Gangchen Bar & Restaurant
Twin Cities, Minnesota

Gangchen has a surprisingly warm, trendy and well-maintained interior with friendly service. It also has a cozy, quaint bar which seems to attract lots of locals and regulars. The place definitely feels like a classy, understated, never-crowded neighborhood bar where everyone knows everyone.

The restaurant is ostensibly Tibetan, but the bulk of the menu consists of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese dishes. Tofu or mock duck can be applied to all dishes. Prices are low and the veg dishes max out at $7.99 a piece. Portion sizes are respectable, about as much as you'd get with a lunch special somewhere else.

From what I gathered, the restaurant doesn't put fish or oyster sauce into dishes, so vegans can rest easy. My hot pepper stir fry with tofu was decent but didn't wow me. It tasted just a shade above Chinese strip-mall food and was too heavy on sauce-thickening corn starch. That said, I'll definitely go back to try one of their curries or see if they can veganize a Tibetan dish. I will also try some of their cocktails and see if they can't make a delicious Himalayan drink of some kind.

A friend recently brought me here when I mentioned I was craving cranberry curry from Than Do. It's great, they have it here too and it was only around $8 and delicious and flavorful! They offer many dishes that looked amazing so I will be going back soon!
The dining room was quiet and not very busy. Rather then music, soft bird songs were played, it's a very relaxing place for a quiet dinner.
The one complaint I had was confusion between the wait staff. The man who seated us asked if we were ready to order, then half way through our order he just walked away from our table- mid sentence! We sat there confused until several minutes later a girl came to take our order. Those two switched off serving us the rest of the night but stayed out of sight for most of our dinner.
Overall I enjoyed the food and atmosphere at Gangchen!