Little Tibet: Tibetan and Indian Food on North Broadway

calendar Apr 13, 2026 · 6 min read · Little Tibet Himalayan Food Tibetan Food Restaurant 80304 Boulder Colorado NoBo  ·
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Little Tibet: Tibetan Cooking in North Boulder

When 5280 Magazine looked for Tibetan food on the Front Range in 2019, it found that most places calling themselves Himalayan served mainly Indian and Nepali dishes. Little Tibet, on North Broadway, was different. Its owners, Jampa Dothar and Phuntsok Dorjee, cook a long list of Tibetan dishes — dumplings, hand-pulled noodles, a Tibetan sausage, even a sweet pasta for dessert — next to a full Indian menu.

Where is it? 4479 N. Broadway, Boulder, CO 80304 — a small storefront on the North Broadway corridor.



The Owners and Their Goal

In 2019, food writer Ruth Tobias wrote about Little Tibet for 5280 Magazine. She described the owners this way: Jampa Dothar is Indian-Tibetan and comes from New Delhi; Phuntsok Dorjee was born in Tibet. They told her their goal was to show customers that Tibetan food "is quite different from Chinese food and even from Indian dishes, contrary to some people's beliefs."

Tobias wrote that Tibetan food is "meaty, starchy, and hearty" — "remarkably down-to-earth." She also noted that while Denver and Boulder have several restaurants that call themselves Himalayan, only a couple specialize in Tibetan dishes. Little Tibet offers "a wealth of options beyond the token momos and thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup) found elsewhere."

Momos

Momos are Tibetan dumplings, and they are the heart of the menu. The food menu has them in many forms:

  • Lhang-sha mo-mo — beef dumplings with cilantro, garlic, green onion and ginger, served with a homemade hot sauce
  • Jha-sha mo-mo — chicken dumplings with cilantro, onion, green onion, garlic and ginger
  • Tsel mo-mo — vegetable dumplings with cabbage, celery, carrot, green peas and zucchini
  • Sampler — any mix of up to 10 vegetable, chicken and beef dumplings
  • Sha bhaley — fried patties filled with ground beef, onions and spices
  • Momos in sauce — tikka momo in a creamy tomato sauce, korma momo in a cashew cream sauce, and chili momo with jalapeño
  • Momos in soup — mok-thuk, beef dumplings in beef broth, and a chicken dumpling soup

Tobias called the sha bhaley "somewhere between dumplings and meat pies" — "crunchy little disks of beef-stuffed fried dough" — and warned that the dipping sauce is very hot.

Noodle Bowls and Other Tibetan Dishes

The Tibetan noodle bowls are called phowa on the menu. The best known is thenthuk: flat, hand-pulled noodles with radish, bok choy and organic spinach, with beef, chicken or vegetables. In 2019, Tobias wrote that the owners pulled the noodles themselves, and described the broth as "lightly tangy" and "ginger-tinged." There is also gyathuk, with long noodles.

Other Tibetan plates include:

  • Gyuma — pan-fried Tibetan sausage. Tobias described it as a beef-blood sausage with barley and oats, "deeply flavorful, a touch nutty."
  • Dhoepa khatsa — beef tripe with garlic, ginger and spices
  • Shogo khatsa — potatoes with garlic, green chili, onion and tomato
  • Shaptak — sliced beef with red and green peppers in a spicy house sauce
  • Pork chili — fried pork belly with peppers, onion, chili and garlic
  • Vegetable dishes — such as tofu with baby bok choy, carrots and red peppers, and potatoes with spinach and red pepper

The menu groups these by their Tibetan names: tsey nanzom for vegetables, phaksha for pork, lhangsha for beef and jhasha for chicken.

Menus change over time. In 2019, 5280 also wrote about laphing, a chilled dish of sliced mung-bean jelly in soy sauce with chile paste, and tsampa, a roasted-barley flour served as a cake with ice cream. Neither is on the online menu in October 2026, so ask if you want to try them.

Starters

The appetizer list mixes both kitchens. On the Tibetan side are sha bhaley, gyuma, dhoepa khatsa and shogo khatsa. On the Indian side are samosas stuffed with peas and potatoes, vegetable and chicken pakoras fried in chickpea batter, a mint-flavored paneer tikka for vegetarians, and samosa chaat. There are also pan-fried vegetable and chicken spring rolls.

The menu also has chow mein and fried rice, with beef, chicken, pork, shrimp or vegetables.

The Indian Side of the Menu

Half of Little Tibet is an Indian restaurant. There are dishes from the tandoor, a clay oven — chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, lamb kebab and salmon tikka. There are lamb, chicken, seafood and vegetable curries, such as korma in a cashew cream sauce, vindaloo, tikka masala and saag with spinach. Seafood dishes use shrimp or salmon, cooked as a curry, bhuna, vindaloo or tikka masala. There are five biryanis, rice slow-cooked with spices and served with raita, including a combination biryani with chicken, lamb and shrimp. There are also Indian breads like naan, garlic naan and potato-stuffed paratha, and soups such as lentil dal, saag soup and egg drop soup.

Lunch Specials

At lunch, the restaurant serves platters. The vegetable platter has two vegetable curries of the day, dal, basmati rice and naan. There are also platters with tandoori chicken, chicken curry or lamb curry, each with a vegetable curry, dal, rice and naan.

Dessert: A Sweet Tibetan Pasta

The dessert menu has Indian rice pudding (kheer) and gulab jamun, fried milk balls in syrup. It also has a Tibetan dessert that surprises most people: bharsta markhu, handmade pasta with butter, sugar and grated cheese. Tobias called it "one of the most delightful examples of deceptive simplicity" she had eaten in some time. She wrote that the pasta is shaped like cavatelli and that the cheese is a very mild yak's-milk cheese.

Tea, Lassi and the Bar

The drinks menu has a Tibetan tea, hot chai made with house spices, and iced chai. There are four kinds of lassi, the Indian yogurt drink: mango, sweet, salty and rose. In 2019, 5280's writer noted that Little Tibet was the only Himalayan restaurant she knew of in the area that advertised yak-butter tea, the salty Tibetan tea.

The restaurant also has a bar. Its bar page lists beers from Boulder breweries, including pale ales, IPAs, stouts and seasonal beers, and suggests a Boulder beer with momos or thenthuk. The cocktail list includes a "Chaang Mule," made with chaang, a homemade barley beer, plus ginger, lime and mint, and a "Nepali Gorkha" with whiskey, spiced honey and lemon. The bar also serves roxy, a traditional Tibetan drink made from fermented barley that the restaurant describes as slightly tangy and earthy.

Vegetarian and Vegan Choices

The restaurant's about page says it offers "vegetarian and vegan choices." Many of the dishes on the menu are vegetable-only, from vegetable momos and noodle bowls to the vegetable curries, saag and tofu dishes. Some vegetable dishes, like the korma, can be made with coconut milk instead of cream. If you have an allergy or a strict diet, ask when you order.

Practical Information

Should You Go?

Go to Little Tibet if you want to try Tibetan food that goes past momos: hand-pulled noodles, gyuma sausage, sha bhaley and the sweet bharsta markhu. If someone in your group would rather eat Indian food, the curry and tandoori menu is long enough for them too. The lunch platters, from $13.99 on the October 2026 menu, are an easy way to try the kitchen without ordering several dishes.

References

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