Eating out on a Bhutan tour
On a guided tour your breakfasts, lunches and dinners are already arranged, so you won't be hunting for somewhere to eat. Thimphu and Paro are the exceptions. They're the only towns with a real café scene, and most of our guests end up with a free afternoon or evening in one of them. Tell your guide where you'd like to go and they'll book a table or walk you there.
Menus in both towns mix Bhutanese dishes with Indian, Chinese and Western food, and there's always something vegetarian. If the local dishes are new to you, have a look at our guide to Bhutanese food first so you know what to order.
Best restaurants and cafés in Thimphu
Ambient Café
Thimphu · Norzin Lam, by the clock tower
The café everyone in Thimphu knows. It's upstairs, looking down on the main street, and it's full from breakfast onwards with locals, travellers and people working on laptops. The coffee is good, the menu is mostly vegetarian, and there's a shelf of books to swap. Order the Bhutanese set meal if you want to try several dishes at once. It's one of the few places open early. It's our team's favourite for vegetarian guests.
Good for: Breakfast · coffee · vegetarian
Coffee Culture
Thimphu · between the stadium and the vegetable market
A relaxed café over two floors: diner-style booths downstairs, sofas upstairs and a few tables outside. It does cakes, thin-crust pizzas and wraps, but the thing to order is the ema datshi momos, dumplings filled with the national chilli-and-cheese dish. The cheesecake has its fans too.
Good for: Lunch · cakes · ema datshi momos
Brusnika
Thimphu · above the valley
Go for the view. The terrace looks across the valley to Tashichho Dzong, and late afternoon, when the light hits the dzong's white walls, is the time to be there. Coffee and cake rather than a full meal. Along with Ambient Café, it's our team's favourite for vegetarian guests.
Good for: Views · afternoon coffee
Giku Na
Thimphu · near the National Memorial Chorten
A newer café, calm and simple, a short walk from the Memorial Chorten. Walk the circuit around the chorten with the older residents who go there every day, then come here for brunch or a quiet coffee. It's our pick for guests who want high-protein meals.
Good for: Brunch · a quiet break
Zombala 2
Thimphu · town centre
No decoration to speak of, plastic tablecloths and some of the best momos in town. This is where Thimphu office workers eat lunch, and it's cheap, quick and very local.
Good for: Momos · a cheap local lunch
Best restaurants and cafés in Paro
Mountain Café & Roastery
Paro · main town square
Paro's best-known café, with its own roastery, good espresso, pastries and a menu of Western and Asian dishes. It's where a lot of people end up after coming down from the Tiger's Nest, so it can be busy, and it isn't the cheapest place in town. The coffee is reliable, though, and the masala chai is good too.
Good for: Coffee · lunch after Tiger's Nest
Sonam Trophel
Paro · main street
A family-run restaurant that has been open since 1993, which in Paro makes it an institution. It serves Bhutanese, Chinese and Indian dishes to locals and visitors alike, and it's a good, safe place to try ema datshi for the first time.
Good for: Bhutanese food · families
Namgay Artisanal Brewery
Paro · on the ridge above town
Bhutan's first craft brewery, open since 2016, with a taproom downstairs and a bistro upstairs. They brew a red rice lager, dark ale, wheat beer and a few others, and you can pay for a short tour of the brewhouse. A good place for dinner on your last night.
Good for: Craft beer · dinner
Brioche Café
Paro
A small bakery-café that people go out of their way for, mainly for the desserts and pastries. Stop in for coffee and something sweet.
Good for: Desserts · coffee
Taktsang Cafeteria
Tiger's Nest trail, halfway up
The only café on the Tiger's Nest hike, with tea, biscuits and a simple lunch buffet on a terrace facing the monastery across the gorge. Nearly everyone stops here, and for some people it's the turning point. You'll eat lunch here on the way down.
Good for: Tea with a view · the Tiger's Nest hike
For a special dinner
For an anniversary, a birthday or just a last-night treat, the restaurants in Bhutan's best hotels are worth booking even if you aren't staying there. In Thimphu, Taj Tashi and Le Méridien both have smart dining rooms with Bhutanese and international menus. In Paro, Zhiwa Ling and COMO Uma Paro serve beautiful meals looking out over the valley. Tell us when you book and we'll reserve a table, or arrange a private dinner by the river instead.
Vegetarian, vegan and allergies
Thimphu and Paro are easy places to eat vegetarian. Most cafés have a vegetarian section, and many Bhutanese dishes (ema datshi, kewa datshi, cheese momos, red rice) are vegetarian already. Vegan food takes a bit more explaining, because cheese and butter go into so much Bhutanese cooking, so ask for dishes “without datshi”. For serious allergies, tell us before you travel. We'll brief the hotels and restaurants on your route, and your guide can explain it in Dzongkha at every meal.
Eating on the rest of your trip
Outside Thimphu and Paro there are fewer places to choose from, so most meals are at your hotel or at restaurants your guide knows along the road. In Punakha there are riverside places for lunch after Chimi Lhakhang, and in Bumthang the food changes completely: buckwheat noodles and pancakes, local cheese and Red Panda beer from the brewery in Jakar.
Beyond the cafés
- Walk the Centenary Farmers' Market in Thimphu, busiest at the end of the week, for chillies, cheese, red rice and snacks.
- Ask for a farmhouse lunch in the Paro valley: home cooking on a wood stove, usually with a cup of butter tea.
- Have dinner by the river in Punakha, or at a hotel with a view of the dzong.
Planning your time in the two towns? See our guides to things to do in Thimphu, Paro and the Tiger's Nest hike.
Read next
About the author
Lucky Dragon Tours & Treks · Licensed tour operator, Thimphu. Our Thimphu team plans private, tailor-made trips across Bhutan and writes from what we see on the road with our guests.
Published · last updated
