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740 6th St. NW
(202) 638-1280
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11-3 Dinner: Sun-Th 6-10, F-Sat 6-11
Entrees: One menu, $6-$8
Other Information
• All major credit cards
• Reservations recommended for 5 or more
• Dress: casual
• Street parking
• Nearest Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown
• Handicapped accessible
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Chinatown has spread its wings to encompass Cantonese, Shanghai, Hunanese, Mongolian and Taiwanese cuisines. It has incorporated several Vietnamese restaurants. Yet the most exotic cooking in this enclave is at Burma, a small, upstairs restaurant that keeps adding unusual dishes to its long menu. The bare-bones dining room looks a little more polished these days as well. And the ever-hesitant service is more communicative, though the kitchen still seems flummoxed by having to prepare for more than four people at a time.
One of the more recent dishes is also one of the best: Mango pork is lean chunks of braised meat permeated with red spice paste - a moderate hit of chili peppers included - and spiked with wedges of intense pickled mangoes that taste much like India's lemon pickle. Tamarind fish is also chili-heated, as well as tart, but fish is not Burma's strength, particularly on a Monday before the week's catch is in. A third recent addition: The fried eggplant appetizer, in a light puffy batter, is meltingly soft inside and irresistible, even though it's too greasy. It's the equal of gold fingers, a favorite that translates as fried squash, and both are served with a tart, salty, wonderful dipping sauce.
Burma serves half a dozen soups that are distillations of the restaurant's strong seasonings - chilies, lemon, tamarind, mustard plant. It has vegetarian entrees and intriguing noodle dishes. But its glory is salads, whether tofu, papaya, seafood, tea leaves, herbs, eggplant or ginger. The ones that sound the strangest taste the best. As for entrees, the curries and kebabs aren't half as interesting as such less familiar dishes as sour mustard plant, the pickliest of pickles, sauteed with bits of pork. Often, though, the main dishes are hit-or-miss. Consider them an exploration and the appetizers and salads home base.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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