A Taste of Tibetan Food in Sikkim, India

By Mark Wiens 18 Comments
Tibetan food in Gangtok, India
Tibetan food in Gangtok, India

Before visiting India, I can’t say I had ever eaten Tibetan food.

And when I traveled to India, little did I realize I’d be dining on some traditional Tibetan dishes, but I did! The province of Sikkim is located in Northeastern India in the Himalaya mountains, bordering Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan.

Sikkim is the only province in India where the majority of the population is Nepali and Tibetan. So it feels quite a bit different from mainland North or South India.

After enjoying Tibetan cuisine at a number of restaurants in Gangtok (biggest town in Sikkim), and even at the canteen of the Ranka Tibetan monastery, I decided to try out a popular restaurant known as Taste of Tibet.

Tibetan food
Couldn’t get enough of this stuff!

Tibetan food is a little plain, dishes are often served not overly spicy, salty, or even too much flavor. However, accompanying all tables at every restaurant I visited was a dish of outstanding, and fiery hot, chili sauce.

I couldn’t get enough of the Tibetan style chili sauce!

Fresh hot momo dumplings
Fresh hot momo dumplings

First up were a plate of steaming hot fresh momos, this time filled with chicken. Momos are similar to Chinese jaozi or Korean mandu, they are little dough pockets filled with a choice of ingredients, wrapped up, and either steamed or deep fried.

Though I’d had plenty of momos throughout my travels in Northeastern India and even in Kolkata, these were among the tastiest – especially with that chili sauce.

Tibetan shapale - meat pies
Tibetan shapale – meat pies

Similar to a large-scale deep fried momo, or a samosa, Tibetan shapale are essentially meat pies. The dough is crunchy on the outside and gooey on the interior, and I ordered them filled with minced chicken, onions, and spices.

Like much of the Tibetan food, it wasn’t overly strong in flavor, but after adding some more chili sauce, they were very comforting.

Chicken Chili
Chicken Chili

For main course I tried a number of things, the Chicken Chili being most excellent.

The little bits of chicken were initially deep fried to a serious crisp and then coated in a tangy sweet red sauce while tossed with tomatoes, onions, and chillies. It was really good with rice.

Lamian with sauce
Lamian with sauce

Not sure if this dish is truly Tibetan, but it was on the menu at Taste of Tibet and I decided to order it. The noodles, on the menu, said they were lamian, like those insanely good hand pulled Chinese noodles.

On top of the bed of noodles was a meaty sauce that was tomatoey, and around the outside were a few garnishing vegetables. The bizarre thing was that a few pieces of rice were sprinkled on the very top… decoration? I’m not sure.

Tibetan food
Tibetan thenthuk

After momos and shapale, one of the most famous Tibetan dishes are variations of soup noodles. This particular version known as thenthuk, is homemade style noodles sliced into bite sized pieces.

It was a bit flour-y, but thick and hearty, and I thought it would be a good dish to eat during cold weather – it sort of warmed me internally with the thick soup.

Taste of Tibet, Gangtok, India
Taste of Tibet, Gangtok, India

Now enjoy this video of delicious Tibetan food!

(if you can’t see it, watch it in YouTube here)

Taste of Tibet Restaurant, Gangtok, India

When you’re in Gangtok, head to Taste of Tibet restaurant, located right along the walking street (you can’t miss it). The food is good, and it’s constantly busy.
Prices: Dishes are around 100 INR ($1.85), and this entire meal came to about 500 INR ($9.28).
Open: Noon – 8 pm (or so, as always in India)

18 comments. I'd love to hear from you!

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  • Vivek Tamba

    1 year ago

    Taste of Tibet Restaurant, Gangtok, India Best Tasty Food I Love It

  • suhail

    1 year ago

    realy amazing i have also try this food in ladakh

  • Debojyoti Dey Mazumder

    2 years ago

    Thukpa, a tibetIan noodle soup is missing in the list.

  • Fitness Blogs

    3 years ago

    COOL BLOG. Please keep writing!!

  • Anjan Das

    3 years ago

    Truly said that sikkim is full of authentic Tabietian food. As a food lover and after seeing your dish pictures in the blog I feel it’s so mouth watering. Thanks for your pic and will love to taste these foods.

    REPLY

  • Vishal

    4 years ago

    Thanks. Nice stuff.

  • Priyanka Luthra

    7 years ago

    Hi Mark,I agree with you that sikkim is full of authentic Tabietian food. I am foodie and after seeing dish pictures in the blog i feel like having it right away, so mouth watering. You crave me to have momos today only and to plan sikkim trip for variety of hot spicy food. Thanks Buddy.

  • Jim

    8 years ago

    I’m not trying to be rude here however your information related to Sikkim is completely wrong. Sikkimise ( Bhutias ) are not Tibetains ..Bhutias are descendants of people who came over from Bhutan to Sikkim during 17 th century and Tibetains came over after Chinese aggression in 60s ( let’s not be too political as this is a food blog just wanted to let you know the difference between two different sects) hence I request you tobplease rectify your blog. Secondly you went to Sikkim and ended up posting about Tibetan food however you missed out on typical Sikkimise food. Foods what have posted here are found nearly in all Tibetain restaurants in Major cities across India however typical Sikkimise food you’ll only find in Sikkim. Fyi please note typical Sikkimise food have huge similarities with Bhutanese food. If you want I can suggest names of some traditional sikkimise food which you may try if you visit again.Thanks

  • Bangkok Indian Restaurant

    11 years ago

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  • Dean

    11 years ago

    I tried a few Tibetan dishes when I was in Nepal. Very tasty food. These dishes look delicious too!

  • Noel

    11 years ago

    Hey Mark, I was just in some Tibetan towns in western Sichuan, China and tried some of the Tibetan dishes. They can be a little bland, for my southeast Asian palate. But I enjoying trying them. Did you have any yak milk tea?

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      Hey Noel, I felt the same way, really good food, but a little plain. But luckily they always had a dish of chili sauce on the table! No, I didn’t have a chance to try the yak milk tea… but I saw some photos and it looks really rich! How was it?

  • Dennis

    11 years ago

    Stumbled on your site lately and love the feature on food!
    The first picture must be some kind of dumpling – something I’d eat myself for sure.
    India is quite diverse with its food scene and I wish I could go back and eat my way around Sikkim too.

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      Hey Dennis, thanks for checking out my website. I agree, there’s such a diversity of food in India. Hope you can visit again!

  • Heather

    11 years ago

    I’ve tried Tibetan food in China and it’s delicious! Incidentally, I’ve also had really good Indian food in China. A delightful result of centuries of trade along the silk road, perhaps?

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      Hey Heather, thanks for sharing. Yah, it’s amazing where you can find delicious and authentic cuisine in countries you might not expect!

  • Bastiaan

    11 years ago

    Hey Mark, really nice website. Love this post about “taste of tibet”. I traveled in Asia for 10 months and the food was for me always one of the highlights! When it comes to food Thailand, Vietnam and China or my favorites. If I ever go to India I will try this restaurant. The only tibetan thing I ate was a Yak stew in Songpan (china). But that was already really delicious.

    I’ll keep following your blog!

    • Mark Wiens

      11 years ago

      Hey Bastiaan, great to hear from you, and glad you enjoy the food too. Yak stew sounds delicious!