Burma Love — Restaurant in San Francisco

very disappointing dining experience here, regardless of my expectations walking through the door.

#1. i came as a solo diner and was offered a seat at the bar, where you can order food. unfortunately, the bar staff know close to nothing about the food menu. they cannot tell me if the chicken in a dish is minced or sliced, or if a dish has sauce or not.

heads up: if you are going to offer food at the bar, your bar staff need to be food trained.

#2. there was a gentleman at the bar who had ordered one coke and had not been drinking it. he proceeded to harass me while i was sitting at the bar, making weird comments and asking me to talk to him. he then kept roaming around the restaurant bothering other people. this was a big annoyance.

advice: you should not be offering drinks only, even at the bar. folks who come in should be dining. i understand you may have a drinks program you are proud of (to me it looked underwhelming) but regardless, you have the ability to safeguard against these experiences.

#3. VERY soon after i ordered, my main course arrived (this is not a good sign.) i told the gentleman i’d like my starter, the salad, to arrive first. he took the main course back.

my salad promptly came out a minute later, followed by the same, lukewarm, main course chicken dish not even 2 minutes later.

i sent it back again and eventually it came out after i had finished my main.

advice: do you really need advice on how to course a meal? jeez.

#4. the food was, simply put, underwhelming and disappointing, and far, far overpriced.

this famous tea leaf salad was not as good as i expected. the tea leaf overpowered everything, and every spoonful felt like eating straight from a jar of pesto - literally. also, there were too many crunchies (peanuts and other random fried things.) i prefer my salads to be mostly vegetables.

additionally: think it could be better if the lettuce was thinner. IMO everything tastes better when sliced smaller.

for the mains, choosing something was really a challenge. everything was either deep fried or pan fried and just sounded really heavy or oily.

i ended up with the chicken mint, which i was (eventually) advised would have some balance and be a lighter main course.

there was NOTHING balanced about it at all. a warm sloppy mess of a dish i could have made at home. felt like any very standard, maybe worse than standard restaurant in chinatown.

there was no delicacy, nothing to brighten up the dish, and similarly no depth. just very thick, heavy, umami and oil.

really really, really disappointing, really!

and tbh i assume this is the same across the menu - there was nothing steamed, grilled, or anything else from what i saw. no elevating of nature’s flavours (except when drowning in fermented tea leaves.)

anyways, i’ll stop there. 0/10, and lost in every domain of what a $$ restaurant should be offering to its customers. wish i saved my time and money, and i won’t be...

Shan noodles with chicken, and deep fried whole fish were delicious. Would order again. The deep fried battered chicken chunks and tofu not so much. We appreciate that each dish came with separate serving utensils, that isn't always the case at Asian eateries. So if you are sharing with friends and dread the accidental double dip, fear not. Shan noodles were mixed for us table side, and lemon squeezed for us. It was a great punchy mix of bright bold flavors. The pickled greens were funky and pungent, when mixed up with the fresh greens, lemon juice, etc. It all comes together. The whole fish was fried beautifully. Squeezing the giant whole lemon chunk left our fingers sticky from the sauce it had been drizzled with. Would have liked it to be wedged for easier squeezing. We liked that the fish wasn't drowning in the sweet sauce and only the lower half near the tail had sauce. The upper part near the head was mostly dry. This suited us fine but if you like more saucy, then you can always use the serving spoon to scoop extra sauce from bottom of plate and drizzle. The tofu was interesting, well fried so it was crisp, not greasy, like fried tofu can be. The inside was indeed soft like the menu described. It is different from regular (your average firm Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, taiwanese, Chinese etc. tofu) tofu, has a sour smell and taste kind of like slightly spoiled regular tofu, but with a mashed potato texture. The chicken chunks had a warmed over odor and flavor that I could not stomach, but if you aren't sensitive to that you may like the sticky sweet General Tso type sauce. Batter was too thick for my liking but if you like hush puppies and bready items, you may like this. Note for people with food allergies: The older male server was very communicative and proactive regarding possibility of cross contamination. Other young female server looked like she didn't want to be there, made a face when asked for the menu, and was the opposite of the male server in every way. If you have a mango allergy, they do store mango together with other produce, and use the same cutting board and wok. We took a chance knowing I may get probably a slight case of hives (in the Mission and really wanted some Burmese) because we were some of the first customers of the day, and they checked that no one had cut/cooked...

DINNER REVIEW

WHY, I ask, WHY did it take me 26 years to discover Burmese food?! I have loved both Indian and Thai Food for most of my post-adolescent life and I am now only discovering Burmese food, which is a fusion of the two.

I was in town visiting SF and I wanted something unique to SF so my friend, a local, recommended we try Burmese Food which is how we ended up at Burma Star. We got there and had to wait about 30-45 minutes for a table around 7:30 on a Saturday night but it was WORTH THE WAIT.

When we told people we were going here, everyone said “Get the tea leaf salad” which sounds a little weird at first...tea leaves in a salad? My friend we were getting dinner with confirmed that this was a must-do so that was the first thing we ordered.

Before I get into what we ordered, I have to say how highly I think of this menu. Though it is on the longer side, it is very intentional and has really clear descriptions of what everything is, assuming that there will be people unfamiliar with Burmese food (like me).

Here is what we ordered, and I would order everything again.

Laphet (Tea Leaf Salad) - this salad was worth the hype. It comes with a bunch of ingredients including greens, peanuts, and a thick dressing (which is where the tea leaves are) and they mix it all together right in front of you. It’s hard to describe but it’s a flavor and texture experience I have never before had and I immediately wanted to have again. You must get this.

Samusa Soup - a delicious, perfectly-spiced vegetarian soup where you add a bunch of things that come on the side, include Samusas (which remind me of Indian Samosas). I could have eaten the whole bowl it comes in.

Minced Chicken with Mint - this is not your typical Asian chicken dish. It wasn’t quite ground chicken but it was fall-apart, tender chicken that had such vibrant flavor with the mint.

Coconut Rice - better than normal white rice because it’s cooked in coconut milk and has toasted coconut on top.

The secret best part of Burma Love was that this place was so inexpensive given the flavors and portion size. If I could come back to Burma love everyday, I would! Next time I am in SF, I...