Inle Burmese Cuisine — Restaurant in San Francisco

fyi to all that complain about prices: food has become more expensive, so restaurants have to charge more. they’re not trying to cheat you, they’re just trying to stay in business. it’s 2+2, people - we’re all trying to get by. even fast food, like Popeyes, is expensive. (a 3 piece tenders combo on DoorDash costs $16.50. we all long for the days when footlong sandwiches and 20 McNuggets costed $5, but those days are gone.)

anyway, not to be too obnoxious, I’m Burmese American and have had my fair share of Burmese food. (my dad’s from Inle!) generally I do not go to Burmese restaurants because they’re not good. and yes, I have been to your favorite Burmese restaurant, it’s not that good. (this is actually great news - that means there’s a whole world of Burmese food left for you to explore! hurray!)

but my girlfriend was craving tea leaf salad, so we decided to try Inle. we were picky customers — we ordered 3 dishes, and for each dish, I asked for several (pretty niche) modifications. they were happy to accommodate, which is to say that the cooks + managers know their stuff. I’m not big on authenticity, but if you are, then be at ease: this really is a Burmese-run restaurant.

be sure to order the Burmese food. (to appeal to the Western tastes, many Burmese restaurants offer Chinese American food because it’s more familiar. in fact some restaurants, because they’re Chinese operated, do a better job with their Chinese American food than their Burmese.) I would recommend the fried rice, because they add in yellow peas. Yellow peas + a carb is a very common breakfast in Myanmar, so if you’re truly into authenticity, you can ask for paratha + yellow peas instead of paratha + curry dip. I don’t know how to articulate it well, but they use really good yellow peas. Some of the most flavorful I’ve had. (this was one of several substitutions I asked for.)

if I had to offer a critique, I had coconut chicken noodle soup, and thought the noodles were a bit too tender for my liking. I’ve had better at home, but everyone thinks their mom makes the best coconut chicken noodle soup and I’m no exception.

as an aside, if you do order their noodle soup, it’ll come with a small dish with eggs, cilantro, lime, chili flakes, and Chinese donut. this is a good sign of authenticity; in Myanmar, the norm is to garnish your own food. also, the egg should be sliced and hard boiled. we don’t do the soft boiled egg.

I’m not sure if this was intended, but they served my soup with just a spoon. this is also authentic. I don’t know why, as a community, Burmese people have decided that we don’t need chopsticks with our noodle soup. I’m writing this for y’all who care about authenticity. it’s a weird quirk. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I plan on ordering from Inle in the near future. I’m personally looking forward to ordering the Shan noodles. Inle (which is a lake) is in Shan (a province in Myanmar) so I’m hoping that it’ll be good 🤞

it’s also obvious that the staff here really care about your feedback, so please support this...

One of those exceptional places in San Francisco where service is much better than food!

Update 6/28 - scratch the above, service is as bad as their food. Note below the reply of the business

We went to dinner after a visit to the de Young museum, the place was empty but we trusted the good reviews… oi!! :(

We had the paratha with coconut curry dip, not horrible, but nothing to remember. Not enough curry so, the already fatty bread dipped in a fatty milky sauce had no contrasting flavor to be enjoyable.

Then we shared the noodle salad and the eggplant and tofu with garlic sauce.

The salad was watery in an uncomfortable way, and nope, it was not a broth or a dressing, more like the veggies diluted the sauce it was supposed to come with and the flavors were washed out.

The eggplant with tofu was the horror of the table! Gummy micro cubes of tofu that reminded me of the trays of Asian food at Safeway at the end of the day, with shrunken greasy bites of something you can’t tell what was! The tofu had been long deep fried, left cold and then submerged in a sauce that of course couldn’t absorb, leaving a mouthful of salt to taste followed by a chewy bland cube.

We told the waitress and got the visit of a manager or owner who agreed with us and promised to bring fresh tofu and that he did! Cubes of plain out of the package tofu cubes. I told him he misunderstood what we meant by fresh and he said he gave directions to the kitchen to “in the future” not deep fry the ingredients ahead of time.

A waste of money. We won’t repeat the experience.

PS. 6/28 response to owner. Dear Owner of Inle, if you actually pay attention to the pictures, both dishes are only half eaten. Your portions are tapas size and we were two people. After spending $65 for this food we were not going to splurge on a second dinner. Thank you for your generous offer, the memory of your food stays so strongly that I would not repeat the experience even...

Ordered Togo today and had the worst food poisoning ever. Order at your own risk.

I had a response from the restaurant and I don't think they understand the taste is the least of their worries.

Burmese food is one of my favorite comfort foods to eat. You're probably more safe going to Burma Love or my fave Kyain Kyain where I've been going to for 10+ years without ever getting sick.

This restaurant needs to check the temperature of their refrigeration system that it is cold enough to store the food and make sure they do not have cross contamination. Do not leave your meats on the counter. Wash your hand before preparing food. Wash your cutting boards. All the necessary steps so that others don't get sick from eating their foods.

Food poisoning as in explosive diarrhea within 30- 45minutes of eating their food. The environment where you prepared your food was contaminated. That is why I got sick as in...