Taste Tibet

Taste Tibet Oxford's legendary Tibetan restaurant and food stall, serving the the best momo dumplings, curry and Tibetan chai tea this side of the Himalayas.

Find us at 109 Magdalen Road OX4 1RQ and at festivals and events across the land. Recommended by The Guardian in its Top Ten Budget Restaurants and Cafes in Oxford, as well as by Time Out and the BBC Good Food Magazine, Taste Tibet is Oxford's legendary comfort food destination. In 2021 we were finalists in the Best Street Food/Takeaway category of the BBC Food and Farming Awards. Our new home at

109 Magdalen Road in East Oxford is currently open for lunch and dinner Wednesday-Saturday (NB Weds is dinner only). Come for our mouthwatering momo dumplings, hearty Himalayan curries and wicked chai tea. You can also find us at festivals around the land: Glastonbury, Latitude, Green Man, Cambridge Folk, the Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival and many more! We cater at lots of the Oxford and Cambridge university college balls as well. Our takeaway food is served in recyclable and compostable packaging and we are committed to the lowest possible environmental footprint. Check out our website www.tastetibet.com for more pictures and info, come and see us in our restaurant, or get in touch if you would like to hire us for your special event. For more information, read our story as told by the Oxford Mail: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/life/11646356.A_story_of_love_and_Tibetan_dumplings/

See also Taste Tibet in Time Out:

https://www.timeout.com/oxford/restaurants/best-restaurants-in-oxford

and The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/nov/19/top-10-budget-restaurants-cafes-oxford

This is the first picture I ever took of Yeshi. He didn’t know I was taking it, but I wasn’t entirely stalking him eithe...
07/07/2026

This is the first picture I ever took of Yeshi. He didn’t know I was taking it, but I wasn’t entirely stalking him either. We had met a few hours before on a mountain path in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.

Yeshi was a Tibetan refugee. He’d been living in India for ten years and was studying English and photography in Dharamsala at the time. I was a tourist with a few days to spare in his adopted home town.

We’d never have met if it wasn’t for the monkeys. Not the cheeky, pickpocketing ones you find everywhere in India, but large, leaf-eating langurs. Yeshi calls them snow monkeys.

Snow monkeys move around according to the season. In winter, when leaves, fruits and flowers become scarce at high altitude they descend into the town, feeding off bark, buds and plant stems.

Click the link in the comments to see the very monkeys that got us into conversation. Knowing them to be shy creatures, Yeshi went in with his camera for a close-up. Looking for a better shot myself, I followed him.

Now many of you know Yeshi to be a big guy hardly lacking in swagger: he’s the self-styled King of Dharamsala. But let’s be clear – what really sold me was his food.

That evening, after he’d guided me around the scenic, circular trail that loops around His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama’s temple, he cooked me dinner.

On the menu was beef thenthuk. This was my first time savouring the hand-pulled noodles that have since become a staple in our family home. I didn’t know then the story of how he’d learned to cook this dish in the yak-hair tent that his family lived in on the grasslands during summertime.

But I did know that I could slurp this soup forever, and that made this man a keeper.

This weekend the kitchen team at St. Catherine’s College in Oxford are cooking up beef thenthuk for two hundred participants of the Oxford Food Symposium, the oldest-established and most respected conference of its kind.

As guest chefs, Yeshi and I are overseeing the lunch. We’re incredibly proud to showcase Tibetan food on such a prestigious stage. As far as we’re aware, this is the first time the cuisine has ever had such a grand billing.

Taking thenthuk out of the yak-hair tent and into Oxford’s largest college is a spectacular full-circle moment for us. It’s also timely. Tibet needs representation more than ever right now. We’re here to serve.

IMPORTANT NOTICE! The restaurant will be open for two more weekends before our regular summer closure. This week’s opening hours are as follows:

Fri: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Saturday: 21-3/ 5-9.30pm
Sunday: 12-3 / 5-9pm

Our menu is up on the website – check it. Come for dine in or take away. We also have excellent stocks of sepen chilli oil and freezer food, so make sure you come in and load up before doors close.

Oh, and iced chai will be back. If you’re a newsletter subscriber we’re actually gifting it to you this week. Click the link in the comments to sign up.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Julie and Yeshi

Quick reminder that the restaurant is CLOSED THIS WEEKEND. We’re just back from a wonderful couple of days at Groundswel...
03/07/2026

Quick reminder that the restaurant is CLOSED THIS WEEKEND. We’re just back from a wonderful couple of days at Groundswell and I’d like to say we’re resting up but we’re actually heading north to Leicester tomorrow to cater a friend’s 8️⃣0️⃣th 🎈Enjoy the sunshine, folks, and see you next Friday ☀️

Oxford peeps! Sorry but the restaurant is CLOSED this week while we’re out serving the good people of Groundswell Agricu...
01/07/2026

Oxford peeps! Sorry but the restaurant is CLOSED this week while we’re out serving the good people of Groundswell Agriculture. And what a brilliant first night - thanks to all the truly lovely people who ate with us 🥟🥟 Lots of hugely inspiring talks and events upcoming - we will try and squeeze into the audience at some point!

For a Tibetan chef, the greatest fear is the food running out.Much of this is cultural. In Tibet, as elsewhere in Asia, ...
30/06/2026

For a Tibetan chef, the greatest fear is the food running out.

Much of this is cultural. In Tibet, as elsewhere in Asia, the practice of preparing and cooking food is a love language, arguably the highest of its kind.

But for Tibetans it’s also deeply tangible, with periods of scarcity still within recent memory. Yeshi’s brother Nyima, who’s almost 15 years his senior, is old enough to remember the aftermath of the Great Chinese Famine (1958-1962), widely recognised as one of the most catastrophic man-made disasters in modern history.

When Yeshi was growing up in 1980s Tibet, food continued to be in limited supply. Meat was a rarity, and fruit and veg were impossible to come by outside of their season.

Moving to India as a young adult (pictured), he was less satisfied still. Without family to look out for him, and with few pennies in his pocket, he often felt hungry.

Happily, feeding the big guy is no longer an issue. Now he’s built himself a restaurant to ensure that food is always available. But these experiences have their own legacy, and they’ve shaped our family life as well as our business.

When friends come to the house for dinner, he pushes the boat out. There may be just a couple of extra people at the table, but he’ll cook like he’s invited everyone on the street.

At Taste Tibet, the same applies. On a regular Wednesday night Yeshi will prep for weekend numbers. When a college orders a thousand portions of momos for their ball, he’ll throw in an extra hundred just because.

Don’t worry – our tendency to over-cater does not lead to waste. Visitors to our home will always get a doggy bag. Restaurant leftovers make their way into the display freezer – you can buy them at a discounted price. And as for those surplus momos, since when did students ever turn down a little extra?

In Tibet, throwing food away is just not a thing. Last night’s noodles are perfect as today’s breakfast. Stir-fried scraps can be fashioned into a new dish, even more delicious second time around. In the last resort, the pigs will eat anything.

At the restaurant, we’re always delighted when customers ask us to bag up what they can’t finish (and there are often leftovers – try as I might, I cannot get Chef Nyima to reduce the size of those biryanis). We’re so happy that pretty much everyone takes home what they cannot manage in one sitting.

If this model sounds like something we should see more of on the high street, do share this post. Taste Tibet has won multiple awards, and we’re always happy to talk sustainability with other cafés and restaurants.

*TASTE TIBET IS CLOSED THIS WEEK* – we’re away catering at Groundswell. The restaurant will be back open on Friday 10th July with just a couple of weekends left to see us before we shut for a summer of festivals. Make sure you don’t miss our open/closed updates – our Substack is a great place to keep up to date. Link in comments.

Have a great weekend – sorry we’re away – and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Julie and Yeshi

❗️IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT❗️Taste Tibet is open tonight and this weekend, but will be CLOSED all through next week. Make s...
26/06/2026

❗️IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT❗️Taste Tibet is open tonight and this weekend, but will be CLOSED all through next week. Make sure you come and see us before this brief hiatus! We’re running with this momolicious menu of favourites and have plenty of outdoor space for momos and a Lucky Buddha Beer al fresco. Also warmly recommending our ICED CHAI right now, cannot begin to describe how perfect this is. Run, don’t walk🏃🏻‍♀️

How did Taste Tibet get to be Tilda Swinton’s top food pick at Glastonbury?In the week that the festival usually kicks o...
23/06/2026

How did Taste Tibet get to be Tilda Swinton’s top food pick at Glastonbury?

In the week that the festival usually kicks off (it’s not happening this year – it’s a fallow one) we’ve been looking back, and honestly – this wasn’t in our stars.

When I was little we were not a festival-going family. My main frame of reference for Glastonbury was my posh mum lamenting the state of the portaloos. But she was just going off images from the TV – we were definitely not experiencing them first hand.

As for Yeshi, in his own childhood he could not have conceived of a world like Glastonbury. He spent his summers out on the Tibetan Plateau with just his yaks and sheep for company. He never encountered big crowds until he landed in India as a young adult.

Fittingly, our first visit to Worthy Farm was all thanks to His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama. It was just before he turned 80, and – bizarrely – he made a stop at Glastonbury Festival during a short visit to the UK. The Tibetan community were allocated tickets so that we could celebrate his birthday with him.

In the grey glow of the Sunday afternoon, His Holiness made his debut on the Pyramid Stage. Patti Smith brought him on and the crowd sang happy birthday. There was even a cake.

Our kids were 1 and 3 at the time. We were the only parents mad enough to have their toddlers with them in that particular mud-caked field, but we survived, and it emboldened us.

Years later, and veterans by now of many of the UK’s biggest music festivals, Taste Tibet landed our first pitch at Glastonbury. We’ve since become a fixture here, with a prime location and a host of wonderful regulars.

As a family, we’ve enjoyed unsurpassed moments of joy in these fields. Our son has juggled flower sticks at the Stone Circle at sunset. Our daughter has seen her musical heroes and found herself in the middle of a real-life Joe Wicks workout all the space of a day.

Along the way, we’ve also seen the best of humanity, and it’s been amazing to have our kids experience that with us alongside. People helping them into the front row or up onto our shoulders. Litter pickers at sunrise. The kindness of strangers as rarely experienced anywhere else.

Glastonbury – we’ll take those portaloos and crowds any time. This was not the world we were born into but how we miss it in a fallow year.

We’re open again from this Friday. Our full opening hours are as follows:

Fri: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Saturday: 21-3/ 5-9.30pm
Sunday: 12-3 / 5-9pm

This week’s menu is up on the website – check it. Come for dine in, take away and excellent stocks of freezer food. And if you haven’t yet tried our iced chai (available for dine in or take away) get ready for a life-changing experience.

Newsletter subscribers enjoy some excellent offers on our freezer meals this week: click the link in comments to unlock all the deals.

And for fully-illustrated newsletters, head over to our Instagram for all the pics!

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Julie and Yeshi

21/06/2026

Happy Father’s Day to the big guy - our chef, partner in crime, best dad. We 💙 you so much.



19/06/2026

There’s a lot we don’t usually talk about, so many reasons we work as hard as we do. This is one of them.

This week’s menu is up and we’ll be open again from 5pm tonight 🤩 Come and see us for dine in or take away, hot food or ...
19/06/2026

This week’s menu is up and we’ll be open again from 5pm tonight 🤩 Come and see us for dine in or take away, hot food or freezer food. We have some fabulous sun spots for outdoor dining - let’s make the most of them☀️

You’re a great cook, just so that you know. Everyone can cook. It’s just a question of practice and confidence – much li...
16/06/2026

You’re a great cook, just so that you know. Everyone can cook. It’s just a question of practice and confidence – much like everything else.

When Yeshi first first arrived in the UK, he was surprised at how timid we all were in the kitchen, always apologising for our efforts, often taking whatever short-cuts the supermarkets provided.

Pre-prepared sauces and pastes, microwavable instant mash! That was a stand-out.

Now part of this behaviour is down to our Britishness – we are apt to downplay our efforts and abilities. But there’s something else going on too, and it starts in the baby aisle.

When our kids were little, Yeshi loved the weening phase. He worked hard to mince up the almost unmincable. He did it all by hand, like his parents had done for him.

But everyone else had special contraptions, he noticed, machines that reduced the time involved, special little trays for freezing tiny portions so that the job only had to be done once a week.

And then there were the pouches. When he was brave enough to attend the local baby groups (he was always a rare dad in the room, and certainly the only Tibetan) he found himself blindsided by those brightly-coloured squeezy packets. The “organic” ones.

The supermarkets have got us in a stranglehold. They’ve tapped into our busyness and gone to town with products that help us to skip the foundations, or to avoid cooking altogether. Often, like the baby pouches, they promise something healthy, while delivering something highly processed instead.

The result is a chipping away at our confidence. We’ve stopped enjoying and even believing in our own ability to turn out tasty, nutritious meals.

It’s clever. If they can convince us that we don’t have the time and that they can do it better anyway, so they can keep us in an endless cycle of buying and accumulating.

Think about it: food with a long shelf life is easier for them to keep and stock than fresh produce.

When we wrote the Taste Tibet cookbook, one of our biggest motivations was to show just how easy it is to cook up delicious food from everyday ingredients using straightforward methods that don’t require any machinery or lots of time.

Happily this is the feedback that we receive about the book, that far from being exotic, Tibetan cuisine turns out to be practical and easy for anyone to produce. Wonderful. This is exactly what the experience of food should be.

If you’ve lost your mojo, our cookbook is currently on sale here or come and grab a copy at the restaurant. Our freezer food is also a reliable alternative to less scrupulous supermarket offerings, and a solution to food waste, making it an ethical as well as delicious choice.

We’re open again from this Friday. Our full opening hours are as follows:

Fri: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Saturday: 21-3/ 5-9.30pm
Sunday: 12-3 / 5-9pm

This week’s menu is up on the website – check it. Come for dine in, take away and freezer food. Sepen chill oil is now back in stock at the restaurant – enjoy!

Newsletter subscribers enjoy a free chai – hot or iced – on us this week. Have you signed up yet? Click the link in our comments to subscribe to our weekly Substack.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Julie and Yeshi

Address

109 Magdalen Road
Oxford
OX41RQ

Opening Hours

Wednesday 5pm - 9:30pm
Thursday 5pm - 9:30pm
Friday 5pm - 9pm
Saturday 12pm - 3pm
5pm - 9:30pm
Sunday 12pm - 3pm
5pm - 9:30pm

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