Even by the famously multinational standards of Queens, the stretch of Broadway around Elmhurst Hospital and the Jackson Heights subway station is notable for its gleeful diversity, at least at the storefront level.
On one side of one block alone, for example, between 81st and 82nd Streets, you can eat at the Colombian bakery Aroma de Cafe, a new Burmese comfort food place called Sophie's Rangoon Kitchen, a basic Chinese bakery named Yi Mei, and the five-time Michelin-bibbed Thai superstar, Saranrom, among others.
Fitting into this mix nicely is a brand new Tibetan spot called GangJong Thunpa Phunshi Restaurant, which takes over the space (and some of the furniture) from Pakshala, a Bangladeshi grill that lasted about two years.
The owner of GangJong Thunpa Phunshi was reluctant to sit for an official interview with Hell Gate, or even reveal his full name—"call me Tenzin," he said—but what I learned about the place from my afternoon of chitchat was this: The team running the operation, including chef Tessa, are all from Tibet ("the real Tibet," is how Tenzin put it). They all now live nearby, in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst; and this is their first restaurant.
