Bypass Little Tibet

After eating countless Big Ten's and Jimmy John's subs, my friend Avi Loewenstein and I craved ethnic food. We wanted the stuff that you'd get in mother's kitchen on lazy Sundays. Unfortunately, Little Tibet is not the place to find it. \nAfter seeing the quaint converted house, we decided to give Little Tibet a try. After all, how can a place called "Little Tibet" not be true to Tibetan cuisine? We made our way to the entrance, bypassing rows of Tibetan prayer flags and other various flags. After a few brief awkward moments, we were greeted by the hostess and offered menus. It was a bit confusing at first because we were never told to seat ourselves. We finally figured it out.\nThe décor is interesting. Little Tibet is a converted house, giving it a cozy and pleasant feel. A mix of traditional paintings and flags cover the wall. The menu was not what we expected. It predictably had Tibetan cuisine, as well as Thai, Indian, Turkish and Middle Eastern. Now I'm no geography major, but those countries cover a good part of the globe and have extremely varied cuisine. The cuisine of a country is defined by necessity; for instance, traditional French food is less dependent on spicing dishes and is more concerned with allowing the natural flavors of the fresh vegetables and beef to come out. This is why Avi and I were perplexed with the variety on the menu.\nThere are some restaurants that can pull off a varied menu; it is hard, but possible. We thought that perhaps we had found one of these places. After ordering an appetizer of Samosa (fried spicy dumplings), we were brought water and a delicious Thai Iced Tea. By far the Iced Tea was the best I've ever had. It was sweet and had a touch of milk, giving it a smooth feel. \nAfter taking a few extra minutes on deciding what to order, we decided to split our meal into countries. I took Thailand, and Avi took Tibet. Both entrees included a salad and soup. \nThe Samosas came with the salad. They were flavorless balls of fried dough with one piece of carrot, and about two peas. The salad, which came directly from a bag, did include a delicious ginger dressing. As for the soup, I think it was probably the worst soup I've ever tasted. It was an extremely small portion. In fact, it was so small that it pretty much came in a shot glass, and after we tasted it, Avi and I considered shooting it. The soup was canned chicken broth with sliced cabbage and 2 horribly chewy and flavorless dumplings. \nWhen my entrée of Pad Thai arrived, I indulged myself in it. To my surprise, it was much better than the other food they had served. I could only finish half before I was full. \nMo Mo, a Tibetan specialty, was what Avi ordered as his entrée. About a dozen little dumplings filled with seasoned beef arrived. The beef was seasoned well. Unfortunately, the proportion of meat to dumpling was silly. The dumplings were obliviously steamed about 15 minutes before arriving at our table, yielding a crunchy and inedible crust on the majority of the dumplings. The sauces served with the dumplings were delicious, but couldn't compensate for the entire dish. Avi ended up dousing the dumplings in the sauce in some vain attempt to soften the dumplings and make them edible once again. \nUnfortunately, our quest for ethnic cuisine was unfruitful. I'm not going to lie to you. When you are walking to the bars on Kirkwood, make a quick stop to this restaurant and pick up some Thai Iced Tea. Keep the rest of your money for drinks.