Chicken thentuk, perfect for a crisp fall night.
To say Elmhurst’s newest Tibetan eatery is easier to find than its predecessor would be a vast understatement. After all Sang Jien Ben’s first restaurant, Lhasa Fast Food, lies down a cramped hallway behind a cell phone store, while the new one is in plain sight just behind Elmurst Hospital.
It opened in August with a menu featuring the beef momos—juicy dumplings that are as ubiquitous in Tibet as they are in Himalayan Heights—and thentuk, a hearty soup with hand-torn swatches of dough that made the first spot a draw for everyone from homesick Tibetans and local foodies to Eater and Anthony Bourdain. A beaming Dalai Lama presides over the room. Enshrined on altar below it a photo of Chef Ben and Bourdain.
Kharsod, surely the heartiest Himalayan lamb soup in Elmhurst.
Notable additions include pan fried momo, and karsod. The latter, a soup from Tibet’s Amdo region, arrives blanketed in a sheet of dough that hangs over the side of the bowl like a pie crust. Pierce it and inhale the heady aroma of lamb or beef and potatoes (your choice). Add some chili paste and black vinegar, tear some of the dough into smaller pieces and dig into the heartiest bowl of Tibetan soup in the Heights.
Lhasa Fast Food, 81-09 41st Ave., 917-745-0364