Shangri La

Shangri La Restaurant
7415 Roosevelt Ave
Jackson Heights, NY 11372-6529
(718) 424-8900

Food 6

Ambiance 4

Service 6
Overall 16
Good for a casual  cheap weekday meal for  small group of friends or a couple


So my husband and I checked out this place last week Wednesday for some authentic Tibetan cuisine. Although it has a selection of Chinese,Nepalese Indian and Tibetan food,  I am assuming it is owned by Tibetans as Dali Lama pictures were prominently displaced. I have only had Tibetan food once before at another Jackson Heights restaurant and was underwhelmed. I figured for these prices, most meals under 10 dollars, I would give it another whirl. Shangri La is a medium size restaurant with another smaller area for takeout orders. Wednesday night our meal was accompanied by a live singer. I am not sure where he was from although the music reminded me of some Indian songs I have heard performed. A little loud  for the space, but I always enjoy live entertainment with my food. The restaurant is nothing fancy. Simple tables and chairs with a few decorations on the wall. The ceiling needs serious repair and the floor is basic bathroom brown tile. Not quite a  hole in the wall but certainly not the place to go to if you are looking for ambiance.
The menu, serving a variety of dishes from 4 countries is extensive but not overwhelming. Each country gets its own page of about 12 dishes. They also offer, surprisingly, some cheap wine by the glass(5 dollar) and really cheap beer (3.50 Heinekan!). We decided to experiment with the Tibetan Butter tea- which thankfully before serving us 2 whole portions our waitress suggested we try a small amount first. It tasted like a buttery soup. Good for warming the belly in cold weather. Not particularly good for my tastebuds as a meal accompaniment. We opted for the sweet tea, a basic black tea with milk.
We started our meal with pan fried Tibetan chicken dumpling. Half moons of fresh thin dough stuffed with fragrant chive garlic seasoned ground chicken ,expertly fried. They reminded me of  really good Chinese dumplings, except fresher and better seasoned. This first dish defiantly left us anticipating the rest of our meal. Most of the Tibetan dishes were beef heavy, very few chicken , seafood or vegetarian options.We opted for a classic Tibetan house made noodle with beef, spinach and mushroom  and a beef  stew with daikon and spinach served with rice. We also sampled a Tibetan steam roll- tingo. I was surprised to find my noodle dish essentially a soup- which was not described on the menu. Contrary to the well spiced dumplings, I found the soup very light on flavor, even after adding hefty doses of soy and chili sauce. Also when my soup arrived, it was missing mushroom and spinach. When I asked our smiling waitress if maybe the wrong order had been brought out, she informed me that the kitchen was out of spinach and had substituted small bok choy instead. She was happy to get extra mushrooms to supplement in the soup. While it was a little annoying she did not inform us of the spinach substitution and that my dish was a soup, she was very helpful throughout. She ended up giving me an ample   side portion of nicely seasoned mushrooms. My husband's dish was more to my liking,although again it could have benefited from greater seasoning. Both were ample portions. We also both loved their version of Tingo. The one other time I had this , I was really unimpressed because it tasted like unseasoned dough.  I had initially not wanted to order the tingo because of my prior experience.  Thank goodness we did. Their tingo was a light airy dough subtly salted and truly delicious. I was tempted to get it to go and experiment with it as a breakfast bread.
While the space and the food were not perfect, I appreciated the kind service, excellent prices and overall  tasty food. Check this place out if you are in the neighborhood and looking for a cheap meal deal.
The Quest continues.......