Zhego NYC
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Traditional Bhutanese dishes like cheese momos and ema datsi
Traditional Bhutanese dishes like cheese momos and ema datsi
"Lucky for us New Yorkers, we live in a city where even the hardest-to-find food from around the world is only a subway ride away. Thanks to the three owners of Zhego, this now includes New York’s first Bhutanese restaurant. Order ema datsi, the national dish of Bhutan, as well as some cheese-filled momos, and hot, salty butter tea. The atmosphere is casual and colorful, with a giant green wall and photos of, you guessed it, Bhutan. There are only a handful of tables, so come early or be prepared to wait if it’s busy—it’s worth it." - team infatuation
"There’s only one kind of momo on offer at Zhego, a cozy little Bhutanese restaurant in Woodside, but they do that one style very well. The steamed, round parcels here are filled with cheese and vegetables and pack a ton of flavor. An accompanying chili sauce is the spiciest on this guide, and it all goes very well with a cup of hot, salty butter tea." - carina finn koeppicus, bryan kim
"You’ll find limited selections of Bhutanese food at a few different spots around Woodside, but for a full menu dedicated to the South Asian country, head to Zhego. Datsi, the favorite cheese of Bhutan, stars in several dishes, but start with the national dish, ema datsi, with cheesy hot green chili peppers. Come early—because Zhego is so small, you might have to wait for a table during peak dinner hours. If a trip to the mountain kingdom isn’t on the cards, this is the next best thing: A meal here will instantly improve your Gross Happiness Index." - neha talreja, nikko duren
"On my first visit to Zhego, a new Bhutanese restaurant in Woodside, the tiny dining room was full, so I sat on the front porch and ordered something hot: cups of cloudy, warm butter tea, as salty as the sea, arrived quickly. The butter was made from cow’s milk rather than yak—Sonam Tshering Singye explained imports are too costly, though many dry goods come from Bhutan—and the tea was an excellent introduction to the role of dairy here; Singye also brought a small dish of butter mixed with puffed rice and sugar for a crunchy, slightly fudgy snack. The restaurant’s azay, as interpreted by chef Tobden Jamphel, combines fresh green chili, cilantro, tamarillo, and feta (used as a stand-in for Bhutanese farmer’s cheese), and feta anchors many vegetarian dishes: melted into a creamy sauce for ema datsi (green chili), kewa datsi (potato), and shamu datsi (oyster mushrooms), or left firmer and caramelized in gongdo datsi with eggs, butter, and dried red chili; mozzarella with cabbage and cilantro fills momos, and beef momos release a fragrant, flavorful broth. To temper the heat there are cool buttermilk cups in warm months and jaju (a milk-based soup with spinach) when it’s colder, along with beautifully mottled steamed red rice and cheese-free options; other highlights include puta (buckwheat noodles with scrambled egg, chives, onions, and Sichuan peppercorn), goep paa (waffled, chewy tripe braised with ginger, dried red chili, and spring onions), and stir-fries of air-dried beef (shakum) or pork (sikum) with green beans, dried red chili, ginger, and tomato, or served in a feta-based broth. To finish there’s an off-menu doma pani—a plastic baggie of betel leaves, a tiny packet of neon-orange slaked lime, coconut chips, and half a betel nut—which produced one of the wildest, rapidly shifting flavor sensations I’ve experienced and left a hard lump in my throat; while I can’t recommend the nut itself because it’s a proven carcinogen and potentially addictive, that ritual is part of why I wholeheartedly recommend Zhego as a portal to another way of life. (Dishes $9.50–$16.99.)" - Hannah Goldfield
"Our newest Bhutanese restaurant, Zhego, serves the national dish ema datshi ($10.49), lightly cooked green chiles with seeds intact swamped in a cheese sauce and accompanied by a colorful combo of white and red rice; washing it down with the butter tea suja helps tame the heat. " - Eater Staff
