Rangoon Ruby Burmese Cuisine

Reviews 5

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Adam Lasnik

Pleasant, but -- despite charming and attentive service -- largely meh due to the mostly one-note foods. My friend and I shared the following (and mind you, we ordered everything "mild," which inadvertently may have led to suboptimal / atypical flavors): 1) Palata with coconut lamb curry - $11 - The palata was delicious, but frankly I dont imagine its all that tough to make fried bread irresistable :p. The side curry (not sure whether to call it a soup or a failed sauce) was definitely disappointing. While the chunks of lamb were fine, the liquid made absolutely no sense (and little taste) for dipping, IMHO. 2) Tea leaf salad - $12 - We were warned that this was typically quite salty, and that we could request "less salty" if we wanted. We did, and yet it still was just... overpowering. Not sure whether it was mostly salt-driven, or just a frustrating lack of subtlety in the flavors, but either way, it was a bit of a jolt at the first bite and, well, a bit too much on subsequent bites. With that said, the texture was outstanding... good mouth feel, lots of different aspects of "crunch." But I couldnt help feeling that it was like someone took a salad with individually delicious fresh ingredients and accidentally shook the dressing bottle a few too many times over the top :(. 3) Garlic noodles with pork - $10 Meh. Absolutely unmemorable. Pork was fine (definitely decent cuts), noodles were okay, but seems like something I could get in many Chinese or fusion restaurants for $6.95 (and with less lofty initial expectations). 4) Nan Gyi Dok (rice noodles w/ egg + veggie stuff) - $12 Some nice variety of ingredients here, and perhaps I wasnt able to appreciate this due to the excess of other food (especially noodles) so I cant very fairly rate this dish. 5) Fried coconut pudding with ice cream - $10 A somewhat generous helping of four medium-sized fried-pudding-pieces was annoyingly offset by a portion of ice cream fit for a midget gnat. Id estimate it at about 1/3rd to 1/2 of a proper (European) scoop. And while the pudding pieces were tasty, they werent out of this world. 6) (yes, we were being unabashedly piggy; dont judge!) Sweet Sticky Rice with (another painfully tiny scoop of) ice cream I liked this okay; I appreciated that the rice wasnt too sweet, in fact quite nicely balancing the tasty 2.5 teaspoons of ice cream. But Ive definitely had better sweet sticky rice at quite a few restaurants. * * * Add to this the packedness and high noise of the place, and its a testament to the awesomeness of my friend that we stayed chatting for 3 hours. And given that, kudos to the restaurant crew for never making us feel rushed, despite us being there til 11pm (and closing time was officially 10pm). The only other thing that stood out quite favorably? Our server was helpful and attentive, and our water glasses were constantly filled with nary a look or gesture from us needed. Will I be back? I already have a hankering for more of the palata, but otherwise... not that optimistic Id be bowled over by flavor, value, or ambience.

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JO

Jojo Xinyi Li

This place is more like a 3.5 stars. And the reason for the low rating is really just a personal taste thing. I dont think I like the flavor of burmese cuisine. Nothing at this place was below average though, dont get me wrong. Chicken palata: awesome! It is basically the Indian paratha bread with a side of chicken korma curry. If you like any of them, you are in for a treat. Tea leaf salad: interesting. This is definitely one of their signature dishes. I wouldnt say it is too salty. It just felt like too many flavors dancing at the same time on your palate. Very weird. None of the flavors complement each other, so it felt like a constant civil war from beginning to end. Garlic noodles: very blend. This is probably the most boring dish of the night. The noodles were also too soft to chew. Ruby shrimp: meh. It tasted like a stir fried shrimp in one of those westernized Chinese sauce. Kinda like kung pao chicken paste, but spicier, with shrimp not chicken. Sooji the dessert. Imagine a coconut cake. Less coconuty, but the same texture. The vanilla ice cream on the side was just really ordinary. Overall, great service. Interesting cuisine. Definitely a personal preference when it comes to the taste. From all the good reviews written before me, this is unfortunate that it just doesnt go with my taste.

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MI

Mihir Meghani

Great ambience. Great service. I am downgrading my review from last time as the food is just not up to par with Mandalay, which is the SF areas premier Burmese restaurant, or with local Thai restaurants, or with Palo Altos Three Seasons or Tamarine. The food is quite simply not great, but certainly not bad. There is good vegetarian variety but the food is honestly not that tasteful after trying a variety of items on 2 occasions. It needs more flavor & spice. With other Burmese & Asian options, I will not be trying this place again. The tea leaf salad is a classic, but is different from Mandalay in San Francisco in that this actually has lettuce - this saves the food part of the review. The samosa soup is also very good. The garlic noodles were eggless, & were good - quite light to the taste - refreshing from the quite heavy drunken noodles you get at Thai restaurants. The Seasonal Pea Leaf was good, not spiced. The yellow tofu red curry uses beans instead of soybeans & was good. The vegetarian palata is not your typical Burmese, Malaysian or Thai roti paratha type item as there is no curry dipping sauce - just some thick red chutney which did not taste good. Avid the Burmese ice tea which was way too creamy. The coconut pudding with mango ice cream was good - not too heavy for me and my wife.

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RI

Richard Navarro

Wow this place is amazing! Ive never had Burmese food before, but Im glad I was able to have enjoyed it here! I enjoyed the food so much here! And it got me curious about other places that serve Burmese food! Overall the restaraunt experience was great! The service was quick and attentive and they had great suggestions! The place is also very cozy so youll probably closer to other parties more than you may want. It is also a bit noisy so you may have to speak a little louder than you are used to. Now to the food! We had the pleasure of enjoying the Tea Leaf Salad, which was amazing! We had non-salad eaters at the table and they found themselves to enjoying it! For our entrees we get the Garlic Noodles with Roast Duck, Coconut Rice, Walnut Shrimp, Country Beef (curry), and Chicken Kebate all of which were amazing! My personal favorite of the above were noodles, shrimp, and coconut rice! We paired all the above food with a 4 person shared Scorpion Bowl! They were generous with the pours of rum! Wonderful experience here and it was all very affordable especially for Palo Alto! Definitely coming back when I get the chance!

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Annie Shin

I made a reservation for two at 7:15pm, but we got there 15 minutes early and waited a couple of minutes before getting seated. The place is nice inside and has a classy feel, but its small so the tables are very close together. If you are a private person who is thinking of coming here with someone for a heart-to-heart talk, then I would reconsider. If you like eavesdropping and listening to other conversations, then this restaurant is perfect for you. I also felt too confined to act normal because wealthy businessmen sat on our left and polite, elderly women sat on our right. We ordered: - Tea Leaf Salad: DONT GET IT. It was too salty and the combination of everything didnt taste good. - Rangoon chicken curry: its not thick like thai curry. the chicken was pretty good, but this entree wasnt that great. - Basil chili beef: ehhh it was whatever Service is greaaaat even though this place gets packed and busy. Maybe we wouldve had a better experience if we ordered different dishes, but I dont know if Im going to come back any time soon.

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