Lhasa Fast Food — Restaurant in New York

I was very excited to try this restaurant as it has an abundance of great reviews however, unfortunately I did not have the same experience as everyone else. Half of the menu was bland. The momos were decent, honestly your better off getting momos off of a truck in Jackson heights, it taste way better. The rice was so bland, we ordered rice with chicken and they put ground chicken in the rice rather than slices or pieces of chicken, this is very cost effective, which is why they went with this alternative. My brother ordered noodles with chicken and they put ground chicken in it, they are so cheap its ridiculous. My husband ordered soup with chicken in it and we had the same issue and on top of that the soup was so bland it was like drinking hot water..we told the waiter and she told us its not an Indian style... We are not even Indian that was so racist of her. I told her to change the order to beef chow mein and she asked why? What kind of a ridiculous question is that. She said she would get the manager and she did tell him but he did not care at all and didn't bother coming to the table. We asked for the check and I had told the waiter earlier to remove it off the check or change the order and they did neither. I called the manager over and I told him we wanted something different but they didn't update us on anything, they were just ignoring us and requested that he take the order of the bill. He then took the chopsticke that were in the ramen and went through the ramen...and said "but you ate all the meat". How would my husband even be able to eat all the meat with chopsticks when it was ground chicken that is in the ramen soup. Tiny bits of ground chicken in ramen is ridiculous. It was so unprofessional to even sift through someones entree. I was persistent on them removing it off the bill. Had they just changed the order we would of been fine but they neglected us all night. Save yourself the trouble, there's way better momo...

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...

I was one of the first customers. I got there at 11:01 and it said they opened at 11. They were still closed. I walked back about 5 min later and they were still closed. I came back another 5 minutes later and there was people inside waiting for food. But the fact that they did not open on time was quite annoying.

It was hot in there. If they have an a/c they did not have it on when I was in. Maybe they turn it on later but it was stuffy and hot and I immediately decided to get takeout. The lady who took my order was surly and acted like she didn't want me there. There was some other rude stuff going on in there I don't want to mention. They were cleaning. Seriously... they couldn't clean before we came in? And it was a lot of mess, too.

The food came out very quickly, so that was nice. I took my food only a few feet away outside and sat at tables nearby in the much nicer outdoor temperature. Barely walked 20 feet away, so I did not wait at all to eat this food. So you can't claim I got takeout and ate food an hour later and that's why it sucked. It was still super hot when I ate it. The food was ok but not great by any means. The meat was chewy and gristly. Thankfully because I ate outside, it was so comfortable and it was a pleasant experience. But the pleasantness of my meal was not enhanced by the food at all which was mid. In fact, if I had not sat outside in the pleasant day, I would have been very upset by having to sit in a hot stuffy restaurant and overpaying for mid grade food and wasting my day out.

This is one of those legendary restaurants that people RAVE about like it's one of the best things about NYC. Sorry, this was really disappointing. Thank god it was such a beautiful day out to enjoy and my day...