Places to eat in Tibet

The further we went from Lhasa, the cheaper the food was getting..so was the taste and the certainty of what we were actually eating:) we stopped to many Tibetan houses on the road and just had some lunch...fried rice and yak always on the menu and your safest bet. Sometimes adventured to get salads or french fries but they just taste like nothing ..

We had a light snack in one of them (picture attached) which was reasonably good. The other one we had some dinner - a yak burger and fries that failed to taste the right way..The funniest thing was that monks from Tashilunpo monastery were having also dinner next to us..such a pitty that they dont speak a word of English ...

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This was the treat of our Chinese agency and we shared the table with the two Chinese guys from the agency. It was a bit of a weird experience as I was so excited about finally arriving in Tibet that started crying when I saw the Tibetan show...Felt so sorry for the Tibetan guys and felt like kicking the ass of our Chinese hosts while they were explaning how they have enriched and civilised Tibetans...

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Here was our first experience with Tibetan cuisine and loved it! Yak yoghurt was delicious and adored in in the combination with fried rice and yak, along with vegetables. The tea with yak butter tasted bizarre but great, loved the Tibetan beer and wine!

Run by Dutch and American guys, this is one of the finest restaurant in Lhasa. Some interesting fusion dishes as yak sizzler or yak burger and pizza. Nice salads and friendly staff. There's also an outside terrase on the first floor overlooking main boluevard in Lhasa.

Stick to the delicious streetkitchens spreading everywhere in town. Especially around Barkhor Quarter. It is delicious locals/Chinese food with a great taste for little money, like everywhere in China! For prices around 3 Kuai you get the real taste!

My personal recommendation are the muslim noodles with their garlic/vinegar and so on sauce for 2 Yuan a bowl!

Favorite Dish: I especially like the Yak Butter Tea! Someone said the only worse thing than hot Yak Butter Tea is cold Yak Butter Tea - but I have to say it is a very intersting (salty) version for tea!

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A milky fermented beer, with a rich, fruity taste, that is brewed on special occasions. This is how people in our group described the drink:

“Burning tyres”
“Nicotine”
“Like licking an ashtray”
“Not bad”
“Alcoholic sieved porridge”

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Tea is considered a necessity of life for Tibetans, and Chinese brick tea was once so valuable that it was used as currency. Yak-butter is used instead of milk, and salt in place of sugar (sugar is hard to come by in Tibet, whereas there are many salt deposits found near lakes). The resulting drink resembles a thin soup more than tea. Often tsampa is added to make a staple meal.

The yak butter tea was described by the various people in our group as thus:
“Liquid gorgonzola”
“Not quite as awful as expected”
“Tasted as if you were kissing a yak”
“Sour milk”
“A hint of decay”
“There’s good bacteria, bad bacteria and this – terrorist bacteria!”
“Rancid butter”