San Francisco: Burma Superstar
When my best friend asked me if I wanted to meet up for dinner, I immediately thought of Burma Superstar. My best friend unfortunately got sick at the last minute and couldn't make it, so I ended up going with AF and a Chicago friend who is in SF for a 2-week rotation.
The MUNI bus dropped me off right across the street from the restaurant:
Good thing I got there early. I put my name down for a table and was told the wait would be 30 minutes. Not bad, not bad at all. Given the popularity of the place, I was ready to wait for an hour.
We were seated pretty quickly after my friends arrived:
The interior is quite small, so I can see how the wait can get pretty atrocious.
The lady who took our order was super cute and very helpful. She efficiently broke down the menu and highlighted the most popular dishes. One of them was the vegetarian samusa soup:
A samusa is sorta of Burmese cross between a samosa and a fried wonton. I enjoyed the curry soup base, but the soggy samusa wasn't that appealing to me.
Burma Superstar is known particularly for its tea leaf salad:
The salad comes with a pretty array of fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, tomatoes, jalapenos, and other ingredients that I've forgotten. What makes the salad special is the fermented tea leaves brought in from Burma. The server who brought the dish stood at our table for 5 minutes mixing that salad. There's definitely a certain technique to it. Unnecessary? Maybe. But entertaining all the same.
We were warned that the chili lamb would be scarily spicy. I decided to tough it out:
We got an order of coconut rice just to be safe:
The chili lamb is basically stir fried lamb with dried and fresh chili, onion, and basil. I was surprised that I didn't actually need the rice. It was spicy, yes, but I COULD TAKE IT. I guess I should thank my Chicago roommate for the extensive training she put me through the past two years.
My favorite of the night was the nan pia dok:
It's a coconut chicken curry with flat noodles, chopped string beans, split yellow pea, cabbage, and chilis. The same server who mixed our salad also came by to mix the noodles. Again, he took about five minutes before he felt the noodles were mixed to his satisfaction. No complaints here. The noodles were delicious!
Apparently, you can get a free Thai iced tea if you check in on Facebook in front of the restaurant staff. If there's any reason to get a smart phone, this would be it. Ugh. Damn my phone and its lack of Internet capabilities!
Burma Superstar
309 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 387-2147
http://www.burmasuperstar.com/
The MUNI bus dropped me off right across the street from the restaurant:
Good thing I got there early. I put my name down for a table and was told the wait would be 30 minutes. Not bad, not bad at all. Given the popularity of the place, I was ready to wait for an hour.
We were seated pretty quickly after my friends arrived:
The interior is quite small, so I can see how the wait can get pretty atrocious.
The lady who took our order was super cute and very helpful. She efficiently broke down the menu and highlighted the most popular dishes. One of them was the vegetarian samusa soup:
A samusa is sorta of Burmese cross between a samosa and a fried wonton. I enjoyed the curry soup base, but the soggy samusa wasn't that appealing to me.
Burma Superstar is known particularly for its tea leaf salad:
The salad comes with a pretty array of fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, tomatoes, jalapenos, and other ingredients that I've forgotten. What makes the salad special is the fermented tea leaves brought in from Burma. The server who brought the dish stood at our table for 5 minutes mixing that salad. There's definitely a certain technique to it. Unnecessary? Maybe. But entertaining all the same.
We were warned that the chili lamb would be scarily spicy. I decided to tough it out:
We got an order of coconut rice just to be safe:
The chili lamb is basically stir fried lamb with dried and fresh chili, onion, and basil. I was surprised that I didn't actually need the rice. It was spicy, yes, but I COULD TAKE IT. I guess I should thank my Chicago roommate for the extensive training she put me through the past two years.
My favorite of the night was the nan pia dok:
It's a coconut chicken curry with flat noodles, chopped string beans, split yellow pea, cabbage, and chilis. The same server who mixed our salad also came by to mix the noodles. Again, he took about five minutes before he felt the noodles were mixed to his satisfaction. No complaints here. The noodles were delicious!
Apparently, you can get a free Thai iced tea if you check in on Facebook in front of the restaurant staff. If there's any reason to get a smart phone, this would be it. Ugh. Damn my phone and its lack of Internet capabilities!
Burma Superstar
309 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 387-2147
http://www.burmasuperstar.com/
Uh, excuse me. You spelled that wrong. It should be "Burma SuperSTAH".
ReplyDeleteyou did great w/ the spicy! i SO wish i could go back! had a great time dining w/ you and don't forget the smartphone next time ;)
ReplyDelete