Burma Superstar

When we asked for restaurant recommendations in San Francisco, about 90% of the responses we got included Burma Superstar. We are so glad we listened because we were treated to probably the most delicious meal of our entire time out here.

Burma Superstar has three locations, but we went to the one on Clement St in the Richmond area of the city. Word to the wise – the restaurants do not take reservations so plan to show up right when they open or prepare to wait awhile. They do, however, give you free hot tea to sip on while you are waiting! The restaurant itself is fairly small but cozy and the service is beyond spectacular. From the host standing outside who answered all of our random questions about living in San Francisco to the extremely attentive waiters who explain the food, make suggestions, and were just downright warm and friendly.

Now…the food. We had such a hard time deciding what to order but we took some recommendations from San Francisco natives and Yelp.

• Tea Leaf Salad – apparently they get the fermented tea leaves from Burma. This salad also has lettuce, fried garlic, fried lentils, fried onions, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and a simple dressing of just lemon juice. It was flavorful, very unique, but probably could have used more tea leaves. I loved that they explained the ingredients and mixed it for you right at the table so it didn’t get soggy.
• Vegetarian Samusa Soup – I have never seen anything like this. It is a soup with broke up samosas, falafels, and vegetables. The magic ingredient in this soup is the mint. It was so tasty. I thought that the samosa and the falafels would be too soggy and they were soft, but for some reason it really worked with the soup. I can’t tell what the base of the soup was – maybe lentils?
• Tofu Vegetable Kebat – Stir fried tofu with onions, tomatoes, squash, carrots, green chilis and mint leaves. The menu said it would be spicy but it wasn’t nearly as spicy as the food at Mandalay in Silver Spring. This entree was, like everything else, packed with flavor. And when I say flavor, it’s different than the usual flavors that you are used it. It’s hard to explain…you will just have to try it for yourself.
• Coconut Rice – jasmine rice with coconut milk , topped with fried onions. We could have eaten just this rice and been satisfied.

The Verdict: If you find yourself in San Francisco, DO NOT MISS THIS PLACE. It was that delicious. And, they support Aung Sang Suu Kyi (see the pic of the back of their menu). Their vegetarian options are clearly marked and almost anything can be made vegetarian. They also know what vegetarian means and will make sure nothing you order has fish sauce in it.  The items above came to about $40 but it is totally worth it. Why aren’t you on your way there right now?

Burma Superstar supports Aung Sang Suu Kyi!

Samusa Soup

Fermented Tea Leaf Salad (pre mixing)

Tofu Kebat and Coconut Ride

Lucky Creation Vegetarian Restaurant

We’re back! We have been traveling for the past 4 months and we are back with new energy for the blog. Keep an eye out for posts about the food in the countries we visited!

For now, we are trying out the delicious food San Francisco has to offer. One of the first restaurants we went to was Lucky Creation Vegetarian Restaurant in the historic Chinatown of this beautiful city.

The restaurant was small and very cozy. In fact, since we were only 2 people they sat us at the only available table where a family of 3 was already sitting. This was actually one of our favorite parts of the meal – sharing really interesting conversation with new people! We also took their recommendations on what to order.

This restaurant had a full vegetarian menu with mock meats. I am always hesitant about mock meat because of the texture and the way it looks but I’m usually willing to try something new (and I love Morningstar Buffalo Wings!).

We ordered:

• Lemon Chicken – special of the day. It was basically breaded pieces of mock chicken in a delicious tangy lemon sauce. I would have liked some more fresh vegetables in the dish, but overall the taste was really good.
• Vegetable Cream Corn Noodle Soup – The soup was flavorful but nothing special. The portion was HUGE and the vegetables and noodles tasted fresh. I would probably try a different soup next time.
• Eggplant Hot Pot – DELICIOUS. They used the small purple Chinese eggplants, huge pieces of tofu, and tons of fresh vegetables. This was our favorite dish.

The Verdict: The service was great, prices were very reasonable, and we enjoyed the food. There were lots of items on the menu that we would like to try so hopefully we will be back! There is also another vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown that we want to try – Enjoy Vegetarian 

Do you have any SF restaurant recommendations for us? Burma Superstar is  next on our list!

Lemon Chicken

Vegetable Noodle Soup

Eggplant Hot pot