew we had flown too close to the sun with all these momos. But we scarfed them down. The beef momo was also good, but there wasn’t anything extraordinary about it. If you want a beef one, go for the ruethang, just because it’s so different.
All in all, I’m glad we went to Gakyizompe, though the consensus was nothing really wowed us. It’s a place I would recommend if you’re already in the area, but not really a destination.
I’d like to try more momos (specifically in Jackson Heights) as I’m not sure the ones we had here were representative of the cuisine. But based on the ones we tried, they’re okay, but I’d much prefer Shanghainese soup dumplings or dim sum-​style soup dumplings.
As for the restaurant, there were some sour points — our waitress didn’t really speak English well (so I guess authentic?), and the place was terribly insulated so it was like 50 degrees in there (also authentic?). Some of the dishes were misses (I wouldn’t get the mutton thali or the chow mein again).
But at the end of the day, everything I listed above came out to under $ 50. Plus, they take credit cards. Can’t knock that.

Was really rooting for this place cause of all the good reviews but man, that food was awful.
Here’s the thing: service is great. Warm staff, looks like they’re just starting out. But they really have to work on the food.

Food & service were great. Most everything on the menu was $ 6. The restaurant is spacious & clean. Definitely going back regularly.

This place is a bomb. Food is awesome and is so freaking cheap. I don’t understand why people go to Jackson heights may be cause they don’t know about this place since its new.

The food was awesome and really cheap compared to other Himalayan restaurants. I ordered a chicken thali and I must say the chicken curry was the best I had tasted amongst all the others served in nyc, although it had tiny bits of chicken bones. Other dishes worth a try is chicken chilly and fried rice. To top it the service was really good.

What a hidden gem!
The momos were phenomenal as well as the Aime Dhatse. The sauce for Aima Dhatse could be a sriracha replacement. All the spices were well balanced and really flavorful. I am planning my return already.

I’m rooting for this joint.
Himalayan food with a vegetarian menu should be a winner in my book.
Saturday night, this sad place is completely empty, except for the florescent lights and the teal paint. The TV’s Nepali YouTube channel is stuttering, and the waitress really really wants me to go home.
I ask a few menu questions, and am given a wrinkles xerox of another menu with descriptions of some items.
I order 4 items, and ask that one be sent out as an appetizer, but that seems to have gotten lost in translation. Dumplings are terrific, if a bit garlicky. Sauteed («fried») bok choy is Phe-​Nom-​Nom-​Nom-​enal. Cold noodles are tasty. Noodle soup is a bit bland, but the spinach in it is a nice touch.
My cab fare here was more expensive than the bill.
I’m coming back.

I’ve been here more than once and most of the time, I go back here for the Chicken Chili which is my favorite. They serve vegetarian and non-​vergetarian foods so anyone can go here with ease. The place is spacious, waiters are friendly and they have a big tv that they use to play Hindi, English, Tibetan, and other kind of songs. So, you can enjoy your food while listening to songs. This place is perfect for groups or one person. I will return to the place and I will recommend this place to my friends.

They opened recently and seem popular with the local Tibetan/​Bhutanese/​Nepali community (ies). I liked my Chicken Thali, and was particularly struck by the beautiful mound of tender, snowy, impossibly long grains of perfectly cooked rice in the center. Around it were plain yogurt, chicken in a dry curry, mildly spiced potatoes, very buttery dal, some radish achar, and delicious greens with fried chillies. I should warn that the chicken is cut in a way that there’s lots of bone shards – actually I didn’t love that. Points however for including chewy bits of foot or something. Oh, and if you run out of rice, dal, potatoes. No problem, just ask for a free refill!
Aima Dhatse was okay, I had to try it once. Its like you melted velveeta into chinese food. It was nice and spicy. Aloo dum I would order again – mild, aromatic potatoes with bitter flecks of fenugreek. I haven’t tried momos or chowmein yet but I see them on a lot of other tables.
The space is cavernous, the tv doesn’t really work, I’m not sure of their hours and they seem to be out of things often. I’m a fan of the value, the family-​run style, and their filling a need in the hood for a South Asian restaurant thats more focused than the usual archetype and doesn’t double as a sushi bar.