MinGaLaBar Burmese Kitchen — Restaurant in Urbandale

What a great experience! Mingalabar has one of the largest menus I've see in the metro area. We went to experience Burmese food and found that they also serve and full spectrum of Asian dishes, including sushi.

We had the Sate Thar + Kalar Pae ( Goat Stew with Chana Dal ), Puzon Hnin ( Shrimp Tomato Curry ), Salmon Poke, and shared the Laphat Thoke ( Tea Leave Salad ). All of them were phenomenal and fresh. Poke was the only dish with which we were familiar and it was the best poke we've had in the area. The waitress shared that Burmese food is influenced by the cuisine of the surrounding countries of Thailand, India, and China. Fresh vegetables, rice, curry, and pepper were all present in our dishes.

The restaurant was very clean and well decorated with Burmese art and artifacts. It has a full service bar with a variety of American, local, and Asian beers on tap and in bottles. There was one waitress and one person behind the bar. The waitress was very attentive and offered suggestions when we asked. My only dislike about the experience was that there was no music playing.

Mingalabar is a hidden gem in the Des Moines metro area. I haven't found another restaurant like it and look forward to going back. If you're looking for great food or a new food experience, you've got to...

We stopped by MinGaLaBar for the first time tonight. I was looking for new restaurants to take my Dad for his birthday and I stumbled across some reviews for this place and knew we’d want to try it. We ended up having a great meal, trying several new (to us) foods, and definitely think we’ll be back soon.

There were 4 of us eating so we split 2 appetizers and tried 4 different entrees.

Appetizers: Samosas and Tohu Jaw (fried chickpea tofu)

Main dishes: Kyar Zan Jaw (Fried Vermicelli Noodles with chicken) Kat Kyi Kaik (Fried Flat Noodles with squid and prawn) Wat Thar + Arloo Hnin (Pork stew with Potato) Sate Thar + Kalar Pae (Goat Stew with Chana Dal)

All the dishes were great but the highlights were definitely the goat stew, samosas and fried tofu.

One comment is that the noodle dishes were very large, and a lot of food, but the stews tended to be on the smaller side for portion size.

As for service, our server was really great and patient with us newbies to Burmese food. We appreciated that she was willing to walk us through different ways that we could eat the meal with the various toppings and seasonings provided.

Again, we enjoyed our meal and will be back. I just wish we had known about this...

Cute place with very friendly staff. They were very attentive and nice, however maybe we just went in with high expectations seeing it had a 4.9/5. Maybe we just aren't a fan of the cuisine or maybe it was an off night but my pork belly was grislely and fatty, and the dish was maybe lukewarm. I think being a stew it was suppose to be hot but I just got some leftovers or something. I'm really not familiar with Burmese cooking but didn't really taste much flavor/spice. We also got the platter you see in pictures but it's not labeled when it comes to the table or told what it is so we just randomly ate some of each. Maybe if we came at a different time (7-8pm) or ordered different things but just overall was disappointed and felt bad when they were like how was it, and about the experience but we didn't want to be rude and say the food that was suppose to be hot was cold, not flavorful, tough and fatty. So now we don't know if it's just this restaurant or the cuisine but not sure if we will try this type of food for a long time. That being said, why not give them a try, and maybe it will be better for you than...