Mandalay Restaurant & Cafe — Restaurant in Silver Spring

Let's start by telling you what this restaurant is/is not. Mandalay is a place where you will get a HUGE variety of (what I assume is) authentic Burmese food in a comfortable setting. It is not a fine dining or an updated restaurant. Having started there, I'll proceed.

We love this place. Although Silver Spring is filled with dining options, we hardly ever go anywhere else, because we love Mandalay so much! I'm a vegan and my husband's an omnivore, and Mandalay suits us both just right; however, even before I adopted a vegan diet, we loved it just as much! It's just worth mentioning for vegetarians, pescatarians, vegans, gf eaters, people who don't like some kind of meat/eggs/dairy/whatever, that there is a plethora of options on this menu. Often those who eliminate something are left with a small portion of the menu if we eat with our omnivore loved ones, but not at Mandalay! There's a HUGE section of the menu from which to choose, and I've made my way through quite a bit of it. Before I chose a vegan diet, I made my way through some of the vegetarian dishes, too. I don't think I ever ate a meat dish here, but my husband has, and he loves them. (I'm was never big on eating meat out at restaurants like this, but my husband says it's very good, so there's his opinion.) There are lots of vegan/vegetarian options for appetizers, and everything that's vegetarian is also vegan!

Everything I've eaten here has been fresh, tasty, and a healthier choice without feeling like "health food." We always leave with leftovers, or we could share a plate, because the portions are pretty large. There are mild, med, spicy options. I always go for med or spicy. I don't find the spicy too much to handle.

The restaurant is definitely dated, and you might find a little tear in a seat here and there, but it's part of the charm. There's plenty of room to sit and move around. There's always enough servers (they're all family.) The restaurant is decorated with some of their own family stuff - again, I find that charming. It's a bit dark, but the smiles of the staff will brighten it up...

Very disappointed for first time experience. My friend and I arrived at the location and the restaurant looks like it was decorated from a thrift store. The menu was HUGE like reading a magazine and the waitresses were aggressive about taking our order asap because a big party was coming. We put in drinks and apps and not more than 5 min passed the waitress said you "need to order NOW" she said I will help you pick and took our menus and said what she reccommended based on meat. I never had such an experience before. I would get if we were wasting like an half hour deciding but we were there for 10 min and already ordered items that haven't arrived yet. She FORCED us to order and made it clear a big party was coming later. We were not the only people there but were the only ones seemingly getting the bum rush. When we sat there and left before anyone else when we ARRIVED!! Glad other got to make an informed decision in that place. THEN, the waitress comes back and makes me pack up my food she insisted on helping put my food in my container and spills the pork in my noodle dish on the ground and just says sorry. Also I ordered not super spice and it was bland as hell...it doesn't mean NO FLAVOR! Won't becoming back and if they don't want people to eat there during a big event THEN CLOSE FOR THE DAY OR SAY NO RESERVATIONs. Food tasted decent when I put my own chili...

The food was good and definitely closer to Burmese food than I have had before in the US. Has all the famous dishes and even some regional Mandalay dishes. Slightly different than in Burma but still delicious! Took my friends and they really enjoyed it. Good dishes to order are Oh No Khao Swe, Ginger Salad, Mohingar and my favorite Mandalay dish is Nan Gyi Thote. Wish they would add more regional dishes from other parts of Burma. Chin and Kachin food are to die for and I would love to get lunn thayel munk (Burmese dosa) and Shan khao swe. But all in all one of the better Burmese restaurants I've been to. Definitely give it a shot and don't expect it to be like other southeast Asian food if you have never had Burmese cause it's pretty different. I have always despised tea leaf salad personally but it is the national dish and one Burmese people love to see people try so definitely try it. Also I wish they would add hot Burmese tea to the menu like in the tea shops in Burma. It's a must and different from other tea as it's made with...