The Weekender (Bhutanese Restaurant 🇧🇹) — Restaurant in New York

Ambiance (4/5): The inside felt really homey with several dining tables and then a billiards table in the back room. Service (2/5): There was very little service in general. If you want something, expect to flag down the one person who works the front to order, to have water refills, and to get the check. Otherwise, you will be left to your own devices. The food does not get delivered in order of appetizers, so they came out all at once. Waitress was able to split our bill into 3 separate payments across credit cards which we appreciated! I've never had Bhutanese food before! The closest comparison is to Nepalese food. The round of food came with a heaping bowl of rice per person. Beef Momo (4/5): The skin was thick but the meat was not the most flavorful when enjoyed on its own. The spicy sauce was a smidge to spicy to have with it. Spicy Salad Beef Chili (4/5): I really liked the cheese with the blend of the green chilies which was actually quite hot. Beef jerky was not too tough to chew. This dish was my least favorite. Ezay / spicy salad (5/5): Nothing I've had before with feta cheese, and tomato, cilantro altogether! Pork Chili (5/5): I was a huge fan of the sauce which was both sweet and spicy but not too spicy. There was a good helping of pork pieces but some were a bit tougher cuts than others. Buckwheat Noodles (3/5): Seemed like just noodles cooked in some oil and butter. Not much flavor to it and not worth the cost point at all. Sun-dried pork slice (4/5): This was different as it was large pieces of bacon (mostly dried fat) but the sauce was soaked up into the radish slices...

Bhutanese dishes are known for being spicy, flavorful featuring cheese, peppers, and meat.

The spot is attached to a small pool hall, which is pretty cool.

It's right off the 7 train, so easy to get to.

We started with their national dish called Emma datsi. Fresh green peppers, cheese, garlic and tomatoes. This was really good and mixed with the red rice. We asked them to cut back on the spice heat level as we heard it can get really spicy.

Shakam Maru a hearty stew with. sun-dried beef strip l, garlic, ginger, scallion, cheese, tomato and green chillies. This soup dish was flavorful and good on a chili day. The jerky is chewy but was easy to bite on. Really good flavor in the stew.

Pork ribs garlic, scallion, sun-dried red chilli, onion, tomato fried and sautéed in soy sauce. We found this a little dry for our taste.

Pork Chili sautéed in Onion, garlic, tomato, ginger, pepper, soy sauce and chili flakes was really good and we mixed it with the rice.

Tingmo a steamed bread was used to soak up the sauce. It's soft and looks like a biscuit. It came out hot.

The red rice had a nutty flavor and is served with all dishes.

Everything was great. They were very attentive. There is a stage with a mic in one corner for customers to sign...

Super unassuming place. And it was pretty empty when we went for lunch on a Saturday. The menu is simple enough with only a few variations of the same thing.

Started with the momo. This really set the bar for this meal that was ultimately not met, as the momos were great. Amazing texture. The dipping sauce is no joke spicy. One of the better momos I've had.

For mains, we got the sun-dried beef with cheese and the pork ribs. The pork ribs I found a bit boring and didn't find the flavoring really that impactful. Came off the bone nicely but didn't work well with the rice. I much preferred the beef/cheese. I can absolutely see people finding this to be too salty (especially the cheese), so the rice is a must. But it's a nice portion and I enjoyed the beef. What ruined this a little bit for me was when we were debating what kind of cheese this was thinking maybe it was a more exotic cheese and asked the waitress, her response was that not only did she not know but that she thought it was maybe white American (it...cannot have been...).

Worth trying but the menu wasn't big enough to...