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A taste of Lhasa

Makye Ame

玛吉阿米·餐吧

A long-established Tibetan restaurant and bar in a yellow building on the Barkhor circuit, with window tables overlooking the pilgrim route.

About ¥89 per person≈ US$13No. 1 on Dianping's Lhasa must-visit food list (拉萨美食必打卡榜)Barkhor Street (八廓街), Chengguan
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Makye Ame (玛吉阿米·餐吧), Lhasa
Photo: amanderson2 · CC BY 2.0

Why come here

A place worth making time for

No. 3 on Ctrip's Lhasa must-visit food list, rated 4.4

The house favourites

What to order

Point at the Chinese. Staff will understand it even where the menu has no English at all.

  • Yak momos (牦牛肉饺子)
  • Curried yak (咖喱牦牛肉)
  • Tibetan sweet tea (甜茶)
  • Yoghurt with honey (酸奶)

What it actually tastes like

Tibetan yoghurt is thick, sharply sour and unsweetened unless you add the honey or sugar provided. Tsampa — roasted barley flour kneaded with butter tea into a dough by hand — appears on menus like this one and is genuinely strange the first time: dry, nutty and eaten as a lump rather than a dish.

Allergens in this kitchen

dairygluten/wheattree nutseggsoy

This is the kitchen, not one dish. Woks, fryers, blanching water and utensils are shared in almost every Chinese restaurant, so for a serious allergy treat the whole premises as the unit rather than ordering around it.

Get to know the menu

Local specialities to try here

Sweet Milk Tea 甜茶Sweet, creamy and comforting — essentially a good Indian-style chai without the spice.Tibetan Yoghurt and Yoghurt Cake 藏式酸奶 / 酸奶饼Sharply sour and very thick, with a skin of cream on top; the cake version is sweet and tangy.