When I first heard the name Burma Burma I liked the almost echoing sound of it. The name appealed instantly and I was sure I wanted to visit the restaurant primarily for two reasons. I had never tried authentic Burmese cuisine earlier except for Khow Suey which many of us Indians have been familiar with for years. And the other reason ofcourse like I said being the name as it simply conveys what cuisine it has to offer without using any high fluted, fancy and sometimes having no co-relation in name to the type of cuisine offered.
Burma Burma is a venture by childhood friends Ankit Gupta and Chirag Chajjer who opened their first 60 seater outlet at Fort, Mumbai in 2014. It was the first ever Burmese food restaurant in Mumbai and instantly caught the fancy of customers despite the fact that it is a restaurant that serves pure vegetarian food. Ankit’s roots belong to Burma with his mother and her family being born and brought up there.
The aim of Burma Burma is to have customers carry home an experience of Burmese food and culture. It is a place celebrating Burmese cuisine which has influences of it’s surrounding countries i.e India, China and Thailand. A question that would often come in people’s mind when visiting the restaurant is why are they serving only vegetarian fare? Why no non veg when Burmese people do eat non veg. The answer to this as told to me by Ankit himself is that fish sauce and shrimp paste which are both essentials of Thai Cuisine are used in Burmese dishes. Since these ingredients have an overpowering aroma they wanted to avoid introducing the same in the Indian Market.
After the success of their Mumbai outlet they spread their wings to the Millennium city Gurgaon. Their outlet in Cyber hub is much the same size as their Mumbai one and is packed to full house at meal times. Besides Burmese food the restaurant serves 21 varieties of tea. Two consecutive successful outlets led to the third one and what better a place to open a restaurant that is making waves than in the capital of India.
Select citywalk mall at Saket is where they have opened their new outlet which is around 3 months old now. Continuing with their tradition of offering Burmese food and cultural experience the decor reflects everything Burmese from wooden dolls adorning one wall which are symbols of 8 of the leading tribes of Burma. Each of these tribes have their own costumes / textiles which are unique to their tribe. Burma gets its name from the largest ethnic group in Burma called Bamar tribe. The tea room has a variety of Burmese artifacts also on display. Another wall depicting symbols that are popular to the Burmese culture such as Lotus , Owl, Fish , Yin and Yang etc have been very artistically designed in a cemented decorative finish.
Besides being a restaurant serving vegetarian food they also have a Jain menu plus a separate menu for people who eat Gluten free food. Most of the dishes have coconut and peanuts as ingredients. We began our meal with the very popular Samuza Hincho which is basically samosa soup served in an unsual Burmese way. It is samosa in a tangy soup with cabbage carrot and capsicum. Salad follows next which is one of the tastiest i have ever eaten. Mala ka pin thoke as they call it , is guava with crushed peanuts, red chilly and brown onions. Being a lotus stem fan i had to try their lotus stem chips dusted with paprika and curry leaves which they call Kyar Yoe Kyaw.
To visit a Burmese restaurant and not have khow suey is certainly not done 🙂 . We tried the Shan Khowsuey shan delicacy of rice noodles with tomato relish , crushed peanuts , sweet soy and sesame and Oh No Khow Suey which is their signature one bowl meal of coconut milk stirred with lemon grass, tamarind and vegetables served with an array of toppings.
By now it was time to cater to our sweet cravings and we had Smokey avocado with honey ice cream and Durian ice cream. Having the latter became double the joy as Mr Ankit Gupta thought i would not be comfortable with the overpowering smell of Durian but I loved every bite of it and told him i was very familiar with the taste as we used to eat Durian candy during my hostel days at school where we had many girls from Thailand who brought this in. Am sure he was pleasantly surprised to see me enjoying it the way I did.
Stepping out of the restaurant having eaten the tastiest veg meal ever I came to the conclusion that no matter what language I use or how i word the dishes i will not be able to do justice to the quality and tasty food Burma Burma serves. So I have put across the food experience in a simple language and would love people to visit the place and get a first hand experience of the food themselves. A pure vegetarian non alcohol serving restaurant running to packed houses speaks volumes for itself.
Ratings (Out of 5)
Food: 5.0 | Ambience: 4.5 | Service: 4.5 | Overall: 4.5
Meal for Two: Rs 1500 ++ | Wheel Chair Friendly: Yes | Credit Card: Yes | Alcohol: No
Address: S 25 , Second Floor, A 3 Select Citywalk Mall, Saket, New Delhi 110017 | Phone: 011-26110202
Disclaimer: This review was done on an invitation from the restaurant. Due judgement and care has been applied by the author to remain objective and unbiased in the review, but readers need to consider this review keeping this fact in mind
