Pa Lian Burmese Restaurant ( BYOB) — Restaurant in Wheaton

Last week, I was browsing Reddit, and a group about the suburbs was discussing what take-out is worth driving to get. Several people mentioned Pa Lian, and I instantly started salivating because the handful of times I’ve had Burmese food in CA, I dreamt about it for days. Tonight, I ordered an appetizer, a salad, and four entrees for my husband and I to share over the next few days.

I am a gluten-free vegetarian, so it’s not often that I find a restaurant that labels the dishes on the menu or can make a simple substitution so I can order it. The super nice guy was happy to answer my questions and make recommendations. Here is what I ordered so more people can appreciate this this wonderful restaurant.

If you are getting Burmese food, you MUST try the tea leaf salad (menu item # C02). It comes GF and veg. There is SO MUCH going on in this salad. First, it has a delightful texture—the greens are crisp, the nuts and seeds are crunchy, and the fermented tea leaves melt into your tongue. The flavor makes me so happy, but my husband says I can have his share after he has a taste. I love the salty, savory flavor of the tea leaves, and the aroma enhances the salad into a hearty entree if you wanted just that. I was a little late to pick up the food when it was ready, and the owner said that if it will sit too long before eating that it’s better not to mix it in advance. But it held up great after waiting 10 minutes for me and driving home 30 minutes. I am optimistic that the other half will still be delicious tomorrow.

The entrees came with a complimentary vegan broth soup that looked simple, but the flavor was very complex. It featured lots of lemongrass and black pepper, and I usually avoid black pepper, but it was a satisfying cup of broth!

We ordered the chickpea tofu (A01) appetizer, not knowing what to expect. If you have had traditional soy tofu before and not cared for it, please try the chickpea tofu. It feels starchier and more substantial. It held the flavor like a sponge, and my husband loved the sweet chili dipping sauce. We could have used more sauce, but I will get that again, for sure.

Then I ordered 3 GF/veg entrees, and my husband got mango chicken (E01). The sauce was a curry with a little mango purée. If you are worried that it will be too sweet, it is not. I also got the mango tofu (D03), and I agree that the mango flavor wasn’t as strong as I expected due to past mango dishes, but I was pleased with the flavor. We both noted the garlic, ginger, and onion flavor more than mango. It featured the chickpea tofu again, and it carried the flavor well.

For a noodle dish, we tried Kyarzan Thoke (B05). Glass rice noodles are the base, and the flavor is smokey and surprising. I am not usually a fan of onions, but the onions in this dish are sliced thin and cooked almost well done, which changes the typical onion flavor. It reminded me of the little onions in an onion dip. Cilantro was also a layer of flavor, and the whole thing has a very mild kick of some fragrant spice. I have not had anything like that before, and I am glad I tried it and would get it again.

When I ordered the eggplant curry (D04), I mentioned that I wanted it “mild,” and the owner warned that it usually comes with 2 whole jalapeños. He recommended getting it with no jalapeños this time and getting it with one later if it wasn’t spicy enough this time. But this Polish/Irish girl from the midwest insisted on getting it with one whole pepper, and it was too hot for me. I should have taken his advice. The heat built on the previous bite, so I surrendered after a few bites and some ice cream to cool off my tongue. Luckily, my neighbor LOVES spicy food, and he was more than happy to enjoy it. My husband tried a piece and was impressed with how well the eggplant was prepared and not soggy. That’s talent.

Burmese restaurant in IL, so please help keep it here. I am so grateful to have...

I've been wanting to try Pa Lian forever- it's rare to find niche places like this that serve less mainstream "ethnic" food, and as far as I can tell this one of the only Burmese restaurants in the Chicagoland area. Also, everyone raves about this place online (5 star rating with ~500 reviews on Yelp), so I was extra excited to try this place out recently. I'm no expert, but in my mind Burmese food is most similar to Thai food (a lot of coconut and curry based dishes), with a stronger Indian influence in terms of spices/flavor profile.

The host/owner of the place was very warm in welcoming us in and explaining items on the menu. We started off with a complimentary chicken bone broth soup with fresh green onions in it. This was a very light soup and a nice way to start our meal. For appetizers we ordered to Tofu Gyaw and Tea Leaf Salad- both of these are must try items!!

The Tofu Gyaw was phenomenal. It's essentially a fried tofu dish, but not like the fried tofu you get at Chinese/Thai restaurants which I usually find pretty bland. The Tofu Gyaw came out steaming hot and was perfectly crisp on the outside with a soft, almost creamy interior. The inside consisted of tofu made out of chickpeas, which was a surprisingly flavorful combo that reminded me of Indian pakoras.

Tea Leaf Salad is a very popular Burmese dish. The tea leaf salad here was made of fermented tea leaves, a variety of fried beans, peanuts, sesame seeds, and tomatoes/cabbage. I loved the array of textures in the salad, ranging from crunchy to soft. The fermented tea leaves themself give a savory, slightly tangy flavor to the salad, which is balanced by the crunchy garlicky flavors of the fried beans and peanuts in the salad.

For our entrees we tried the Shan Noodles, Ohn-No-Kauk-Swe, Chicken potatoes curry, and shrimp curry. The Shan Noodles were probably my favorite- it was a noodle dish made of a drier chicken curry, greens, and some other vegetables with a hint of sesame. It wasn't really too spicy, but had more flavor than I was expecting, and I loved the little punch that the sesame added to the dish. Ohn-No-Kauk-Swe was a yellow coconut milk chicken curry based noodle soup with lentil fritters, boiled egg, and onions. I didn't like this dish as much- I felt like the curry flavor wasn't as strong as I was expecting, and I'm not sure that I liked the softer lentil flavor with a more savory curry dish. The chicken/potatoes curry and shrimp curry were both really good. These dishes definitely had the strongest Indian taste to me, with a ginger/garlic/onion based curry. The shrimp curry was a little sweeter than the chicken curry, but both were savory and hit the spot.

Overall, Pa Lian is definitely a must-try restaurant in the Chicago suburbs. The owner was so warm and welcoming, and spent a lot of time telling us the story of himself and the restaurant. Places like this really need people's support during the COVID-pandemic. I highly recommend stopping by! It's truly a gem and...

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! Great food, great service. I am very thankful to them for accommodating us and putting our food in the glass tupperware containers we brought (we like to avoid plastic waste when we eat out so as often as possible we ask the restaurant to pack things in our own containers). They even made a really cute design on the top of one of our dishes). My boyfriend said the man he talked to was very chill and easy going.

What we got:

1. Tea-leaf salad: Shredded cabbage and other vegetables and jalapenos, with crispy crunchy nuts and fried garlic, and fermented tea-leaves. A very interesting flavor and texture with the crunchiness. It's somewhat bitter but it works well and becomes addicting.
2. Kauk Swe Thoke: It's a thick egg noodle dish with little fried french fry-like fried lentil (?) strips, vegetables, and covered in a chickpea powder. I am not the biggest fan of thick noodles but I enjoyed this. The texture is different than what you usually get because the noodles are coated in the chickpea flour which makes it grainier but also more hearty.
3. Tea-leaves and Rice Salad: Similar ingredients to the tea-leave salad but no cabbage. Again it has crispy crunchy fried garlic and other nuts and a slight bitterness from the tea leaves but really enjoyable rice side dish.
4. Eggplant curry: WOWWWWW! Long strips of eggplant in a delicious sauce. It's aromatic, sweet/savory, and spicy. (in fact, if you don't like spicy you might want to ask if you can get it mild though I loved it as is). One of my favorite dishes... to die for. I think the egg curry may be in a similar sauce (?) so next time I really want to try that one as well.
5. Mango Tofu: Another one of my favorites! It's very interesting. It's an orange/yellow, thick mango sauce with the flavor of mango... but somehow now sweet. Really enjoyed this one a lot.

So yeah, great food. Next time I really want to try the egg curry. We are mostly vegetarian and the options for that were amazing. There are a lot of meat dishes on the menu that look really great too so maybe some day I'll try those. This is I think the only Burmese restaurant in all of Illinois so I really hope the community will come out to support them.. it would be a real loss for diversity of cuisine in the Chicago area if something happened to them. Wheaton is lucky to have such a restaurant. We live in Chicago but I think it is absolutely worth the trip, especially because you can hit up places like Mitsuwa while you're out this way and there's a lot of other stuff to see in Wheaton to justify the day trip. Thanks and...