This is a serene place to enjoy some of the area’s best Burmese offerings, a culinary tradition that borrows from Thai, Indian, and Chinese flavors. Try the exotic-sounding but easy-to-like fermented-tea-leaf salad, a celebration of crunchy and soft, sweet and savory, earthy and bright. A shareable appetizer sampler, served with three spicy dips, lets you front-load a meal with fried opo squash and chickpea fritters along with shrimp tempura and samosas. Indian-inspired curried chicken with coconut rice also marries savory and sweet, while the beef with sweet basil is a Thai-influenced plate of expertly cooked beef and eggplant with a marvelously spicy, tangy brown sauce. Finish with the shweji, a custardy cake of coconut and Cream of Wheat.
Also good: Split-pea fritters; grilled-beef salad; Gold Mountain noodles with chicken and coconut sauce; goat curry; ginger or coconut ice cream.
Open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
