Restaurants in Yangon

Mingalaba!

How are you? Today I will describe some of the restaurant options in Yangon we experienced so far and we liked very much! There are many restaurants in Yangon, plenty to choose from depending on one's taste, budget and readiness to experiment.

Additionally you have the street vendors I already spoke about in one of my posts. I promised a picture of the grasshopper treats, so here it is:

For us, this is still an unknown delicacy as we didn't yet have the courage to try it.

Street vendors preparing food:

Back to the restaurant options:

I will start with the cheapest option which you will find in the 34th street, downtown Yangon:
999 Shan noodle shop  
(9 is considered a lucky number in Myanmar)

It is recommended in many travel books and we had quite a long taxi drive this Saturday to reach the place. Saturday was hot and the only air conditioning we had during the taxi ride were the open windows and the "fresh" air coming from the traffic outside. We asked the taxi driver if we could have the air conditioning and he's reply was "Sure, sure, 1000 Kyatts more", so we had to laugh and decided not to accept the offer. The way he explained it to us, the big smile and the friendly nature made us pay at the end 1000 Kyatts on top of the agreed price. He was happy and we were totally sweaty!

Once inside the restaurant which is a tiny room with wide open doors and air conditioning we occupied one of the 7 tables. At that moment there was a power cut and they had no electricity so no air conditioning inside. Very hot...

No toilet but hands could be washed in the kitchen.

The young lady who took our order spoke good English and you could see they were used to tourists. The food was great. As the name of the restaurant indicates it serves recipes from the Shan region of the country and they specialise in noodles. You should try the sticky noodles (you can chose between chicken or beef) which you can have as a soup or as a dish or the Shan noodle soup. Both recipes are not spicy and with plenty of flavors. The portions are not huge but enough for a lunch.
The price for two dishes and two fresh lime juices was 4600 Kyatts, around 5 USD.

The second restaurand we very much enjoyed for lunch was
Shan Yoe Yar (which means Shan tradition), a restaurant opened one year ago in a century-old house renovated in the style of traditional Shan Haw Palaces. We discovered it by chance when looking for the 999 Shan noodle shop and the taxi driver dropped us to this restaurant.

Again, a restaurant with traditional dishes from the Shan region. This one is a  a bit more expensive than the first option. Below a page from the menu.

We enjoyed some nice dishes from which I would only mention eggplant salad with mint, garlic and coriander, yummy!

and the spicy fish steamed in banana leaves, simply delicious:

The last option, the most expensive one, is a restaurant located inside the hotel Governor's House. About the hotel, a copy-paste from their website:

"A romantic, colonial-style mansion dating from the 1920s, Belmond Governor's Residence is redolent of the days when it was home to the ruler of Myanmar's southern states."

You have two restaurants inside, one Myanmar buffet and one à la carte. I was there last year for a drink with friends. I remembered the nice atmosphere and the beautiful surroundings so I wished to return for a dinner, which happened a year later!

The surroundings, the atmosphere, the service and the food are very good.

The buffet restaurant is placed on the first storey of the building which is in fact a large terasse. You can admire from above the luxuriant vegetation and the pond. The atmosphere was unique, also because there were few guests and we even had a small orchestra to play for us:

The buffet is diverse and the dishes are very nicely presented.. In the menu water, juice, tea and beer and even local cigars (!!!) are included. For 97 USD for two persons you will probably go there when you have something to celebrate!

Needless to say that in all the restaurants the service is great!

Enjoy the pictures below and till next time!

Sticky rice: