Teakwood — Restaurant in San Francisco

Absolutely outstanding! I believe this is one of the Burma Love family’s newer outposts, but I’m so incredibly grateful that they brought this little picture of Burma into Hayes Valley. The food is absolutely delicious, the service is on point, and the space is just beautiful. Our server, Matt, was extremely attentive and friendly, as well as quite funny — I appreciate with them dealing with / going along with our shenanigans as we fought for the bill. They were also great at handling dietary restrictions / allergies, although I will note that the menu’s allergy markings are not comprehensive (there were a few items with peanut in the description but didn’t have the little peanut allergen sign marker; I hope there weren’t any where peanuts weren’t mentioned on the menu at all, but just something to watch out for if you have a deadly allergy).

Food-wise, we split the tea leaf salad, hawker garlic noodles with shrimp, and Inle fisherman. My favorite had to be the tea leaf salad, a Burmese classic and just such a wonderful symphony of flavors and textures. I love the crunch from the sesame, sunflower seeds, garlic chips, and chickpeas (as well as, if we got them, the peanuts) paired with the freshness of the lettuce and cabbage, plus the slightly pungent / funky, super umami flavor from the shrimp powder and fermented tea leaves. I absolutely love this dish every time I get it, and it’s a must-try at any Burma Love family location if you haven’t had it before. They also mix it for you and explain each ingredient table-side, so it has a fun presentation.

For our mains, both the garlic noodles and fisherman were quite tasty! The garlic noodles were super flavorful — certainly very garlicky but also a great hit of umami and salt from the soy sauce — and the shrimp was sweet, juicy, and tender. The noodles to err a bit on the greasy side, so I think they’re a great item to split but I would personally feel a little heavy / uncomfortable if that was all I had. The sliced cucumbers on top were a lovely pop of freshness to balance out the grease, though. I think if I had saved some of the tea leaf salad to eat alongside the noodles then that would’ve been perfect. I also really enjoyed the Inle fisherman; the cod was very flakey and tender (although certainly on the fishier side, if you’re less comfortable with strong fish flavor), and it had a great flavor from the slightly sweet, sour, salty, and spicy sauce and roasted heirloom tomatoes. The fish was paired with a wedge of cabbage, which might have been one of my favorite things that night. The cabbage was very tender but still had a good level of crunch, and it was topped with a delightfully umami, not too spicy chili crisp.

All in all, such a wonderful spot for dinner! I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Teakwood and cannot wait...

I would like to rate the food on the lower end of 4 stars, with hope that it will improve in the coming weeks, but for now truthfully will have to rate 3. Most of the dishes were over seasoned and in hindsight getting a rice on the side would have been a good call.

What we ordered:

Clams and mussels with Thai sausage and platha: The platha was delicious and great to dip in the sauce. The Thai sausage was too salty to eat with just the platha.

Tea leaf salad: this was my first time eating tea leaf salad and it was really good I enjoyed the crunchiness and fermented taste of the tea leaves. Probably my favorite dish of the meal.

Pea shoots: pea shoots are my favorite veggie and their pieces were really tender and crisp. However it was over seasoned as it was both tart and too salty and overpowered the refreshing flavor of pea shoots.

Lanna egg noodle: This dish came out much later than the rest of our food so the whole party was quite full but it's at this time. It was coconut-y and spicier than we had expected. Chicken was a little dry but complemented of the curry well generally.

Hand pulled garlic noodles: I was probably the most excited about this dish but it was also over seasoned to the point where the garlic was not as prominent as I had hoped.

Teakwood Fry: We decided to order this one because the Bronzino was sold out and this one has the name of the restaurant in the title so we thought it was a sure bet. It was hard to tell what was in the fry. It seemed like there was a lot of onion, some salmon chunks, mushroom, and calamari. It felt weird sifting through a pile, hoping not to get another piece of onion. Also not sure if I like fried salmon - I think I usually prefer a more tender fish. I did enjoy the breading, which had a hint of cumin.

The service was good. Most of the food came out really fast except for one dish at the end. It's set up to be family style where you share the dishes with your group. However, every time a new dish came out, there was an awkwardness about where to put the new dish. Feels like the staff needs to get more used to knowing how to squeeze in more dishes on the table. I don't think we even ordered a lot relative to how many people were in our party.

The interiors are really beautifully done. Lighting, finishes, decor, and plants created a great atmosphere. The music was great although a little too loud for our group which was trying to make conversation.

I really loved all of the tangy, creamy, spicy here but everything was intense and overpowered some of the natural flavors and especially each other. I recommend getting rice on the side.

Hope to return soon to...

My first try on Burmese cuisine 🇲🇲! The server was nice and the environment was so cozy and elegant for a rainy day!

Platha The dipping sauce was delicious! The texture was somewhat similar to Taiwanese scallion pancakes, crispy yet chewy.

Mango Lassi The mango flavor was rich but not overwhelming. It was perfectly balanced—smooth and refreshing! Recommended!

Garlic Noodles Although it’s a signature dish, I found it a bit mild in flavor 🤔. I’d probably try something else instead next time.

Lemongrass Steak Tasty, tender, and quite healthy with the greens! The Southeast Asian-style spicy sauce paired with steak was a totally new experience for me!

Aged Duck Curry The coconut flavor was super rich, and there was pumpkin in it too! The duck was so tender that I thought I was eating a steak. Absolutely delicious! I’ve never had duck this soft before!

Short Rib Khao Soi This was probably the saltiest dish of the meal 🤔. The sauce has very strong peanut + coconut milk flavor. The short rib was so tender that you could pull them apart with a spoon—amazing! If you enjoy bold flavors, this is a must-try!

Mango Sticky Rice First time seeing sticky rice served this way, very creative😯! The orange sticks are probably gummy made from mango juice. The ice cream was also tasty, and the sticky rice was cooked perfectly! The combination of warm sticky rice, creamy coconut milk, and cold ice cream was really interesting! The only small downside was that it wasn’t very easy to scoop everything together at once🤔. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I’d still recommend trying it! 👀✨

$49/person, fair price for...