The most popular Burmese restaurant in San Francisco is the newest, Burma Superstar. The oldest, Mandalay, remains the best, however.
There is a dynamic that I don’t really understand in which having to wait for a table, particularly if this involves standing out in the cold winds off the ocean in San Francisco’s Richmond District “proves” that a restaurant is special-worth waiting to get in and be crammed together with other diners and the concomitant high-decibel ambient noise. It is not just in Latin America that noise level reassures people they are having fun and being in an “in spot.” It is in style because other people are waiting to get in, other people are waiting to get in because the restaurant is special.
With the overnight transformation of the downtown San Francisco Burmese restaurant (Burma House) to Venetian, I thought it was time to check out Burma Superstar on Clement Street in the Inner Sunset. The restaurant does not take reservations, which makes it very difficult for a party of more than four ever to get seated. When finally we did, the service was attentive and the food fairly good, though I was underwhelmed by my favorite dish, Lap Pat Dok (green tea-leaf salad with fermented tea leaves, roasted lentils, garlic, coconut, sesame seeds, crunchy fried garlic, sesame seeds, and pickled green peppers), which had been westernized and/or padded with iceberg lettuce. A beef curry dish was good, as were samusas (curried meat and potatoes in a deep-fried wrapper) but a chicken dish was too sweet. Dry pan-fried string beans (a Chinese dish) were fine. The prices at Burmese Superstar were higher than at Burma House (the closed downtown restaurant) and than at Mandalay, and the Burma Superstar portions were smaller than those at either of the others.
A few days later, I wanted to make direct comparison. The samusas were comparable. The Tea Leaf Salad at Mandalay was right (traditional). A neighboring table asked for lettuce with their order, so that some Americans’ conception that for something to be a salad it must include iceberg lettuce probably accounts for the corruption of the dish at Burma Superstar.
In all three Burmese restaurants in which I’ve eaten, the salads come with the ingredients separated on the plate and are tossed by the waiter or waitress. Instead of the green tea leaves, there is a salad with picked ginger, another with pickled mangoes, and the rainbow salad with eight ingredients. Plus Mandalay (but not Burma Superstar) serves piquant Shredded Green Papaya Salad (a cross-Southeast Asia favorite with shredded green papaya, cucumber, jalapeño-like green peppers, onion, ground shrimp, fried garlic and dressing) and Nga Pe Dok (Burmese fishcake salad with cilantro, fried slices of onion, crunchy fried garlic, and a special salad dressing).
I have dwelled on the salads, because for me they are what is most distinctively Burmese on the menus of San Francisco Burmese restaurants, and the main reason to go to one. Most of the salads at Mandalay (at dinner-time) are $6.50, with the rainbow salad being $7.
Other appetizers include satay (6 skewers of grilled marinated chicken or beef served with peanut sauce), the samusa (5 pieces stuffed with either chicken or vegetables), fishcakes (Ng Pe Jaw), batter-fried squash sticks or eggplant, Chinese pot-stickers, and Balada (Burmese crispy pancake with a curry sauce for dipping. These range in price from $4/25 (Balada) to $6.95 (Satay).
The soups are either Chinese (hot and sour, shrimp wonton) or common to other Southeast Asian cuisines (coconut chicken noodle, catfish chowder with rice noodles, seafood with lemongrass). Unfamiliar to me (and untried) is Jia San Hinga (Black Pepper Soup, prepared with rock-cod fillets, vermicelli, squash, and other vegetables). Soup prices range from $6.50 to $7.25.
Mandalay serves Burmese curry (beef, chicken, pork). I cannot taste what differentiates Burmese form South Asian (Indian) curry. Other Southeastern Asian curries seem less piquant to me, and generally do not have potatoes in them. (Pork curry is $7, chicken curry $7.50, beef curry $8.25, catfish or fishball $8.50, prawns $9.50). Mandalay also serves Mongolian beef or lamb (why go to a Burmese restaurant for Mongolian sautéed meat?), Basil beef (with fresh ginger), and two spicier beef or lamb dishes. The one called “Rangoon” is sautéed with tomatoes, onions, and green chilies, “Mandalay” with garlic and the chef’s salsa. And there is Spicy Basil beef, lamb, pork, or eggplant (but not chicken), a prototypically Thai dish.
Both for comparison with Burma Superstar and from force of habit, we ordered Dry Pan-fried String beans (fried with ginger and a chili sauce. The beans were crispy as they should be. There are nine other vegetable dishes, two featuring eggplant, which I never eat. Some time I want to try Chin Mong Jay (Burmese-style sour vegetables sautéed with green chili, prawns (or tofu), and bamboo shoots).
As much as I love sweet roasted walnuts, I suspect that the Walnut Broccoli Tofu and Walnut Broccoli Chicken have been corrupted with mayonnaise in the Cantonese style of Walnut Chicken, though perhaps not, since the menu mentions “white sauce” for Walnut Prawns and does not mention it for the others). We had a half Crispy Chicken (as Cantonese as the walnut dishes, I know). There is also Lemon Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, Mango Chicken, Shredded Chicken with Garlic and black fungus (tree ears), so the chicken part of the menu is heavily Chinese (prices are all between $7.50 and $7.95 for the chicken dishes). And there is Mu Shu Pork, and Spicy Smoke Pork with Cabbage (standard Chinese dishes from further north than Canton). The pork dishes are all $7, except for the Mu Shy (with pancakes), which is $7.50
There are 14 seafood dishes, Spicy Pan-fried Pompano and Pan-fried Okra Prawns being the most unusual; several Chinese style (Salt and Pepper Prawns, Sizzling Prawns). Prices are in the $9.50-$9.95 range for the seafood dishes).
There are Burmese-style egg noodles, Burmese-style rice noodles, and Singapore-style rice noodles, plain steamed rice, coconut rice, or saffron rice (plus Burmese bread that is like Nan but thicker offered with the beef curry we ordered, and probably with other dishes for which it seems appropriate).
The median bottle of wine price was $17. Our group of three had no wine connoisseurs to evaluate the selection.
The service was attentive and the staff was patient in explaining dishes to those at other tables who were unfamiliar with Burmese (or, seemingly, Asian) food. I had no complaints about the service or friendliness of the staff at Burma Superstar either, though those at Burma Superstar were more harried by having little room in which to maneuver and the difficulty of hearing anything over the din.
Obviously, many people like the tense, frenzied ambiance of Burma Superstar, where tables are jammed together. I prefer not to bump elbows with diners at neighboring tables, not to sit embracing a pillar, and not having to inhale to let wait-staff get food or drink to other tables. I prefer the relaxed ambiance of Mandalay, with adequate space between tables for the efficient staff to move about. Mandalay decor has more Burmese objects on display, and sarong-clad wait-staff in contrast to the western garb of those at Burma Superstar. There are more choices on the Mandalay menu (some of them Chinese, but there is nothing Burmese on the Burma Superstar menu that is not also on the Mandalay menu, and several Burmese dishes on the Mandalay menu that are not on the Burma Superstar one). The food is better and the portions ampler at Mandalay.
The two restaurants are only two blocks distant from each other. Parking near Mandalay is not easy, but is conceivable. Parking near Burma Superstar (on Clement Street) is practically impossible. (Busses run on California Street from downtown; to take public transportation to Burma Superstar involves walking a block north from Geary (or two blocks to California for Mandalay.) Burma Superstar is new and fashionable, but on every other criterion the 21-year-old Mandalay is better.
With a minimum $25 purchase, delivery service is available 6-9 PM, and the restaurant does catering.
Mandalay opens for lunch at 11:30 AM every day of the week, closing at 9:30 PM Sunday-Thursday, staying open until 10 PM Fridays and Saturdays.
Manadaly is at 4348 California Street (just east of 6th Avenue). Burma Star is on the southwest corner of Clement Street and Fourth Avenue (facing Clement). The Burma Superstar menu is online at http://www.burmasuperstar.com/menu.html.
