Saunchaung is known as one of the most vibrant and creative neighbourhoods in Yangon so it’s only fitting that its latest addition is exactly that. As their name suggests Working House Café set out to create the kind of space where people can come for breakfast, and then comfortably set themselves up there for the rest of the working day.
Situated on A Shae Gone Street and led by a Chinese owner, the two-storey café has a relaxed and welcoming vibe and a spacious and light design.
deeply Instagramable traditional Macau snack gai daan jai, the bubbling egg waffle as well as selection of coffees made with a wide variety of trendy contraptions.
Confusingly, the menu layout does little help you narrow down your dining choices. Teppanyaki and Japanese dishes are grouped together, while the Worldly Inspired Flavours sections seems to only include Asian dishes, which makes the Best of Asia section seemingly redundant.
But that aside, it’s a menu with plenty of options. Much of the menu is devoted to teppanyaki, a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook dishes, so for my main dish, I chose teppanyaki noodles with black pepper sauce (3,500Ks). The giant pan-fried noodle plate arrived with carrots, radishes, corn, peas, mushrooms and a half-boiled egg and tasted fantastic.
I also ordered an iced German sweet peach and sea salt cream (3,400Ks). This turns out to be a mix of sweet and sour peach soda along with sea salt, white sugar, and cold whipping cream on top. It’s unique and visually very appealing.
As a side dish, I tried the crispy seafood dumplings (4,000Ks) that were filled with fish, squid, prawns and mussels came with sour bean sauce and lemon grass. They were crisp and packed with flavour.
To finish I couldn’t resist trying the Macau waffles with chocolate dip (3,000Ks). They were light and moreish and made all the more delicious by the chocolate sauce.
The temptation to try a selection of the other dishes, from all their various origins, was great but I managed to resist. Someday soon, I’m sure I’ll find myself there to work away from the office and then I’ll enjoy perusing the menu all day long.
Working House is a merged cafe and dining place with a wide choice for dishes mainly Taiwanese, and a few Japanese and Western. Their drinks menu highlights the sea salt cream ulong tea.
