Snow Lion Restaurant

Interesting place. I’ll have to go again to give it a proper review. Having never had Tibetan food, as I’d imagine most people on here have not either, the food was alright — bland, but not bad… I’ll try something spicier next time. The Butter Tea was terrific.
On a High note, the Kimchi was maybe the single best thing I have ever eaten in my life. Sweet, Sour, Salty, Spicy, Savory. I’ve eaten a TON of great food in many large cities, and have made kimchi myself a few times. I now crave their kimchi like no other food I can even imagine.
All in all, I wouldn’t give much credence to people saying it’s ‘bad Tibetan’ food — as I would always wonder what their real understanding of the cuisine is. Nonetheless, the place is worth a visit.
2^nd visit — about what I expected. I want to give this place 3 ½ stars, but I’ll leave it 3 with the caveat that the general ambiance is meager at best. Again, the kimchi was superb. I got the ‘hottest’ dish they served, which was somehow, as others have described — spicy yet bland. I agree.
The veg egg rolls are mad decent.
I don’t know that I’d take someone there to have a ‘great meal’ but I’d stop by for the egg rolls, butter tea and some kimchi — a nice snack

Ok, so I haven’t experienced better Tibetan food before, but I *have* experienced better service.
As Valery S. said in her review, Snow Lion is not quite busy … yet the service is super slow. I came here with my sister and her friend this past July on one of those super-​hot days.
I drank about 3 – 4 cups of water before the salads finally came out. Then, probably about 3 more cups of water before the main entrée came.
Boo hoo.
The other Tibetan restaurant around the block was close for summer vacation; next time I’m in B-​town, hope to try that place out so I can have *good* service and more flavorful Tibetan food.

Tibetan food — sounds interesting. When I walked into this place, I saw the award plates. All of them were way back in 10 years ago. This explains a lot I guess. The dining experience and the quality of food were way below my expectation.

Snow Lion is authentic Tibetan in the sense that Cup of Noodles is authentic Chinese.
I ordered the «most popular» dish they serve, which came with a salad (iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing), lemonade (minute-​maid), noodles out of a can and overcooked meat I wouldn’t serve my dog. For $ 13 with tip.
The quality of food for the price is insulting. In New York, this kind of food would go for $ 2.50 in a cardboard box.
I’m guessing this restaurant is a front for some off-​the-​books business. There’s no other way you could explain how they’re still open when the two times I’ve been in — almost a year apart — I was only person in the joint at peak hours.

My gf and I split the momos dinner (10 beef momos and fried rice) and the vegetable thukpa. The fried rice was actually pretty good and was pretty spicy (we ordered it as a 3 for spiciness) and the momos were okay, but the thukpa was a little bland and watery. The service was excellent and the waiter was quite attentive. The unsweetened ice tea had a nice flavor and it was very pleasant sitting on the patio on a warm day

Such a cool little restaurant that is a Bloomington tradition. I noticed that this listing is categorized under «Chinese», but there’s another one under «Indian». It’s actually Tibetan as the owner is related to the Dalai Lama. I’m posting my review under «Chinese» because Tibetan food is much more closely aligned with Chinese food. There are basically 2 kinds of dishes here, of which you can get multiple variations. There are the noodle dishes and the rice dishes. The difference is the kinds of meats (beef, chicken, shrimp, scallops, etc.) and sauces you can get with each. Also, you can specify the heat level from super wimpy mild all the way up to «Chef’s Challenge». I highly recommend the «Chef’s Challenge» if you can handle it.

Aw… I should have known — Tibetan food? Really? Generous servings of average food. Pretty bland, so if you’d like some tasteless, bland noodles with some peas and carrots — you’ll love it here.
We were the only ones there (does that happen a lot here?), but the food still took forever. The typical hipster waiter was rather uninterested in his job, bored actually.
The «famous salad dressing» was pretty pathetic as well.

Very cool place, super nice atmosphere… but I think you probably have to be careful about what you order. I got a noodle dish… and that’s ALL it was…$ 10 for a pile of noodles (barely any seasoning or anything in it).

I traveled through south west China a few years ago and the food at Snow Lion was very close to what I remember from my travels. Yes, service is a bit slow but our waiter was so nice and so much fun that we didn’t care. I can see why it doesn’t appeal to most, since we are used to over-​amercianized, overly flavorful foods and this us much more subtle in flavors. If you like American style Chinese buffet food this place is not for you; If you want a close taste of southwest China then go!

HORRIBLE. The server was very nice, I ordered a dish that sounded good on the menu, received under-​seasoned mushy ramen noodles with chunks of entirely unseasoned beef. I had to ask the server to strike the dish from the receipt it was so un-​edible. The friend I was with also ordered a completely different, unseasoned, shrimp dish that tasted like crap. I had high expectations for this place, especially because I love little tibet so much. very disappointed. no idea how this place stays in business.

Nice place inside, kind of dark and cozy for a date. Seems to feature very simple dishes, and rather low quality ingredients. Of all the great ethnic restaurants around 4^th Street, I’m kind of surprised this place is still around. It just isn’t very good food.

I have avoided the Snow Lion for the past 7 years after a couple of really bad visits. I decided to give them another chance. Not too bad for Tibetan food. The salad is delicious. The actual entrees are a little bland and even a 4 on the spice scale of 1 – 5 is incredibly mild. The service hasn’t improved at all since my last visit 7 years ago– it is incredibly slow! We are the only customers in the restaurant so there really is no excuse.
On a humorous side note: There was a sign on the door advertising a part-​time opening for a waiter. About halfway through our meal a guy comes in asking about the position and our waiter tells him that they aren’t hiring. Then the guy asks if he should take the sign down. Our waiter then says nah, well we may be hiring soon. I don’t really know, come back in a few days maybe, some people might be leaving…

This was my first time with Tibetan food. It was a positive experience. Good food. Excellent service. Very nice décor. Overall, worth a visit if you’re a little adventuresome.

The Snow Lion is the one place I choose when it’s my turn to pick where we go. The décor is a little dingy, but they do their best to open the tiny place up with mirrors and authentic decorations. I love the food, but it really depends on what you pick. The basic noodle or meat dishes are good (note: spicy means SPICY; if they ask you to rate your desired hotness from 1 – 5, think of 5 as dropping a pure pepper down your throat), but I haven’t heard good things about the blander dishes like udon soup. Their house dressing for the complimentary salad is marvelous, as are the fruit drinks. The service is pretty quick, and the place isn’t usually busy.
As for pricing, entrees run in the $ 10 range, but the portions are big enough to feed two people. I would definitely recommend it for visitors coming into town, or residents looking for something a little different.

Every time I’ve gone here (which is only about three times) I’ve been happy with the food.
If you’re vegan, make sure you ask for the vinagrette on your salad to avoid the mayonnaise based one. I usually get one of the vegetable curries and it’s always good for the price. Two people can easily share an entrée for $ 8.

I’m going to tread lightly here because I don’t want the kharmic apocalypse to commence. I’ve never been able to achieve anything remotely resembling zen and I’m pretty sure that lambasting this place won’t help.
Snow Lion is owned by the nephew of the Dahli Lama. Cool, huh?
Yeah. Moving on.
It was deserted on a Friday afternoon. There was one other couple there. They were discussing the advantages of entertainment law versus personal injury. Yep. Law students with a five year plan.
We were seated at a tiny table in a tight corner. I literally had no room to stow my bag and had to hand it over to the man of my dreams for safe keeping. With all those empty tables, we get the one that required us to use a shoehorn to sit at. The dining room is filled with mirrors and nooks and crannies so you never know if the wall you are looking at is really there or not. Kinda like a Buddhist fun house.
We ordered the Appetizer Combo Platter. It came with Kim-​chi and Momo and hummus and pita and some sweet chili sauce that the man liked and I thought tasted like watery plum sauce. It was big. That’s all.
I ordered the Sesame Beef Noodles. The beef was beef. Not seasoned and a little tough. The sesame seeds were sesame seeds. The noodles were bland and a little overcooked. The vegetables were frozen. Frozen peas in my Sesame Beef Noodles make me discontent.
The man of my dreams ordered some chicken dish that was made with bean thread and was very well seasoned. It was far tastier than mine but also contained frozen peas.
The portions were huge and we had lots left over.

We wanted to like the Snow Lion and did like it years ago, but had a bad experience. We thought it was neat that it is owned by the brother of the Dalai Lama. The inside décor was really nice with Tibetan pottery and ornaments. Our waiter was nice, but new and did not know the menu. Also they had an old menu and no longer had the crab Rangoon or shrimp egg rolls. They should print new menus. I had the Indian beef curry which was okay but salty. My girlfriend had the #3 chicken dish which was recommended but it tasted like a $ 1 heated dry ramen package. A friend had the chicken and rice and was very bland with no flavor. A lot of items were packaged, frozen and reheated or bland. This is too bad. I remember it being better years ago. What happened to this place?

Snow Lion serves Tibetan and Indian food and is a very famous restaurant in Bloomington. It is owned and operated by the nephew of the Dalai Lama. I really expected it to be better than it was. The food was pretty bland. I ordered a seafood and vegetable dish over rice and my daughter ordered the cajun shrimp fried rice. Both came spicy, but with very little flavor. A somewhat disappointing experience.

The food is decent, but the waitstaff experience we had was straight-​up bizarre. One 19 year old was running around, high and confused-​looking. He got into arguments with customers and even complained to us when he didn’t get tipped enough. Amusing, but again, bizarre.

This place is an interesting one. It never gets packed, but is one of those Bloomington secrets. The owner is a nephew of the dali llama (who comes to visit here sometimes). The inside of the restaurant has quite a few pictures of him there. The food gets amazingly spicy. If you choose «middle» when they ask you how spicy you want your food, it is like getting «hot» at any wings place. I don’t think I have ever been to a place that gets as spicy as this place. A lot of interesting dishes. The inside looked a little old, definitely hasn’t been renovated in quite some time. It is clean though. The staff is friendly and courteous. Definitely one of a kind!