Malingo Restaurant & Bar

Usually I really like this place. The service is usually very nice, but tonight the food was subpar and the service was late — the drinks did not arrive until after we had already started eating our food. To top it all off they were rude enough to charge an 18% tip on a table of only 2 people without our consent. We usually tip 20%minimum anyway, so it’s their loss, but the nerve of some people.

The food became a lot better with the change in management and I had a good experience the first 2 times. The third time ruined everything. I ordered a dal tadka (which was exceptional the first 2 times) but this time it was made using different lentils. I’m Indian and I know which lentils are supposed to be used, but they used the wrong ones. On top of that, they didn’t deliver rice along with it, which is supposed to come with the meal. I also ordered aloo paratha (bread with potato stuffing) which was cold and seemed reheated and passed on. It also had barely any potatoes stuffed inside. I don’t know if their chef was different over the weekend but it was quite a fall in grace. I called the restaurant to politely complain and was hung up on 3 times. I finally got through to the owner, Gautam, who apologized and said he would deliver the same meal to me the next day. That, of course, never happened. I called on Sunday and they haven’t gotten back to me since then. I called today, 3 days later, and I still don’t know what’s going on. The food was inconsistent, and I’m not happy with the staff. I was their biggest fan until this fiasco and I’m hoping they courteously respond to compensate for their horrible service the last time and win an old customer back.

Love love LOVE Malingo!
I eat here at least once a week for either lunch or dinner and both the food and staff are excellent every single time.
My favorite meal has been the hot and sour soup followed by an order of the vegetable Momo– which are delicious Nepalese dumplings served with a trio of sauces.
Recently I’ve been trying their Indian entrees and the chana massalla was the perfect combination of spice and heat without being unbearable.
They also have a full bar so I get to have a nice cocktail or glass of wine to go with my Momo.
The seats are also comfortable– which is a giant plus!

I’m not in a position to say whether the food was authentic or not, but for my first time trying cuisine from Nepal, it was pretty darn good. There was a garnish or side that I didn’t care for from my Nepali Fish Thali dish, but I won’t fault them for it — it just wasn’t to my taste. Overall, the food was delicious from the appetizer to the drink to the main course. The service was kind and honest, both, from the servers and the owner. So glad I finally decided to step in and try it for myself. I’ll definitely go back.

We were looking for Nepalese food and got a great dinner.
The staff was friendly and attentive. On slower side to get our drinks (they arrived with the meal) but that was my only complaint. I sent back my drink because it was sour and they obliged me by giving me a different one (the Malinga Punch was delicious; Blue Frozen Margarita was not).
The owner seems very nice and we chatted about world travels for a few moments.
The dishes that we had (you can choose between Indian and Nepalese) were Nepalese and very good. The appetizer was a delicious (albeit spicy) potato dish simmered in herbs.
I recommend this place.

This place has had a HUGE overhaul the last few months. It is now under new management (EXTREMELY FRIENDLY) with a new menu and a new chef who really knows how to make an awesome meal. Gone are the Japanese options and in are the new EXCELLENT Indian dishes. The flavors are amazing.
Meals with spice shouldn’t be overwhelmingly hot where you loose your taste buds. The current chef succeeds in bringing heat packed with immense flavor that keeps you addictively eating until your plate is clean.
I come here often enough to say I have tried almost everything on the menu. The Vindaloo is flavored wonderfully. The Chilli (especially the beef) is heat with flavor that leaves you deliriously happy. Momo = YUM. And the Thali platters are a true Nepalese staple. I highly recommend this place. You won’t be disappointed.

Malingo opened last week under new management as an Indian/​Nepalese restaurant. We ate there and the food was good. The order was wrong, the appetizers came out last and the service was horrible. We had a waitress who obviously had no idea how to serve. Our veggie momo was meat, our samosas had no sauce. And our spicey Tikka masala tasted good but had no heat «0».
The second time they took a long time and again brought appetizers after dinner. And again the Tikka was really good but no heat. We had a guy waiter who was better but waited 20 minutes after we asked for the check. On the way out the manager engaged us in some awkward discussion so I told him the waitress sucked, the food was good but slow etc. Then I tried it one more time today. At 11:55 a i ordered Tikka masala momo and samosas. When they finally answered the phone, mumbling, and taking 2 full minutes to stop giggling and ask for my order. I nearly hung up. I should have. I told them I’d be there in 20 min. I was. It wasn’t ready so I asked to ring me up cuz I was in a hurry. The clueless waitress offered me a glass of warm water instead. So did THE Manager and to other people. Then each one preceded to ask me to sit down. Then they took turns explaining why it took so long for the food because it took a long time to make fresh food they said. Eventually after 35 minutes he gave me a bag of food. When I opened it it was tandoori chicken, no rice, no utensils this place will be out of business in 6 months entirely because of poor service. Don’t go there. When I called to tell him he said I’ll come back I said nevermind I don’t have time obviously.

We went there for a quick dinner (thali) as we were in hurry. This woman sever kept pushing us to get appetizer or drinks. Couldn’t enjoy the food as she kept appearing. Food was ok. It used to be great when previous restaurant (Yeti) was there.

We were planning on not eating out but when passing this place we were intrigued by the cool Nepalese, Tibetan, and Japanese fusion. We ended up getting the chicken lollipop which is fried chicken and delicious, one of the Thali platters and the Mok Thuk dumpling soup. Everything was delicious. We got free refills for the Thali platter. They even had extra napkins on the table and free sauces. The service wasn’t the fastest, but everyone was very friendly. Oh, and the bathroom was so clean!!! Really great place for a inexpensive but delicious bite!

So damn good!!! Should’ve ordered some to go. Driving down Queens Boulevard is sometimes a hassle but it is definitely worth the drive. If you’re starving and you have no idea what you’re craving, you will not regret trying some delicious food from Nepal. The tables are amazing, the service is great, and the food is indescribable. I definitely recommend this place!

When i read the review from this restaurant i feel to give some try how they doing? Then went this restaurant today to have my dinner, i feel so lucky to have such Authentic Nepali dish called Thali, the food was delicious i had this meal after longtime. the atmosphere of restaurant is nice, great service, the waitress talk so politely and also suggest me to have a Thali, which is so delicious.
Great food and Nice service… Thank you for chef who offer me a nice dessert (Ice cream Tempura) its yummmyyyy…
I will see you soon Guys…

I walked into Malingo with low expectations trying the restaurant to fulfill my mission to dine in every restaurant in Sunnyside. With the low star ratings from other reviewers, I did not expect much however I left pleasantly surprised.
From the outside the restaurant looked like a Japanese fusion mix bar. I was not fully aware the restaurant served Nepali and Tibetan food which I had yet to try. With an adventurous appetite, I ordered Chicken Thali which came with basmati rice, vegetable curry, lentil soup, green mustard, rice pudding, salad, thin disc-​like chip, and spiced yellow pickle. It was by far the most unique and foreign dish I tried in Sunnyside. I didn’t know how to properly eat the traditional way– mix the rice and lentil soup? Mix the rice pudding with rice and place it on top of the chip? Dip the pickle in green mustard? (I do not recommend). I found myself mixing in each and every way, experimenting, my very own culinary science project with prepared food. The pan was empty before I knew it.
Pork Thali lunch special. Recommended!

Authentic Nepalese andJapanese food. Mouth watering MoMo and Volcano Roll served and hosted by very polite, gentle and professional manner. All goodwill and honors of excellent goes to Mr. Ram Sharan Shrestha. Keep it up the way you making up!

This place used to be one of my favorite for nepali/​tibetan food until it was taken over by new management. This place has a great ambiance and potential but they really need to work on the food and service if they want the usuals. I am sure they did do really great during New Years party but the event was managed very poorly.

Had been a Repetitive customer. Nice ambience, not a great food & you see staffs with artificial smile ! Hope they can survive couple of months Atleast ! Life is hard. First thing First rest room is a mess ! not so great food becomes enough worse after you come back ! Not so clean again ! I repeat.

Place has potential but it is quite slow indeed. Plan to go back on a personal invite and will update this review later.

This place has kinda ok food. The curry chicken was ok, but nothing here is great. To top it off, the staff isnt all that friendly or social even. Not that I need that, but you want a friendly server and not someone who never checks in and doesn’t suggest or recommend anything. I tried this place before and wasn’t impressed at all.
It’s to wide of a menu and non authentic at all. Definately not a japanese restaurant, that’s for sure and I would not try sushi here, but I would try curry and some other cooked dishes. Place is not bad bad bad, but nothing good or great. Hope they put a little vibe into it some point.

Seafood salad and Sukuti beef dish. I don’t think I write this sort of thing often, but the service was… noticeable. Our waitress came up to us every two minutes before we ordered. It was a bit aggravating, especially when we were deep in conversation and asked for five minutes to peruse the menu each time. The food was subpar. I kept feeling like I should have ordered something Nepalese, only to realize that I did — the Sukuti. Then there was Seafood salad, which had decent pieces of fish, but disgusting iceberg lettuce and too much dressing.
I really like the ambiance of this place, which is a shame, because if they just worked on getting better chefs and taking care of their service, things would go swimmingly.
(Which is interesting, because after reading some of the other reviews below, I noticed that other customers usually got slow service, so apparently they are making some effort).

I wish I could give this place a ZERO — I’m definitely going to have to inflate my reviews for other restaurants so it’s clear how much this place sucks.
Literally going to change my rating for phayul, they cannot be in the same class at all.
I will never ever come back to this restaurant. Back when it was Yeti I really enjoyed this establishment for the variety of food and the setting.
Since then the food has gotten a lot worse and the service is even worse than the food.
The appetizers were edible, subpar, boring, salty, and tasted like it was filled with msg.
The main course dishes are all pretty much the same dish with a change in meat or vegetable. They’re all made the way chicken chilly is, even the pork chilli tastes deceptively like chicken. EVERYTHING is SO salty. Even saltier than the food at Wasabi in woodside… and that’s already pushing the limit for me.
The fried rice looked like a mush of frozen mixed vegetables and soggy rice with soy sauce — ALSO SUPER SALTY.
I literally give up describing this food, there’s no point, it’s just awful. And I recall the veg momos being heated up ready-​to-​make dumplings from the one time I ventured previously. I only came back because a group of people asked me out to dinner this time, and I forewarned them not to go, but they didn’t listen.
Okay, on to the service. I understand we were there on a busy night BUT we sat at that table from 8:30pm till MIDNIGHT. That is a total of 3 and a half hours!
In that time we ate appetizers for the first two hours because they kept bringing chunks at once and then leaving us sitting for half an hour in between whatever they could scrape up.
Even our main dishes were separated, they brought the fried rice more than half an hour after our meats and veggies… which were done by then. What was the point of that?
Not to mention we left canceling 3 of our orders because they had misplaced them and it would take another half an hour to make. They also gave us extra orders that we did not order of appetizers and insisted that we did and argued with us when we said we didn’t.
We were in the basement, there were two singers and tracks being played. The singing was good, and ppl started dancing. Song selection was nice, alas it could not make up for the sucky sucky service and the god awful food.
Oh and the sushi was average Americanized bleh sushi, not bad, not good, just there. Go across the st for better japanese food and to jackson heights for the tibetan/​nepalese cuisine. Or just stay home and eat some ramen… I would have preferred that.
Unless it’s super empty and you’re with a small group and in the mood for over salted, msg-​filled, yet surprisingly bland food… don’t go here. Just don’t do it.
I warned you! The rest is up to you…

We ordered the chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki and some sushi, the delivery arrived an hour later while it sais 30 – 45 minutes.
The sushi was a failure and the rest of the food was cold.