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.

The menu takes inspiration from every corner of the world, ranging from the
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.

Café

09 953 38808109 953 388081

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.

Opening Hours

10:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Price Range

$$

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The post Working House Cafe review: Set yourself up for the working day appeared first on MYANMORE.

In what is basically a converted living room, the owners have carpeted the floor with fake grass and decorated the sidewall with a slightly kitsch plastic ‘jungle flower’ wallpaper.

Customers sit cross-legged on the floor at one of two tables, or on a long bench that runs past three tables, which sport flower pots. The entrance—also adorned in pots—has a small seating space too.

The owners have even found space for a stand of local produce—May Myo drip coffee; essential oils; soy candles; Tree Food fruit snacks, and coffee scrub that promises to give your skin a much-needed caffeine boost.

This relentless use of space is echoed in the clammy (but seemingly hygienic) kitchen, where frantic cooking invites a ‘we invited too many guests’ vibe. It also has a small adjoining toilet.

The friendly team brings out complimentary herbal tea and offers a range of hot coffee (cuppa’ their signature is 1,000 kyats, Americano 2,200 kyats, espresso 1,500 kyats) and iced coffee (from 2,000-3,500 kyats). They also have non-caffeine drinks such as soda and tea (their signature tea is 2,000 kyats).

The fact that the cafe is without Wi-Fi probably adds to its social and homely feel, and gives customers the focus to work their way through the economical menu. Toast spread with sugary delights such as Nutella and jam cost between 800-1,500 kyats (there’s also an intriguing apple mayo spread).

Fruit bowls are 2,000 kyats and something more substantial is the Myanmar traditional fare—eggs, rice are about 1,200 kyats, noodle dishes are 2,000 kyats and the chickpea or chicken curries and khaw pote aren’t going to break the bank either.

When we visited the juice of the day was orange and soft 80s ballads serenaded the mix of local and expat clientele. Plant House is a cheery meeting place that has the potential to become a subtle Sanchaung fixture.

Address: Nyaung Tone St, Sanchaung Tsp, Yangon

Opening hours: 9am-9pm, closed Mondays

Telephone: 09 798 883355

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Skewered pig offal dunked into a communal cauldron of bubbling murky broth may not be to everyone’s taste, but Yangon sure seems to love it.

U Win Swe took advantage of the city’s appetite for wat thar dote htoe (or pork sticks) in 1993 when he scrapped trishaw driving and selling vegetables from a cart to set up a stall on Sanchaung Street.

“It’s a better business,” considered the 53-year-old grandfather. “You can get more profit compared to the other jobs.”

Any profit is still modest, however, with broken sticks costing 50 kyats and unbroken sticks 100 kyats. Each one has a special porky treat at the end: intestines; cartilage; eye; liver; kidney; esophagus; tongue; heart; lung; fried blood; or just a plain old cut of meat.

U Win Swe buys it wholesale from a supplier in Sanchaung Market at 6am every day besides Sunday, his day off. Then he thoroughly cleans the offal at his house and brings it to his spot, unfolding a table leaned against a G & G convenience store.

Of course, it wasn’t always a G & G. The building opposite wasn’t always a teashop, either. Over the 25 years U Win Swe has sat there, cutting offal, he has seen the whole place transform.

“Before the road was bad and narrow,” he said. “Now it is concreted over. There is so much more demand. I’m very happy about it.”

His stall stays open until the meat runs out, usually about 8pm. Seldom are the little plastic seats empty—a hygienic stall is a busy stall—and customers also help themselves to slices of boiled egg, bowls of garlic and chili, and chili sauce poured from a jerry can.

So busy has the stall been lately that his wife of 28 years has come to help. They spend most of their days beside offal. “When I’m sick the smell irritates me,” U Win Swe admitted. “But when I’m not it’s fine.”

Rainy season, a time spend indoors for most, is bad for business, but that changes come Tazaungdaing Festival, which marks the end of the monsoon.

Why do people flock to his stall? “Kindness,” he smiled, sipping tea. “I have a lot of kindness for my customers and everyone.”

Many foreigners are put off by wat thar dote htoe, but a popular stall serving quality offal can quickly change any preconceptions. U Win Swe will be open for a while to come, or “until my body gives up,” he added. Like blindly grabbing a pork stick, “health is unpredictable.”

Address: Corner of U San Nyunt and Sanchaung Street, Sanchaung Township.

Opening Time: About 3pm-8pm.

The post Story of a Yangon pork stick seller appeared first on MYANMORE.

About 200-300 bowls of the breakfast favorite are dished out to customers every morning from 5-9am at the popular joint in Sanchaung.

The rich fishy broth poured over rice noodles costs a mere 500 kyats—or 900 kyats with split bean fritter and quail egg. But the real steal is the unique, flavorful taste, a gathering of fried gourd, onion, crushed peanuts, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, and more coupled with diced snake beans and coriander.

Tin Tin Aye was named after the woman who started the operation from a street cart on Tamwe junction about 50 years ago. From there she moved to a market shop in Lanmadaw, eventually closing that to open in Sanchaung.

Now at the age of 76, she has built a legacy of four Tin Tin Aye diners scattered across the city. Her eldest son has run the Sanchaung spot for 30 years, while her other three children each run their own Tin Tin Aye.

Her daughter-in-law, Daw Khin Than Win, 58, told Myanmore that Daw Tin Tin Aye “tried her best to make the mohingya taste different from others,” adding, “she is very smart.”

Khin Than Win has run the place with her husband on the bustling Sanchaung Street for 30 years. They have two daughters and a son—the generation to continue Tin Tin Aye.

Surprisingly, the mohinga is not made on site but instead all cooked at Tin Tin Aye’s home in Mayangone every morning and delivered to each eatery. Unsurprisingly, they usually sell every last bowl.

The post Yangon’s best mohinga appeared first on MYANMORE.

Tokyo Coffee Café & Bar is like a needle in the haystack; it provides a variety for coffee lovers with an atmosphere that takes away your stress, and of course the delicious Japanese food is a bonus. Predominantly frequented by Japanese expats, this café serves the Japanese people’s favorite coffee with décor that makes one feel like home.

With 25 years of living in Japan and 8 years of being a part of the food industry in Tokyo, the co-owner of this café aims to provide a place for the Burmese people to enjoy the authentic food culture of Japan as it is hard for all Burmese people to go to Japan to try Japanese cuisine, especially the blue-collar worker.

The most amazing trait about this café is that it provides a coffee menu with 50 options to choose from, which includes Tokyo Original Bled Coffee, American, French, Arabian, Mexican, Cuban, and Irish Coffee to name a few. It also serves Japanese alcohols such as Sake, and Umeshu, and if you go upstairs, you can sit down at a bar with a variety of drinks.

We ordered Café Au Lait (4,000MMK) from the Variation Coffee section to start off. We were told that we can adjust the coffee to how it best resonate with our palate. The first floor has coffee making apparatus set up on the island, and as you wait, you can enjoy the view of the barista making your coffee. The coffee came just as we instructed; it was not extremely creamy and was brewed perfectly, just the way we like it.

Apart from its signature coffee, the café also provides traditional Japanese food to fill your stomach. We were recommended the Ebi Gyoza (3,500MMK), Tempura Udon (6,000MMK), Chicken Nanban Set (5,000 lunch / 7,000MMK dinner), Salmon Sashimi (8,000MMK) and Chige Nabe (2,500MMK).

Unlike cuisines from other cultures, the dishes at this restaurant pay close attention to its texture and set-up; the dishes are minimalistic and less grandeur, and it gives one a homely feeling just by looking at the dishes. I loved the softness of the rice and the chewy texture of the dumplings (Gyoza) and Karrage (Deep-fried Chicken).

The Tempura Udon noodles were thick, but didn’t take much to chew because of its soft quality. The sashimi dish was also very fresh and mixes well with soy sauce and wasabi. The Chige Naba came with flavorful spice and sourness topped with cabbage, tofu and chicken, which compared very refreshing to other dishes. As dessert, we tried the Cheese Cake (2,500MMK) and the Mocha Coffee Cake (2,500MMK), both of which were moist and rich in flavor.

My favorite out of all the dishes would be…

Honestly, I really can’t choose! It’s a must go for coffee and Japanese food lovers. They were all very tasty and mouth-wateringly delicious. Just go ahead and enjoy your favorite cup of coffee and Japanese dishes in the homely Tokyo Café!

Address: No. Pa/25, Padonmar Lane, Shinsawpu Ward, Sanchaung Township, Yangon, Myanmar.

Phone: 09 799591562, 09 799122846

Opening Hours: 8AM – 11PM

The post Tokyo Coffee : The Coffee that Warms Your Heart appeared first on MYANMORE.

What it is – Pizza Factory is a small pizza joint, which serves crunchy, crispy, and wood- oven baked pizzas at after work hours. Every ingredient, with the exception of Italian mozzarella and salami, is acquired from local markets for the freshness and homey spirits they can bring. The sauces, the dough, and the ingredients are prepared on a daily basis and everything culminated in fresh pizzas made in the wooden oven, located just in front of the shop. Based on the philosophy of “by hands and not by the grams”, the two Burmese chefs (who were thoroughly trained by a disciplined traditional Italian pizza maker) are wholeheartedly persevering to maintain delicious consistency for their homemade taste.

Atmosphere – You can expect a warm ambiance, made by the smell of baked pizza, to met you at the doorstep of the shop. Since the shop just opened recently, the lack of the crowd also provided an intimate atmosphere. A bar is located in the middle of the shop, and the bartender of the shop serves various drinks as well as a cheerful smile. This is more of a restaurant than a pizzeria, with friendly staff who take your order at the table.

Recommendation – There are seven types of pizza, but the highlight of our visit has to be Pizza Regina and Pizza Factory Signature (Both about 12,000K). First of all, nothing beats the smell of the wooden oven on the pizza. Second of all, the pizzas are neither unnecessarily greasy nor unappetizingly oily, they are careful to not serve dripping slices. Now, the marvel started with the first bite of the crunchy crust of Pizza Regina. Mushy mushrooms and chewy capsicum happened to mix in during the second bite. A spread of Pesto sauce (crushed basil leaf and olive oil) jumps into your mouth to make a playful swirl with ham and bacon. Pizza signature definitely lives up to its name as it offers a certain kind of comfort that can only be found at our homes. A simple mix of eggplant, olives, and bacon, merging with crispy crust and the fragrance of wooden oven, makes pizza that tastes fresh and made by familiar hands. At last, you can always order various types of juice or a cup of Myanmar draft beer to wash it all down.

Final Thoughts – This place definitely is a haven for people who want authentic homemade pizza with consistent taste and feel. According to the staff, the shop can get crowded if there is an event nearby, and it is closed on Sunday. The shop has fewer customers on the days weekdays with no concerts or conventions in the area. So, the intimate atmosphere of the shop can surely provide a nice pizza and beer date with your significant other.

Pizza

Shan Kone Street Yangon Yangon Region MM

09 45402 394709 45402 3947

http://yangonpizzafactory.com/

Your neighbourhood pizza joint in Sanchaung! Great Napolitan pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven. Their pizza sauce is homemade and only use fresh ingredients.

Opening Hours

6:00 PM - 10:30 PM

Price Range

$$

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Mahlzeit is a German saying that has several applications. Similar to Aloha in Hawaiian, one can say ‘Mahlzeit’ for hello, goodbye or even to express a mistake. It is also used before starting a meal.

Magnus Scherr was ecstatic to have the chance to open Mahlzeit in Yangon, the first German restaurant in the city, six months ago. Now that the veteran chef has begun to settle in, his sights are set outside of the restaurant walls with the goal of being a part of the Yangon’s culinary scene in its entirety.

The bakery is probably the fastest growing operation Mahlzeit, eking out their expanding catering business. What started as a small café for nearby residents, is now a supplier for several Yangon restaurants including Tony Romas, Artisan Amour and Port Autonomy. With a meticulous curiosity, Scherr is not only willing to accept customized bread orders but appears to enjoy each individual challenge. He will flash a grin when recalling a client who wanted their next bread order leavened by a few more centimeters. Or the time he and his team spent days in the kitchen experimenting with recipes until they could bake pita that matched a buyer’s verbal description. As a result, the state of the art bread oven is full with a diverse stock, all of which use local ingredients besides the rye, which is imported. There are, of course, also traditional German options at the ready, like Carlsberg beer bread- a 5000 Ks loaf that feels like 4 Kg and can apparently feed a family for 3 days. “This could be an attack on rice”, Scherr jokes while wielding one of the dense baked goods.

While there are some impressive pieces of equipment in the Mahlzeit kitchen, Scherr is not bound to the newest gadget but something that can execute the task at hand. Mahlzeit is mainly known for their meats, coming from a farm 40 minutes from Yangon, much of which is cold-smoked. Scherr has improvised a device that uses AC units to cool down wood-fired smoke. The technique puts a smoky flavor into the meat without wilting the outside with a coat of char.

The technology behind the food is impressive but it is the level of sterility in the kitchen that is the most eye-catching. When touring the massive kitchen, Scherr launches into furious detail about his strict health standards. After reviewing how dust particles are removed from boxes of food shipments, he discusses the greater battle Yangon has with food-borne bacteria. “People mistakenly think they have food poisoning from a restaurant they just been in”, Scherr says, “but more often have a Water born Parasite from a single contaminated Ice cube like Giardia Lamblia”.

While not everyone can afford his impressive sanitation equipment, Scherr is eager to share his hygienic procedures with other chefs. As he sees it, every kitchen should work together on promoting the best health code since any single kitchen can affect others if proper precautions are not taken.

Scherr would like to coordinate with other restaurants outside of sanitation standards and disagrees with the notion that restaurateurs are in fierce competition with each other. He believes that the Yangon economy is filled with just as much unpredictability as it is with potential. A strong system of communication and support in the food & beverage community, however, could benefit every chef who is trying to get a foothold.

So much of business in Yangon is dependent on ‘who you know’, an intimidating reality for the unconnected. After experiencing the aches and pains of opening a business in Myanmar, Scherr wants to support entrepreneurs where he can. By connecting a promising new restaurant with Mahlzeit’s farm or a quality distributor, the market for high-end dining becomes that much more viable. Scherr embraces the role of facilitator as the best way to grow his restaurant, jokingly referring to his business strategy as ‘Positive Machiavellianism’.

Self-declared competitors have shown skepticism over Scherr’s generous approach in the past, but this usually dissipates once they realize that the guy just really loves food. A plead for expats to try a new Italian spot or a photo of an appetizer dot his social media as well as the Yangon Foodies Facebook page- a FB group that has become a major player in the city’s culinary world.

The Mahlzeit logo can also be seen at the Hledan Centre where a hot dog cart has been introduced. The sleek mobile station is still in the prototype stages but could very well become a street-food option in the near future.

The post Mahlzeit Means Many Things For Yangon appeared first on MYANMORE.