A Rave for Cafe Tibet

We finally had a sit-down lunch at Top Cafe Tibet, the brand-new restaurant adjacent to the Cortelyou Road subway station, and it was one of the best meals we've had in the neighborhood.

The two outdoor tables, for starters, are amazingly located: They overlook the tracks, which provided endless entertainment to our kids. Kids aside, the seating area is tucked away from the sidewalk, making it more private than most New York sidewalk cafes.

They've given a lot of attention to detail, too: There are little paintings on the walls outside, and the clean, cool inside of the restaurant is decorated with small flags in, we were told, Tibetan national colors, and hanging lamps. The long space feels a bit like the better among the old stretch of ethnic restaurants on 10th Avenue in the 50s in Manhattan.

More important, the food is consistently great. The chana masala (chickpeas) and aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato) shared names with popular Indian dishes, but are quite different: The chickpeas are much drier and less greasy; both dishes are milder, and with a different range of spices, than the names make you expect. The two- to four-year old crowd, which has trouble with the food from Madina, thoroughly enjoyed them, as did the adults.

The spiciest dish we had was what was called beef chili; the steamed bread soaked up its sauce nicely. The carrot soup, which has a chicken base, tasted like the familiar chicken soup. The momos -- which got us excited about this spot in the first place -- remain a highlight, with or without their flavorful tomato-based sauce.

The Tibetan iced tea was also a standout, a more honest iced chai. There's also a pleasant, sweet rice-and-raisin dessert whose name I can't recall.

The co-owner, Kalsang Phuntsok, told us this is his second Tibetan restaurant. He owns another in Boston.

We hope they do as well as they deserve to, and would encourage anyone to check Cafe Tibet out. They also do takeout and delivery. (Tel. (718) 282 3750)

(One footnote: I asked the sushi chef, whose small sushi bar is inside the attached bodega, what to make of "Himalayan Sushi," which I'd initially taken for an obscure joke. Apparently not: He's Nepalese himself, and trained as a sushi chef in some sort of culinary school in Nepal, where sushi is popular. We haven't had a chance to try it, but the ingredients looked fresh, and he seemed to know what he's doing.)