The mustard-yellow building on the southeast corner of Barkhor Square is one of Lhasa's most recognisable restaurants. Makye Ame takes its name — and its mythology — from a poem said to have been written by the sixth Dalai Lama, a famously unmonastic figure who reputedly carried on a love affair with a local girl named Makye Ame in this very building.
The kitchen serves an idiosyncratic mix of Tibetan, Nepali and Indian food: thukpa noodle soups, momo dumplings, chicken curries, fresh fruit lassi. The food is competent rather than transcendent, but the location — a rooftop terrace with a direct view over the Barkhor circuit — is the real reason to come. Mid-range prices for Lhasa, expect to wait for a roof table at sunset.