There is a huge number of restaurants in Lhasa, and you could eat in a different place every night for several months. Anyone seriously watching the yuan can get a bowl of nourishing noodles in one of the small places near the Tromzikhang market.An excellent night market stretches along Desenge Lu, north of Beijing Dong Lu. There are plenty of Sichuan hotpot stalls at the beginning, but keep going and you'll find Uigurs selling Xinjiang food - lots of spicy kebabs - towards the end. Prices are very cheap, but find out the cost of everything before you order. If you're getting a picnic together, try the new supermarket at the east end of Yuthok Lu, on the north side. You can get tasty Muslim bread from bakeries outside the Mosque for a few yuan. For trekking food such as muesli and chocolate, try the counters at the Kailash or Snowland Restaurants. The small shop on Beijing Dong Lu, opposite and east of the Yak Hotel, with "Indian foodstuffs abundant" written outside, sells such goodies as chocolate spread. Many of the shops along Beijing Dong Lu sell army rations in green wrappers; they're pretty tasteless, but the oblong biscuits certainly fill you up.

Barkhor Cafe, Barkhor Square. A good to place to sit with a chocolate milkshake, though the food is nothing special - the draw here is the rooftop terrace at the southwest corner of Barkhor Square. Reach the caf?by the spiral staircase to the right and look down on the evening bustle of the crowds as the setting sun bounces golden rays off the Jokhang roof. Inside, there's an Internet area.

Beijing Duck Restaurant , Beijing Xi Lu, opposite and a little west of the Grand Hotel Tibet; there's a sign in English (but no English menu inside). No prizes for guessing the house speciality here. You'll pay about ?0 per person.

Gangki Restaurant, corner of Mentsikhang Lu and Barkhor Square. This rooftop place is good value and has great views of the Jokhang, but is very popular with Tibetans and often extremely busy. Main dishes cost 20-30 and Tibetan tea and tsampa are also available.

Hard Yak Cafe, Lhasa Hotel, Minzu Lu. Offering starched linen, muzak, old magazines and a range of Western food, this place is an expensive haven for the culture-shocked. Expect to pay ?0-80 for a main meal; the famous Yak Burger (?8) is almost worth the price and should only be tackled by the seriously hungry.

Kailash, in the Banak Shol, Beijing Dong Lu. Their set breakfast includes eggs, toast, hash browns and tomatoes for ?0. Also on offer are yak burgers, spaghetti and various vegetarian options. Service is slack and it gets busy, but at least you get to wait in the pleasant environs of the hotel courtyard.

Lhasa Kitchen, Beijing Dong Lu, beside the Yak Hotel. Ignore the tacky lampshades and concentrate on the excellent Tibetan cuisine served in this upmarket but inexpensive place. Try soup with shaphali (meat and vegetable patties) followed by deysee (rice, raisins and yoghurt).

Mad Yak, in the courtyard of the Kirey Hotel. Pleasant Tibetan furnishings, and the menu is large if the food bland - it's designed not to tax the palate of any of the tour groups who sometimes take over here. There's some rather lacklustre Tibetan singing and dancing every evening at 7pm. Go to Tashi 2 next door instead.

Makye Ama, behind the Jokhang, southeast corner of the Barkhor. The kind of New-Age cafe you might expect to find in the arty quarter of any Western city. Try the Indian dishes and rhodola, a local drink supposed to aid oxygenation. Comfortable chairs invite lingering and offer a view over the Jokhang perambulators, while the restaurant library boasts the best collection of English-language books in Lhasa.

Muslim Restaurant , Beijing Dong Lu, 50m west of the Banak Shol Hotel. Run by one of the many Hui Muslim families who now live in Lhasa, this little place cooks up some great yak dishes.

Snowlands Restaurant , next to the Snowlands Hotel, on Mentsikhang Lu. Upmarket but moderately priced with a wide range of soups, salads, pizzas, yak steaks and curries prepared by a good Nepalese chef. Main courses for ?0 and generous set breakfasts from ?5.

Tashi 1 , corner of Beijing Dong Lu and Mentsikhang Lu. Along with its sister restaurant, Tashi 2, in the Kirey Hotel, this is the mainstay of budget travellers in Lhasa. Both offer the same small and inexpensive menu, including a range of Tibetan momos and delicious bobis (tortillas with sour cream and vegetables or meat), as well as french-fries, spaghetti, mashed potatoes and fried yak meat. The cheesecake and the chocolate cake are excellent.

Third Eye, Mentsikhang Lu, opposite the Snowlands Hotel. Good Tibetan fare; on some nights a Western action movie is shown.

Yuyi, opposite the Banak Shol Hotel, Beijing Dong Lu. Sichuan cuisine served up in an informal atmosphere. No MSG is used but the food is not as spicy as it should be, unless you make it clear that you want the genuine article.

Tibetan cuisine
The traditional Tibetan diet consists in large part of butter tea , a unique mixture of yak butter, tea and salt, all churned into a blend that most Westerners find largely undrinkable, but which Tibetans consume in huge quantities. Into this brew is stirred tsampa , roasted barley flour, to form a dough with the consistency of raw pastry but a not unpleasant nutty flavour. Yak meat , yoghurt and cheese (often dried into bite-sized cubes to preserve it) and sometimes a soup of a few vegetables supplement this. Most Tibetan restaurants serve thukpa (pronounced tukpa), a noodle soup with a few bits and pieces of whatever is available thrown in and, if you're lucky, you'll find momos which are tiny steamed or fried dough-wrapped parcels containing meat or vegetables. A thri momo is a solid dough parcel without any filling. The local brew, chang , a sweet, yellow beer made from a mixture of grains, was summed up by one traveller as tasting like bread and lemonade.

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