Best Burmese Restaurants Around the World

The best-scored burmese place in each of 2 cities.

Regional variations

Lowland Bama (Yangon, Mandalay)

The dominant tradition. Oil-rich curries, mohinga, laphet thoke, ohn no khao swe (coconut chicken noodles), and the central Burmese curry repertoire. Yangon and Mandalay hold the densest restaurant scenes.

Shan State (Inle, Kalaw)

Closer to Thai and Yunnan styles. Shan-style noodles (khao soi Shan, different from the Thai version), Shan tofu (chickpea-flour tofu) and tofu salads, fermented soybean cakes (pone yay gyi), and a less oil-heavy cuisine.

Rakhine State

The spiciest regional tradition, on the Bangladesh border. Rakhine fish curry (mont di), shrimp curries, and a stronger Bengali influence. Rakhine cuisine is now harder to access due to ongoing displacement.

Karen and the eastern hills

Hill-tribe cuisines with stronger meat (wild game traditions historically, now mostly pork and chicken), bamboo, and foraged greens. Closer to Karen cuisine in Thailand.

Defining burmese dishes

Mohinga

Catfish, chickpea flour, lemongrass, and toasted rice noodle soup, garnished with crispy fritters, hard-boiled egg, cilantro, lime, fish sauce, and chile flakes. The Burmese national breakfast.

Laphet Thoke

Fermented tea leaf salad with peanuts, sesame seeds, toasted yellow split pea, fried garlic, fried chickpea, dried shrimp, tomato, lime, fish sauce, and chile. Mixed at the table and eaten with rice or on its own.

Ohn No Khao Swe

Coconut chicken noodle soup with wheat noodles, chickpea flour thickener, hard-boiled egg, crispy noodles, lime, and fish sauce. The Burmese answer to khao soi.

Shan Noodles

Sticky rice noodles tossed with tomato sauce, ground chicken or pork, peanut, garlic oil, scallion, and pickled mustard greens. Eaten dry or as a soup. The Shan-state staple.

Burmese Curry

Oil-braised meat or fish curry. Pork, chicken, fish, or beef simmered with turmeric, ginger, garlic, paprika, chile, and onion until the oil separates and rises. Served with rice and an assortment of small side dishes (relishes, soups, salad).

Tea Leaf Salad

See laphet thoke. The non-fermented variant uses pickled rather than fermented tea leaves and is slightly milder.

Mont Lin Mayar

Half-moon rice flour pancakes filled with chickpea, scallion, and sometimes egg or quail egg. A street snack sold at morning markets.

Buthi Kyaw

Crispy fried ash gourd fritters in a chickpea-flour batter, served with a tamarind-fish-sauce dipping sauce. The classic Burmese tea-shop snack.

Shan Tofu Salad

Chickpea-flour tofu (Shan tofu, no soybean) cubed and tossed with tamarind, garlic oil, chile, fried garlic, peanuts, and scallion. The Shan-state vegetarian benchmark.

Kaung Hnyin Paung

Sticky rice steamed in bamboo, opened at the table. A breakfast and travel food, especially in Shan State.

How to order

At a Burmese restaurant, the meal centers on rice (htamin) and a curry, with multiple small side dishes (htamin gyi) including a soup (hingyo), a fresh salad (a thoke), a relish (mei thee or balachaung), and pickles. The standard order is one or two curries shared among diners, plus the side platter. Mohinga is breakfast and lunch, not dinner. Laphet thoke is a snack or appetizer, never a main. Tea (laphet yay) is served in small handle-less cups; the Burmese tea-shop (laphet yay saing) is a social institution and a key dining venue. The bill is paid at the counter. Tipping is not common in Myanmar but is appreciated; 5-10% at diaspora restaurants. The rookie mistakes are treating Burmese as just another Southeast Asian cuisine (it has its own grammar; the oil-braised curries are not Thai or Indian style), refusing fish paste (ngapi is the umami foundation), and asking for mohinga at dinner (it is a morning dish).

What to drink with it

Tea is the central Burmese pair, in three forms: laphet yay (Burmese-style milk tea with condensed milk, the everyday drink), green tea (offered free at most restaurants), and the fermented laphet leaf salad described above. Beer (Myanmar Beer, Tiger, Mandalay Beer) is the standard meal pair. Sugarcane juice and toddy (palm wine) are local drinks. Coconut water at curry-heavy meals. Outside Myanmar, the diaspora restaurants pair with Thai-style beer and tropical fruit juices. Wine pairing is rare; off-dry whites work with the oil-rich curries.

Where to eat it

Yangon (Rangoon) holds the deepest in-country Burmese food scene, with the markets (Bogyoke Aung San Market, Insein), the tea shops, and the increasing number of modern restaurants. Mandalay for the central Bama cuisine. Outside Myanmar, the Burmese diaspora has built strong food scenes in Bangkok (Mae Sot border region for the densest), Singapore (Peninsula Plaza), San Francisco (the largest Burmese community in the US, with Burma Superstar and Mandalay setting the diaspora standard), Daly City and the Bay Area broadly, New York (Burmese Bites, Rangoon Spoon), London (Lahpet, Manaow), and increasingly Berlin.

A short history

Burmese cuisine took shape across centuries of contact with India (via Bengal and the Bay of Bengal), China (via Yunnan), Thailand, and the Mon and Karen indigenous peoples. The British colonial period (1824-1948) introduced wheat and bread but had less culinary impact than in India. The 1962 military coup and the long isolation that followed limited culinary exchange; only since the 2010s has Burmese cuisine begun to globalize, mostly through diaspora restaurants. The 2021 coup has accelerated the diaspora and the spread of Burmese restaurants abroad.

Frequently asked

More cities are in research. Want burmese covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.

Browse all cuisines →