Burma place restaurant has recently opened in Rancho Bernardo. Why should anyone care? For two reasons, 1. SD has very few Burmese restaurants and 2. the owners are from Burma Superstar of the Bay Area, which is well-known.
The menu is a bit different than the locations in the Bay Area but pretty similar. I have only tried the Tea Leaf salad and the Rainbow salad so far. They were on the expensive side at $15 and kind of small based on that price, but were both delicious, especially the tea leaf and tamarind dressings. I am excited to return and try more of their menu.
So Rancho Bernardo now has the Shop which is operated by folks from Bay Area’s Little Star and has really good deep dish pizza and now Burma place is another Bay Area transplant. Both are welcome additions! Now we just need Tony Gemignani and Molinari’s deli!
Bonus photo of Swagyu food truck’s Swagyu burger ($18.00 for a burger supposedly made from a blend of American, Australian and Japanese wagyu beef). Expensive but excellent.
RB? Who knew? I’ve eaten at the Burma Star (or is it Little Star) in Oakland and thoroughly enjoyed it. I will definitely want to check it out, but it’ll be a while. Had knee replacement surgery last week and I’m not going anywhere very quickly or very soon these days
@DiningDiva, wishing you a quick recovery. Hopefully the restaurant will be around for awhile but these days you never know. I believe the Burmese restaurant in the Bay is called Burma Superstar and they have multiple locations. Little Star is a pizza place, also possibly with multiple locations in the Bay.
I will hopefully try more of their menu soon and update this post.
Btw, finally tried Las Cuatro Milpas and was totally unimpressed. Am I missing something?
There’s a pandemic supply-chain issue with fermented tea leaf so prices are up.
Burma Superstar’s menus also include Chinese and Indian dishes, which I didn’t think they did as well as Chinese and Indian restaurants. My favorite Burmese places have served only Burmese dishes.
I wouldn’t say “transplant.” Burma Superstar opened in 1992 and for a some years has had three branches, so a lot of people have worked there and gone on to start their own restaurants. Similar story for Little Star / Blue Line / The Star. Obama’s favorite Chicago-style pizza was from a place in St. Louis whose chef trained at Little Star.
You missed nothing. Their tacos are grease-bombs in my opinion. Their tortillas are good, as are their chorizo and eggs, but most of their food is pretty average. I’v enever understood the appeal.
Tried more items from the menu: chili beef, garlic noodles, broccoli, Shan tofu, pumpkin chicken curry stew and shrimp stir fry. We got the food for takeout. The restaurant was quite full and doing brisk takeout on a Saturday night. Everything was solid but definitely far from spectacular. The tofu and noodles were the weakest dishes. The chili beef probably the best of the hot dishes. Overall, kind of a letdown as I had high expectations after the very good tea leaf salad. Still a good addition for Rancho Bernardo.
Do you think the fact you did the food as take out might have affected the overall quality? It’s been my experience that most take-out or to-go food isn’t as good as the same dishes eaten on premises.
@DiningDiva, yes, I think it is a bit harsh for me to judge them on one visit and a takeout visit at that, although we don’t live far. However, despite being somewhat underwhelmed, I still think it is destination worthy for SD due to the lack of Burmese food in SD and there were some good unique dishes (tea leaf salad, chili beef, pumpkin stew). They were out of the fresh baked palata bread so that was disappointing. I hope you give it a try when you’re healthy again. Would enjoy your thoughts.
Completely agree, and it’s one thing that kept me from eating take-out very often over the past two years. Not only does take-out cool down and self-steam inside the box but it also loses the appearance it would have had when served at a table in the restaurant. Not to mention the ambience of eating in the restaurant itself. And take-out can be a real mess. OK for a few things, like some Chinese fast food, but that’s about it. Not even a humble hamburger and french fries can make it home without losing that freshly-served appeal, flavor, and texture.
So many interesting-sounding new restaurants like Burma Place opening up that are a long drive from Bay Park…
