Lali Guras

This place is small. It’s located on the corner of 76^th st & 37^th rd. The food & the service here are simply amazing! We got the chicken thali, vegetable momo, & the chicken chili. They were all just really good. The filling for the vegetable momo is a mashed potato. We both can’t pick one we like best. When it say it’s spicy, oh it’s spicy. If you like spicy food, you’ll love the food here. Tons of flavor! It’s cheap! All total, we were pretty full with just spending $ 20. The chili chicken comes with either rice or ting mo. The service were great! The staff here are all extremely friendly & polite.
We were here around 6pm. It wasn’t really a peak dinner time but this place was already pretty busy. With only few seats available, this place is probably good for take out.
We love the food here. We will definitely go back!

Deliciously memorable! For take out orders, prepare yourself 15 – 20 minutes. It will be worth every minute. The spice is really hot! I know, I needed a whole mango lassi to remove the heat. The level of flavor is off the charts. I love this place. I would go often, but I rarely get a table. Maybe I just do not go at the right time. I love how unassuming this restaurant is – situated in at the corner with an old sign. You wouldn’t have known the great meals that come out of here. It is not an intimate ambience, more like a cafeteria, but when it is cold out, it might be great to eat in. I love ordering out from here… especially when I have a momo craving. I haven’t tried their challis.

Chicken momo fried is good, got the goat thali, pretty good, selroti was nice too. Nothing to complain about, very homey place, good prices and good food.

Thank you Unilocalers for directing me to this gem in my neighborhood. The goat thali is delicious. The chicken was fine but not as amazing as the goat. The momos are abundant and cheap. The staff is great! Great meal for just a little dough.

RAVE REVIEW.
Sauteed beef jerky
Their regular green veggie that comes with the thali.

Great small place. It’s not a 5 star restaurant, but the food sure is good. It’s got a nice kick to it. I would suggest the Goat Thali as that is my favorite. Also make sure to ask for more veggies as they will re-​fill them for free !

To be adventurous, we went for Nepalese on this evening. We were hungry, but not majorly, so we wanted something that could hold us over for a bit. All reviews pointed to this spot and its wonderful assortment of authentic Nepalese food. As advised, we ordered the Thali and the samee bajee. Filling, spicy, tasty, quick, and cheap! There is no need to use any bigger words to describe this food and this spot. It was interesting to watch the different styles that people ate, some used utensils, some used hands, some used bread.
The thali is a huge platter that can be shared between at least 2 people. You got meat, rice, pickled veggies, and beans. There was everything you could ask for in a complete meal. Tasty meats that fall off the bone, and balance it out with some sauteed veggies and it was glorious. Come enjoy some authentic food, try out something different, you won’t regret your decision.

If I lived close by I would eat here everyday. The food is so good and so inexpensive. People are really nice, too. The place has a casual feel to it. They keep refilling rice and daal until you say no. I have tried chicken thali, vegetarian thali, momos, chowmein, selroti and chiya. Everything was exceptional. This is real Nepali food unlike some other Nepali restaurants that indianize everything. I can’t wait to go Lali Guras again next time I am in NY.

Second time here. Chicken momo on both occasions. These Nepalese dumplings are to die for. They steam/​fry them to order so it can take a little time to get to you. They have a really nice juicy filling with a nice touch of spices. They have two momo sauces, both of which are pretty spicy and compliment the dumplings nicely. I was lucky enough to have my friend introduce me to this place and the best way to gorge one down. Roll in the sauce, pick up with the two forks without puncturing it, take a bite and just suck all the juice out till there is no more. One order will really fill you up. Unless you get greedy like I did the first time and overeat. They’re just that good.
The thali seems to be very popular too. Best part? They keep refilling on the rice and sides till you say no. I’m definitely trying that out next time. Looked delicious and healthy.
Did I mention they are dirt cheap? 8 pieces for $ 5. I would eat here all the time if I lived nearby. You have to go here. Different style of dumplings, but it has Prosperity and Vanessa’s beat.

Maybe one of the best meals I have ever had. The experience was amazing and I am definitely coming back here in the future. Location is pretty good, right off of Roosevelt, two blocks away from the Little India section of Jackson Heights. It is on a side street, but parking isn’t incredibly hard to find and it is very close to the train station. Décor is bland, a few tables, Nepalese decorations, a small kitchen, a fridge with drinks, and water bottles on every table. They don’t encourage utensils, since that isn’t the authentic way of dining, but they do have plenty of plastic ones. Service, despite a slight language barrier, was really friendly, got our order right, and were accommodating. Menu is simple and straightforward: a selection of Nepalese appetizers, including Tingmo (a doughy bread), goat head, chili, and a selection of meat appetizers. The do have a large selection of steamed and fried momos. Entrees consist of thali, served with all sorts of proteins and vegetables, soups, fried rice and chow mein, Thukpa, a Tibetan noodle soup, and curries. They do have a few drinks as well. I ordered a mango lassi, which had a strange texture, but tasted pretty good. Their tingmo is amazing, steamed to perfection, not too bland, sweet, fluffy. Their momos are fantastic. The steamed ones are served extremely hot, very flavorful with beef filling. Their fried ones are even better, not oily at all. Their chow mein is very good, very flavorful, lots of vegetables and perfect, thin noodles. Their thalis are recommended above all else. They are served with a choice of vegetable or meat, (beef, chicken, fish, goat, mutton, goat head, pork, etc.) steamed white rice, dal (lentil/​pea based dish), a type of curry, saag (spinach/​mustard greens), achar (a very spicy pickled dish), papad (a thin, crisp bread) and a soup which I don’t know the name of. The beef thali was amazing, but the goat one is recommended. The goat was cooked perfectly, was spicy, and elevated the dish. The rice, saag, soup, and dal were unlimited, where they kept coming over to refill our metal plates. Each component was perfect, prepared correctly, and tasted amazing together and separately. If looking for an amazing Nepalese/​Himalayan/​Bhutanese/​Chinese fusion restaurant with extremely cheap prices and great food, check this place out.

If you’re not familiar with Nepali food you’re in for a real treat. Lali Guras was the surprise of the century for me! The chef and owner here has a serious set of taste buds! I always order one of the thalis, which is traditionally a big round metal plate filled with smaller sauces, stews, sautéed veggies, pickled veggies, and hot sauce (sepen) all lined up around the metal plate. In the center is white rice piled high. Lali Guras offers chicken, fish, goat, and beef thali. The Chicken Thali is a good bet and sure to please. Fish is tasty too but you’ll need a dexterous tongue – it’s full of fish bones that you’ll need to spit out! The star of the show for me is the Tibetan-​style sepen sauce. Sepen is a very piquant chili sauce that seems to have hints of Sichuan peppercorn. It’s pretty spicy but not like a call 911-​level spicy.
Other delicious dishes are the thenduk and thukpa. They’re two different dishes, but I can’t tell the difference between the two. I believe the thenduk is a variant of thukpa that is popular in Tibet. It’s basically a big bowl of noodle soup with some veggies. The noodles are broad and flat, like chow fun, but the soup is very mild, not too salty, and slightly bland. It’s great if you’ve been eating very salty, fried, or intensely flavored foods (e.g., Thai food) and want to take a break. I ordered the chicken thukpa and the chicken was grilled to perfection. However, don’t count on this. The other day I ordered it again and the chicken chunks tasted like they were boiled in plain water.
For the most part, food here tastes home cooked in a really nice way. Like your Nepali friend’s mom made it. It tastes healthy and fresh, like it doesn’t have any strange additives or chemicals.
Be aware that there is an open kitchen, so come in your casual washables and not expensive dry clean-​only suit or dress. Depending on what they’re cooking you might smell like food for a while.
If you dine in someone will come by and refill your vegetable side dishes for free! I’ve gotten seconds only once because the portions are really generous. Did I mention the thali dishes are all $ 10 or less?!?
I feel like Crazy Eddie shouting from the rooftops «Great food, great deal, and the prices are IN-​SA-​A-​A-​A-​A-​ANE!»
UPDATE: I had to dock a star because they have a tendency to switch takeout orders on you here – it’s happened to me several times within 6 months, so I doubt if it’s just a coincidence. I had ordered the Fish Thali and they gave me Vegetable Thali instead. It would have been fine for them to simply tell me that they had run out of fish; I would have just opted for chicken. But they simply took my order, charged me $ 1.00 less (the price of the vegetable thali), and packed a veggie thali for me to go. While they didn’t charge me the price of a chicken thaili, honesty is still a virtue, people! I recommend inspecting your takeout order to make sure they didn’t do a switcheroo on you and you end up eating vegetarian when you’re craving meat.

The goat curry was good but their dishonesty is what calls for this review. Instead of admitting that they were out of mutton they decided to serve me more goat curry along with my order of goat thali. I could have ordered something else but instead lied right to my face.
I called in our order to pick up. He asked me how long it would take me to get there. that’s a first. Got there in about 10 minutes and our order wasn’t ready. I could sympathize because all the seats were taken and they seemed pretty busy. I asked again about the goat thali, mutton curry, and chicken momos we ordered by phone. I inquired further about the «mutton» curry and he tells me. yes. mutton curry but I heard him twice instructing his kitchen to make a goat thali and a goat curry. I really didn’t think much of this as it was my first time here. Our order was ready and came out to $ 19. I had a short convo with him and left a dollar tip for them.
When it was time to eat, I noticed pretty quickly that the smaller and larger containers of curries were both goat curries! wow really? The greens and papad were also missing from our thali order. The chicken momos were juicy and the peanut sauce was interesting. Although the goat curry and momo was actually pretty good, my rating reflects their honesty.

We always come here for the chicken momos
They are the best in town :)
Their momo achar (sauce) is the best in town
It’s authentic momo achar
However, when you come out of the place… you smell like all the food they are cooking in that kitchen… they really need to work on that

Like Ashlee Simpson once said:
«you make me wanna Lali, in the kitchen, on my knees,
I want some curry, preferably Nepalese,
by chefs from Kathmandu, cuz with curry I’m a purist,
you make me wanna, you make me want Lali Guras.»
What to get: Chicken Thali
What else: Just get the damn Chicken Thali okay?
Fascinating fact: Sexy Mexican singer Thali-​a is named after this dish. And is quite a dish herself.
If this was a candy store which gave spiritual teachings, then it’d be Lolly Guru.
On my most recent Queens food tour, my food tour friend had already passed out from too much food, but I was not willing to give up the ghost just yet. So I made my way to the interestingly named Lali Guras which inspired (obviously) the famous Ashlee Simpson song.
If this were a dim, dingy structure where a car is stored, it’d be a Low-​lit Garage.
The service was okay. They’re a tiny little kitchen and were all over the place. I think I got slightly overcharged but I didn’t say anything about it. I just wanted to get to the car and eat my f***ing Chicken Thali yo.
And if the employees kept saying «Are You Gonna Go My Way» or «I Want To Get Away, Yeah!» or «So Many Tears We’ve Cry-​hyed…» then it would be a «Lenny Chorus.» But what I really wanna know is…
What is Chicken Thali?
Basically it’s a collection of different dishes, sort of like a mini buffet. Spicy lentils, delicious greens, yummy soup… an array of Nepalese fantasticness. And at the center of it all is the Chicken. It’s a browny-​yellow brilliantly made curry that is not too spicy, but not at all short on flavour. It rocked my world. I’d definitely order it extra spicy next time.
If this were the place where all those poor creatures that walk off cliffs in that weird old video game, then it would be «Lemmings Graveyard.» What? Was it a stretch? Wanna see something else stretch?
This was my very first experience of Nepalese food and it was a wonderful one. It’s slightly similar to Indian and Pakistani (moreso the former), but it has Bangladeshi elements too. It’s its own thing, if I’m allowed to use it’s and its next to each other.
And if it were the rear-​end of a music video girl who refuses to «twerk» or shake it or move it in any way, then it would be a Lazy Girl-​ass. But honestly that would make a nice change.

Lali Guras was a very good, very affordable home style Nepalese hole in the wall restaurant. There was only space to seat 12 and the ceiling was leaking water from the ac, but the food was great and so was the service.
We got the goat thali ($ 9) and the pork thali ($ 8) and both were huge and full of delicious foods. Each dish came with a generous scoop of rice, curried vegetables, some sort of split pea dish, chilies, assorted pickled veggies, and the meat dish. To top it off, they came around giving everyone more of the sides to go with their dishes. If you wanted more of anything (besides the meats) you simply had to ask.
We also had fried and steamed momos, which were the best momos I have ever had.
Go to Lali Guras, eat, you will not be dissapointed.

When it comes to spice, the Nepalis don’t mess around. This small cozy restaurant is a real gem. It has a few tables and an extensive menu. I started with the beef samee bajee ($ 5), which is a medley of fried spicy beef, crispy rice, soybeans, finely diced potatoes, lentils, and onions with a sauce. This is most definitely not an appetizer (my mistake — I couldn’t possibly finish both dishes I ordered). The samee bajee is addictively crunchy, the ‘rice crispies’ help balance out and calm your tongue from the heat of the fried beef.
Then came the goat Thali — which is actually a collection of several small dishes. The goat was delectable, and, to my surprise, not very spicy, but just right. I could taste the chilies and garlic and ginger in the dish, but it never overpowered the taste of the goat itself. The side of lentils (a lentil soup basically) is comforting and unctuous, and actually tasted even better when I put the remainder of my samee bajee into the soup (it also mellows the spiciness). The potato curry dish was also delicious and reminiscent of Indian food. There were two side vegetables, including a spicy bitter melon salad, but I didn’t really care for it – too bitter for my personal preferences. Amazingly, they give FREE refills on the side dishes other than goat. I can’t imagine any other $ 9 meal that is so satisfying and so huge in terms of portion size.
I will definitely be making repeat trips.

I love the simple and homey atmosphere of this restaurant. Their food is amazingly cheap and delicious. The broth of their noodles is the best I’ve had in a Himalaya restaurant.

This is probably my favorite place to eat in Jackson Heights. If you’ve never had Himalayan/​Nepalese food, this is a cozy place to start. It’s got elements of Indian and Chinese cuisine, with a great kick of spiciness.
As everyone has said, the momo is pretty good, but I’m a sucker for the thali, which comes on a plate with an assortment of things: rice, a green lentil daal, a cauliflower potato masala type stew, pickles, sautéed vegetables and a meat of your choice (I’ve had the goat, fish and beef — all are spicy and delicious). Bring a friend and eat slowly. Eventually, the woman who works here will come over and refill your daal and vegetables, in case you haven’t had enough. Though she’s really kind, her English isn’t great, so you may want to clarify that she’s taken the right order if you’re not totally sure.
Don’t come in expecting to be mindblown with intense and otherworldly flavors. The food is healthy, simple, and I could probably eat it every day. But if you’re into that kind of thing like I am, Lali Guras really hits the spot. I’ll be moving out of Jackson Heights soon, and I can safely say that this is one of maybe two or three restaurants that I’ll really miss having so close by.

This is a simple small restaurant. I think if you don’t care about ambience and want to eat delicious food reasonably, this place is good. I think about 12 people can sit and eat. I saw some people came to order takeout, too. It seems popular in the area.
I found this place on Unilocal.I chose the menu I ordered based on pictures from Unilocal.The pictures of Selroti, Samee Bajee and Fried Chicken Momo looked good to me.
Selroti
Samee Bajee
Fried Chicken Momo
（This is different from what I have! Probably a mistake?) Mine was this.
Selroti is like a donut, but it is not so sweet. Outside is crispy and inside was chewy. I liked it.
Samee Bajee looked different from the photo. They didn’t use purple onion and used white onion instead. I think purple onion look much better. You can choose chicken or beef. I ordered chicken. It is fried food, but it is cold appetizer. I think it is normal to be cold, but I wish I can eat it while it is still hot. I think it will taste better if it is hot. The flavor is very good. It is very spicy, so I have to eat with water and rice, but I feel like I want to eat more.
Fried Chicken Momo looked very different from picture. The momos in the picture was round and brown. Mine was half-​moon shaped and light brown. I thought the waitress made mistake. However, they said round one is pork momo. I wonder why this Unilocaler posted this as fried chicken momo. Anyway, it is like deep fried Chinese dumpling, but the spice they use is different. It was very flavorful. Outside was crispy.

This is a hidden little Gem in Jackson Heights. I know it may not look like much as it’s a hole in the wall, but trust me the food will not disappoint. My first time having Nepali Food and I’ve become a fan. I had their goat curry thali which was delicious. This place serves up a plate full of goodness with some unique flavors. Though the food looks similar to Indian/​Bengali cuisine, the taste is very different. I love how they give you unlimited amounts of refill on the rice, Saag and daal. Awesome service as well! For $ 9 what more can you ask for? If you’re in or around the area it’s definitely worth while to try this spot out!