Bhutanese Ema Datsi

I tried out their thali, the thali itself includes many item. It has a three types of veggie and meat with soup. Their Thali was good but the Ema dhasi was mind blowing!

Bhutanese Ema Datsi
NY: QN: Woodside
7:30pm Tuesday 17^th May 2016
Four Stars
At this month’s Private Gastronaut Dinner, we enjoyed Butter Tea, Blood Sausage, Chili and Cheese, Beef Tongue, Goat Tripe, and Pork Trotters. The Butter Tea tasted like Chai and Broth with a bit of salt. The Gyuma was filled with Blood and Ground Beef and fried to almost black color. The sausage was bit dry but after combining it with some hot sauce it was great. Ema Datsi is the Bhutan’s National Dish. The Chili and Cheese was pretty weird but it was a very comforting dish. The cheese was unctuous and creamy. The peppers were white girl spicy. The Beef Tongue was salty, firm, and pretty tasty. The Goat Tripe was my favorite. The Golden honeycomb of the intestine wall was tender, smooth, and quite delicious. The Pig’s feet were stewed had plenty of fat, tendons, and bone marrow. The Service was decent. The Plastic plate was not-​unexpected. Overall, It was great to try Bhutanese Food.

Gastronauts dinner
here was a lovely feast, shout
out to the beef tongue*
*beef tongue and hot sauce was so delicious– highly recommend

Oh. My. Gosh. I’ve had blood sausage before. Cuban, Colombian, and Vietnamese. None really hit the spot.
But these are like butter. Soooooo good. I love them! Definitely not for daily consumption but if their other food tastes as good this place is WORTH the trip to Queens.
It’s not huge, but has large tables. The décor is nice, and it’s dimly lit. The ambiance would be great for a date or hanging with friends for dinner before/​after drinking (there are nice pubs on Woodside or 61^st nearby).
The momos are OK, but I find the skins a bit thick. The beef is good though

Good food and good service. Similar to Chinese and Korean food but less greasy than Chinese food.

So nice to be able to explore other cultures via food like this in queens. Everything was delicious but it’s really all about the momos! I could eat dumplings and momos every day and never get tired of them.

Liked it. Never tried Bhutanese food before, this was my first. Tried the red rice with dry meat datsi and it was yummy. Will be back to try more.

First time trying Bhutanese food and it definitely won’t be my last! I had a wonderful dinner here on a Thursday evening — the place was rather empty with only one other group while we were there. Service was great — our friendly waiter gave us a brief explanation of their dishes and said he can adjust the spice to our taste.
We ordered the sooji fried tilapia, beef momos, thalis for each person in our group, mango lassi and butter tea. My group was not a fan of the butter tea but I loved it! It was hot, salty and rich — perfect for a cold winter evening. The sooji tilapia was really good — the sooji crust was very crispy while the inside of the fish was tender and flaky. The beef momos were extremely juicy and flavorful. I got the sha kam datsi thali and felt like it was a very generous amount of food for the price! Each component of the thali was very tasty. The cheese was surprisingly not heavy and combined with the chilies, it was an amazing dish. I would have licked my thali clean if I had more room in my stomach!
Overall, this is a truly amazing restaurant — definitely worth checking out!

Ordered the following dishes with my family:
1. Couliflower dry– tasty, having the consistency of potato
2. Gyuma — sausage that was relatively light and not too salty, with an interesting crumbly consistency on the outside
3. Momo (beef) — dumplings were flavorful but slightly too salty for my taste
4. Sha kam datsi (might be the wrong name) — the dried beef in cheese sauce was quite delicious but the cheese was kind of heavy
5. Goep — this was beef tripe and I enjoyed the consistency and overall flavor. Had a bit of a kick in its spiciness (especially with the peppers)
6. Puta buckwheat noodle– resembled Japanese soba although it didn’t have any additional flavoring. Was a good light alternative compared to the other heavier dishes.
Overall great food with friendly staff. The tv was showing some interesting Bhutanese music videos too. Be prepared for the spiciness though.

I ordered the goep and the tripe was so rubbery and so tasteless. I love tripe and I was hugely disappointed. They take forever to bring dishes out (I was the only customer too.) Their chicken curry is ok and their momo is nothing special. I can find better ones in Jackson Heights. So based off what I tried. 3 stars max. Friendly staff but subpar food.

Disappointed. Maybe cause we had set the bar too high based on all the glowing reviews. We don’t drive down to JFK often but whenever we do, we normally go to a restaurant or two to make the most out of the hike. On this occasion of having to pick up family in the AM, we thought the additional hour and a half that we spent at a bar for brunch would be worth the dining experience. Turns out that they had an off day in the kitchen for whatever reason.
The Ema Datsi (a very spicy yak cheese and chilly stew and also the national dish) was very bland despite us insisting for the Bhutanese «homestyle» version at its fiery best. The Momos (Dumplings) that were served to us were a bit overdone and dry. More disappointing was the accompaniment sauce that appeared reconstituted. My sister in law chose Beef Thenthuk (hand pulled noodles) for the table. The noodles turned out starchy and flavorless swimming in a watery broth. The Tibetan Tea didn’t taste anything like a good butter tea (Po Cha) in all its «soup like» goodness. The Tingmo was ok and so was the red rice.
We asked the reason for the lack of heat in the dishes and we got a response that it depends on the chillies and sometimes they are that way in the winter season. Whatever the case, we are not sold on paying a return visit given the generally poor execution on the dishes.

Really good momos (dumplings), the chicken is also good! A little bit spicy for me. Lolz

This is a great spot for the adventurous eater. I’ve had Himalayan food elsewhere in Queens but the dishes here are really unique in the city. The restaurant is small, but clean and charming with adequate seating, including for large groups. You will probably need them to explain the menu, which they are happy to do.
We always order from the Bhutanese section of the menu. There’s a lot of cheese in many of these dishes, and a lot of spice. They’ll bring a hot sauce if you ask, but you won’t need it unless they make the dishes less spicy for you. The first time I went, I felt like even the rice was spicy, it was amazing, and the second time I think they went a little easy on us.
The place looks to be BYOB. The Tibetan tea is nice and inexpensive.

Basically a hole in the wall type place. There are other related restaurants in the area, this one is kind of by itself. The owner is also a chef himself. It’s a small restaurant but very clean.
We had chicken drumsticks which were good by themself, but with the chilli onion dressing were even better. We also had a beef and chilli dish. Very spicy, but very flavorful. Even though your tongue will be burning, it will still beg you for more of that spicy flavor.

This place is underrated for their affordable food! The words «bang for your buck» do not describe this Bhutanese restaurant well enough.
Very affordable (each dish is around $ 6-​$ 10), delicious and has many cultural options, and friendly service.
The ‘Drums of Heaven’ were delicious and seasoned so well! I understand why they call them ‘drums of heaven’ now. I have also tried their Fried Momos, and Thenthuk (handmade pulled noodles in soup, with veg or beef), while my boyfriend ordered Fried Rice, which were all a little underwhelming. However, it does not make me want to take stars away from this place, because their Kewa Datsi (potato onion chili with cheese) was amazing. So good, that we also ordered it today on our second trip to this restaurant. We also ordered their Chowmein (very good, different from Chinese takeout), dry beef curry (pretty good, not too much of a curry taste), and Puta Buckwheat Noodles to go (to be reviewed).
This is definitely a place I would go to again, it’s nice, quiet, and unique. Order the Kewa Datsi, it may be simple but it is such a comfort food!

I love this little, unassuming place with discreet, friendly service. I know nothing about Bhutanese cuisine but it seems to be the basics and definitely worth trying. The food is rich, from the cheese curd sauces and yet simple and light.

4.5 Stars!
We love Bhutanese food!
If this review simply from just the food alone, this would be an easy 5 stars! Good lord, the food here is just absolutely delicious! Amazingly delicious! We are hungry just from thinking about it.
We were here around 9:30pm on a Sunday night. The place was really busy. We had to wait about half an hour for a table. It was really awkward when we just got there. The place was busy but there was no one there who greet us & somehow as soon as we got in, everyone was looking at us. It was just weird! At first we thought, maybe there is a private party going on but it can’t be because we saw someone else outside also waiting for a table. After about a minute or so, someone finally came out from the kitchen. It was still kind of weird because he didn’t greet us or even look at us. He was just busy doing everything else. Finally one of us asked him for a table & all he said was 10 – 15 minutes. Well, that 10 – 15 minutes wait was more like half an hour.
While we were waiting for our table, we realized that this place is so understaffed. There was only one guy who’s taking the order, making sure the water cup is not empty, putting food on the table, cleaning the table, & one other guy who’s doing exactly what the other guy does except he doesn’t take any order
When we were finally seated, we were given a menu & water. It took about 10 minutes or so for the guy came to our table to take our order. The guy who took our order was friendly & polite. He asked us if we ever tried Bhutanese food before. We tried Bhutanese food elsewhere before so we are somewhat familiar with the Bhutanese menu. Other than Bhutanese food, this place also serve Tibetan & Indian dishes. We came here mainly only for one particular dish, the ema datsi but we decided to try their Tibetan dish just to try something different.
We got the ema datsi (chili cheese & garlic), the shamo datsi (mushroom chili cheese, & garlic), & the beef peppercorn. The beef peppercorn is a Tibetan dish. It’s a sliced beef with vegetables & Szechuan red pepper. The ema datsi & the shamo datsi was somewhat different than the one we tried elsewhere. This one has more flavor & creamier. If you like spicy food, you will love the food here. Everything that we ordered were so perfect! It was not too spicy or too mild.
We are not sure if it’s because the place was busy when we were there but the food took forever to come out. We waited about 20 minutes for our food to come out. Don’t come here when you are starving. The entrees came with red rice. The rice portion is definitely generous but one of us were really hungry so we got one order of tingmo (buns).
The portion of the entrees were decent. If you have a big appetite like us, one entrée will definitely not going to fill you up. Three entrees, two rice, & one order of tingmo filled us up. We weren’t stuffed or anything like that but we definitely left feeling satisfied with our meal.
All total, we spent about $ 31. It was definitely worth it. The food is absolutely amazing. We had to minus half a star for the overall dining experience. It was just awkward in the beginning & the food took forever to come out.
Bhutanese food is really hard to find out here in NYC. This place is truly a hidden gem. For the people who lives outside Queens, this place is worth the trip. If you like spicy flavorful food, you will love this place.
We’ll definitely go back & when we do, we’ll update our review. Hopefully it will be a perfect 5 stars next time…

Although this restaurant is listed as Bhutanese, they have one page each for Bhutanese, Tibetan and Indian dishes on their menu. We tried to stick to the bhutanese side of the menu as thats what we wanted to try here. Except for the Tibetan Gyuma.
Even though it is a blood sausage, it is very different in taste from the black pudding. It is spicy, that hides the «iron-​y» taste of blood, the roasted flour used gives a crunchy texture and tastes great with and without the dipping sauce provided (which is even spicier)
I tried two versions of the dried beef. The one in cheese and the one with green beans. While the green beans dish was flavorful, the beef as such was chewy as expected from dried beef. However what made the dried beef in cheese sauce better was that it was cubed and easier to chew while the pieces in green beans dish were cut long making the whole chewing process a bit tiring :)
The buckwheat noodle dish puta was delicious. Something that looks so simple, no meat or vegetables added, just scrambled eggs & scallions yet tasted really good.

Here’s something pretentious — before coming here, I hadn’t eaten Bhutanese food since being in Bhutan. That was several years ago, where I managed to be on the border for just long enough to take in a couple meals of heavy pork, unavailable in India and slathered in a thick white gravy.
Bhutan seemed to be the Deep South of the Subcontinent, a sleepy kingdom with a colorful history.
Bhutan doesn’t come up every day or even every year in conversation, so I didn’t have much of a chance to ponder where this was a fair assessment of the Himalayan country before coming here on a Saturday evening. I arrived with a friend at 7 p.m. to find a completely empty restaurant. Maybe everyone else had forgotten about this place as well.
That turned out to be false, as a neighborhood crowd containing almost exclusively members of the diaspora filed in as our meal progressed. Entertainment was provided by the big screen TV on one wall, which screened a selection of talent show performances from a private high school on the outskirts of Thimphu.
My friend was a vegetarian and we each wanted to try our dishes, so I had to let the fried chicken and pork options passed. We had the titular dish, with huge shishito-​like peppers, along with a runny cheese. An paneer appetizer took a different form of cheese with an interesting range of spices, while the veggie momo and Tibetan-​style bread both ensured we left feeling full.
Himalayan food is not that hard to find in the States anymore, whether in upscale Tibetan places near Harvard Square to the second-​story Nepali snack stalls just to the north in Jackson Heights. Ema Datsi shows that’s there’s definitely room for another the food of another little mountain kingdom on the New York dining scene.

Oh my goodness, this place is flipping amazing.
Came here this past Saturday night with my friend. The restaurant’s décor is not much to write home about. There is a life-​sized mannequin doll thing by the entrance of the door. Not sure if this is some sort of talisman to bring in good luck and business to the owner or to ward off bad spirits, but it did scare both my friend and I. After perusing their menu, we both decided that we ought to get mostly Bhutanese dishes as we’ve never had Bhutanese food before.
The results? The food was phenomenal. We had gotten an order of their cauliflower appetizer (called cauliflower dry), their mushroom shamo datsi dish, their puta (hehehe) buckwheat noodles, and an order of Tibetan-​style thukpa. Everything was just out of this world tasty. The cauliflower dish was a lot like Indian-​Chinese style gobi manchurian, except not as sweet. The mushroom cheese dish was rich without being too heavy, if that makes any sense, and also came with a very large side of red rice. The noodles were absolutely delicious: reminiscent of Japanese soba but paired with a mouth numbing spice combination. The thukpa was also served with a hearty broth and chewy noodle pieces. Oh, and we got this awesome hot sauce and a small side of chili peppers to add onto our dishes as we saw fit.
If I could compare this food to any other cuisine, I would say it’s very similar to food from Nepal, northern India, Tibet, and western China. Makes sense, given Bhutan’s proximity to all those other countries. I believe this place is also BYOB for the time being. Service was a little slow, but pretty attentive and very friendly. Not really sure if the neighborhood that this restaurant is in is considered to be Woodside or not, but if so, this is hands down my new favorite restaurant in Woodside.