Which are the top restaurants in Myanmar? Those that present local cuisine, have good dining ambiance, and are reasonably priced, can fit the bill.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When you are traveling to an exotic land, a good restaurant doesn’t always have to be a fancy one, but a place that brings out the best from the local food. If you are looking for top restaurants in Myanmar, consider this article as a starting-point, based on feedback from Asia Highlights’ customers.
Although Myanmar cuisine doesn't enjoy the same high reputation as that of its neighbors Thailand and India, eating in Myanmar is also a great chance to experience local lifestyles.
What's more, as the country is home to over 50 ethnic groups and each has its own interpretation of what’s really delicious, local Burmese cuisine is certainly something you shouldn’t dismiss if you really want to know about the people.
Below is a list of good restaurants selected by Asia Highlights for discerning travelers.
Top Restaurants in Yangon
Being the biggest city in Myanmar and an important port, Yangon offers plenty of choice for dining experiences, ranging from street-side vendors to high-end restaurants.
Most well-known restaurants can easily be found when wandering around the streets of downtown Yangon, specifically 19th Street where you will find Chinatown, and Mahabandoola Road. The city was originally centered round Sule Pagoda, and that is also home to many good restaurants. No matter what flavor you feel like trying, Yangon will have it on offer.
Padonmar Restaurant
Widely-known for its healthy cooking, Padonmar Restaurant stands out for its authentic Burmese food, with light use of oil and salt, friendly to those whose palates prefer mild. The garden setting, away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Yangon, is also a plus, for a fine dining experience.
Shan Yoe Yar
Located in Lanmadaw Township, this restaurant is near the National Museum and creates a good post-museum-visit dining experience. Its menu mainly features Shan food, which is lighter in spice and focuses more on releasing the original taste of the ingredients themselves.
Le Planteur
Le Planteur, as evidenced by its name, boasts a choice of French and European food, as well as some Asian options. It has a great location in the garden of a large villa overlooking a lake, and service is professional and friendly. A wonderful wine list is a bonus, for a special dinner in Yangon.
For more details about top restaurants in Yangon, read our article: Top Restaurants in Yangon.




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Excellent planned and executed Myanmar excursion
Asia Highlights and their local Myanmar partner "mAsia" did an excellent job in planning and execution of a one week trip to Myanmar.The various tour guides and drivers had good knowledge and good command over English. More
Gerd,
Jan 2018
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Trip-of-a-lifetime
In addition, I want to specifically mention the guides provided in certain locations. Rum, in Siem Reap, made the most memorable experience possible. His positivity was contagious - even when it felt like 1000 degrees and we were tired. He brought it all to life, and created a couple days of Ankor Wat, etc. that we will never forget! He heard my daughter's request for specific Cambodian food, and changed our itinerary to go to a village and eat at a locally known shop. He brought the dessert she asked about to us in the car! Overall, he and his driver "Lucky" were a reason to go to Siem Reap. In addition, the other guides (minus one which was switched out immediately) were stupendous. Mon in Bangkok was friendly and provided a great day there; Eak in Chiang Mai gave us a world-class food-tour and day touring the city and its surrounding temples with lots of laughs; Tommy in Hanoi kept us from getting killed in the traffic and gave a stupendous food and architecture/history tour - so very friendly and funny; the fishing village tour in Hoi An, as well as the side-car tour in Saigon, were both unforgettable! Thank you Sharon, and Asia Highlights. Would definitely use again for future trips! More
Teri Simpson,
Apr 2023
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Cambodia and Vietnam adventure!
Our guide in Cambodia, Meas Darapolaith (Pol), was absolutely amazing. He was knowledgeable, friendly and so helpful. His English was excellent and he shared important insights about history and the magnificent sites we visited. We highly recommend him! More
Jennifer Roth Krieger,
Apr 2023
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My daughter and I wanted to discover SE…
My daughter and I wanted to discover SE Asia. Being the first in that region, we wanted to use a tour service company. We ended up using Asia Highlights. From the beginning we were impressed with their services. We left home with of mind because all the pre-travel arrangements were taking care and communicate to us efficiently. All our questions were answered promptly. Once in the countries, we were welcome by our excellent tour guides. Everything was taking care for us. We did not have one issue. They selected the right tours guides for us, they were highly knowledgeable and so much attentive to our needs. We had Dhat in Vietnam and Borin in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I highly recommend Asia Highlights. I came back home so much rested, and with plenty of wonderful pictures and memories. I will definitely use Asia Highlights again for my next trip to Asia. More
Isabelle Dessaux,
Apr 2023
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Fabulous tour and guide in Cambodia
We have been touring Cambodia, guided by Borin ( and driver 007) for the last 2 days. What a fabulous experience! Borin has been a wonderful guide, the best so far in Southeast Asia, explaining the history and culture of Cambodia through his tours of the temples in and around Angkor, as well as the Landmine museum. He has answered all our questions, made sure we were comfortable, and that we have had great food. 007 made sure we always had enough water and cool towels for our face/neck.We highly recommend Borin as a tour guide for Cambodia!! More
Monica,
Mar 2023
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Best Travel Service for Asia Travel
Alisa Liu was in charge of making the arrangements and she helped us from the start to make all of the arrangements and also helped us when we had questions and requested some adjustments. Her service is of the highest professional level. We are 100% confident that our trip will be perfect. We’re also 100% confident that, if anything comes up during our trip, that Alisa will be there to guide us through and take care of us. We won’t even consider using another agency for travel around Asia and we would like to have Alisa work for us again. More
Leo Pospichal,
Mar 2023
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Tour of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand
The tour guides and drivers were another high point. All were very good, friendly, knowledgeable and spoke English well. There were two that I want to call out for their excellence. Chan Sovannarith in Siem Reap was our guide in Cambodia. He really made the experience special. His knowledge, willingness to answer all my questions, helpfulness and general attitude made him fun to be around. In order to praise the second exceptional guide I have to explain about an unfortunate occurrence that I had. I'm normally a very active senior, but after leaving Cambodia for Laos I was suddenly struck by the most intense back pain I've ever experienced, couldn't even roll over in bed (turned out to be sciatica). The guide, Mr. Sonophet, really went the extra mile. He went with my traveling companion and bought a back brace and medications for me. When that didn't help much he took me to a clinic where I was seen by a doctor, given a shot and pain meds. He hand-made a walking stick for me that I'm still using! He made it possible for me to somewhat participate in the activities, i.e. a bed on the boat down the river. When it was time to move on to Bangkok he got me a wheelchair at the airport. I can't thank him enough for these kindnesses! This problem lasted for the remainder of the trip, through Bangkok and Phuket and these guides were also very helpful getting wheelchairs, etc. It was a terrible disappointment to have this wonderful trip disrupted, but it would have been SO much worse without the great help that I received from the guides and my poor travel companion! More
Deb M,
Mar 2023
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In good hands with Sam
Sam Ol took very good care of us - lots of information, listened to and answered all our questions, was passionate about the places we visited and about his people and country. He was kind, had a great sense of humor, and made sure we felt safe and comfortable at all times. He helped us to fall in love with Cambodia in 3 short days. More
Carol Jones,
Feb 2023
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Best tour guide in Cambodia
When we first arrived at the airport in Siem Riep it was so nice to be greeted by Mr Sam Ol. We instantly fell at home when we saw his friendly smile. We were impressed by his great English and knowledge of the temples. On the tour to the temples Sam took care of us every step of the way. He took awesome pictures of us. It felt like we were on a tour given by our brother who is also a professional photographer. Also, we appreciate his humor as well as the fact he had an answer for every question we had. I give Sam 5 stars, best tour guide ever :) More
Len S,
Feb 2023
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Mr. Sam
Mr. Sam our guide in Cambodia, he and the driver out standing service they went above and beyond touring, my wife so amazed beautiful country, we're planning back here near the futures. Thank Mr. Sam,We'll feedback the whole trip next week when we be home in US More
Pho Lover,
Feb 2023
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Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand
We are still in the middle of our trip, but we are just finishing up our time in Cambodia and our guide, Borin, has been AMAZING!!! He has truly made our time here unforgettable and I plan on referring all of my friends and family to come visit this beautiful country! Thank you, Borin, for everything you did to make our trip so fantastic! More
Danielle Blount,
Feb 2023
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Excellent service and Wonderful Guides
All of our guides have been terrific. Mr. Sam in Siem Reip was especially wonderful. Both he and our driver were polite, safe knowledgable and informative. Sam made our trip memorable and enioyable. We will definitely recommend Sam and Asia Highlights to our friends. More
Kaaren,
Feb 2023
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Great tour guide Charity at Siem Reap
Our experience in Siem Reap could not have been any better thanks to our outstanding and cheerful guide, Charity. Her very good English speaking made it so easy to learn so much from her. She understood and answers all of our questions.She was relaxed and very knowledgeable. She went out out her way to help us make amazing pano photos of the cotton trees at Siem Reap and on our sunset cruise. She also advised us on Chanrey Tree restaurant—what we found to be the very best vegan restaurant on our first three weeks of our Asia tour. So glad to have vegan meals with very little oil!!! We are not supposed to have oil and is very hard to find vegan with no oil. Went went back the next night. More
Barbara Cornyn,
Jan 2023
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Best guide and driver in Cambodia
Mr Rum takes his profession very seriously and enriches the visits with his depth of knowledge and his interesting and relevant stories. He is a great story teller. More importantly, he is a nice person who we very much enjoyed getting to know in our short time together. Both he and Thary have winning smiles. They are easy to be around and fun to spend time with. It’s not surprising that Mr Rum has maintained contact and friendships with many previous clients. More
John Mullin,
Jan 2023
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Charity and Cambodia were amazing!
We had a fantastic time in Siem Reap. Charity was our tour guide and was the best! She brought knowledge and enthusiasm as she took us around. She was friendly, warm and open making our tour and experience in Siem Reap so wonderful. She gave us awesome suggestions for us to do at the end of the day such as go see a dance performance or visit the night market as well as an early morning activities like watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon. It was magical and we are so grateful to Charity for making this such a memorable trip. She also gave us great suggestion for food and went far and beyond to make sure our vegetarian and food requirements were met. Our driver and car was fantastic as well. We had the best time in Cambodia and would love to visit again. We recommend visiting and having Charity as their tour guide to anyone who has the opportunity to come! More
Prema,
Jan 2023
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Amazing tour of Cambodia with excellent…
Amazing tour of Cambodia with excellent guide Luch.. Luch was very knowledgeable and took an extra mile to explain us the Angkorwat sculptures.. the private car was very comfortable.. well planned .. we loved Cambodia and would definitely recommend my friends.. Asia highlights are the best More
Koustuv Sarkar,
Jan 2023
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Our rep in Cambodia Chan Sovannarith…
Our rep in Cambodia Chan Sovannarith was very attentive and accommodated my daughter not feeling well by taking us to a chemist to get medication for her. I highly recommend Chan as a rep with Asian highlights he did an excellent job when taking us back to the airport he literally waited to make sure we were all set for our flight to Chang Mai in Thailand. I felt safe knowing he was there incase there were issues. Again, great rep. Thank you!! More
Karen Brooks,
Dec 2022
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We enjoyed our trip VERY much
We enjoyed our trip very much. Our guide, Mr. Polrith is very knowledgeable and provided insightful information about the history, culture and religions of the country. Temples of Cambodia are amazing. They are more beautiful than you can imagine. Thank you so much Mr.Polrith and see you next time More
Tugba Balc,
Dec 2022
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A truly magical experience
You measure the quality of a tour company with how they handle the bumps along the way. Encountering unexpected baggage fees from Cambodia Angkor Air in Siem Reap.Albee without hesitation agreed to cover this cost. More
Bob Bosshard,
Mar 2020
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Great trip with Asia Highlights
We had already booked two trips in China with China Highlights. Both trips were a great experience. So when planning our trip to Cambodia we immediately thought of Asia Highlights because they offer a trip to Vietnam More
Frank & Nadia,
Nov 2019
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Top Restaurants in Mandalay
Mandalay does not have as many restaurants as Yangon, and most are scattered all over the city. As the city is located where lower Burma and upper Burma meet, dining in Mandalay offers an opportunity to try out something different.
The busiest region, around the Royal Palace, is always the go-to place when you are looking for something to fill your stomach. Traveling beyond Mandalay sometimes means you would have to “surrender to” local food even though you might be craving a cheese burger. However, nice views and friendly villagers can compensate for any sacrifices.
Mingalabar Restaurant
Boasting good Burmese food, Mingalabar would provide a nice dining experience for the day of your city tour of Mandalay. It is close to the palace and the food comes in good portions, with side dishes and desserts included. Gluten-free and vegetarian options are also available.
Spice Garden
Located in a two-story wooden building inside the Red Canal Hotel, Spice Garden originated as an introduction to Indian food, enriched by Burmese inspiration. Some key ingredients and spices, as well as a tandoor (a hot oven for roasting chicken), are brought straight from India.
Bistro At 82nd
Certainly a winner, if you would like to indulge your palate with some western food. The homey feeling of this tavern-like restaurant is inviting, as is its long list of western food, including schnitzel, burgers, steak, compote and a wide range of wine.
Want to know more about the eating options in Mandalay? Check out our list on Top Restaurants in Mandalay.
Top Restaurants in Bagan
Also an important destination in the Mandalay Region, Bagan often seems to be the biggest reason why people travel to Myanmar in the first place. Besides its mirage-like pagoda scene, Bagan is also a good place for finding creative cuisine, both western and local. The longest list of restaurants is in Nyaung U, the main town of Bagan, followed by Old Bagan and then the recent settlement of New Bagan.
Sanon
Sanon is a member of the international NGO Tree ALLIANCE, so dining there is dining for a good cause. Providing training and working opportunities for local youngsters, Sanon will be a special treat on your trip to Bagan. Shan Khauk Swe (spicy rice noodles with chicken, tomatoes, radish, coriander and peanuts) is its specialty.
Bagan Zay
Proudly advertising itself as creative modern Burmese, Bagan Zay is absolutely a delight if you are in the mood for something different. Hip and chic, first impressions of Bagan Zay draw you in. Expect fresh and tasty food, as well as widely-popular drinks made with local rum. Vegetarian dishes are also available.
Kyaw Kitchen
Owned by a French man and run by Kyaw his Burmese wife, this homey garden-restaurant caters for travelers who are willing to “waste” time finding it, in a hidden alley of New Bagan.
The menu is international, with some Burmese options. Members of staff speak good English and are eager to share their stories. Their seafood risotto is considered top notch.
For more information about eating in Bagan, see Top Restaurants in Bagan.
Top Restaurants at Inle Lake
Nestled in the highlands and surrounded by mountains, during British rule Inle Lake used to be a summer resort, and it is still a vacation destination with fine hospitality on offer. Most restaurants at the lake focus on Shan-style cuisine but you can also find some international alternatives with a good reputation.
A majority of resorts and hotels are built around the lakeshore, and so are the restaurants. A view of the floating restaurants is a bonus, in addition to the organic, home-grown ingredients.
Golden Kite Restaurant
This is a good option for dining outside your hotel. The chefs were trained by Italians and they bring out the real authentic taste of pasta, along with traditional Burmese cuisine.
The restaurant has three branches, one in Nyuang Shwe, one in Indein and one in a floating house near the Phaungdaw Oo Pagoda. Whether you are on a sightseeing boat tour or exploring on your own, one of these restaurants will be easy to get to.
Eyeful Lake
The biggest attraction of this restaurant, besides its well-cooked food, must be its awesome view of the lake. The deck of the restaurant is built on a floating house, from where you can watch the busy river traffic and see stilted houses in the distance. The menu is Burmese; fish and fried tomatoes is recommended.
Green Chilli Restaurant
Green Chilli, true to its name, focuses on Asian food, and especially spicy food. Don’t run away so fast, however, because it has more to offer: grilled fish or jungle curry for example, and a cool beer as an excellent conclusion to a good meal.
The restaurant’s location, on the way from the airport to the lake, gives it an advantage as a suitable introductory venue, as you begin your stay at the lake.
For more ideas about restaurants at Inle Lake, please see our article: Top Restaurants at Inle Lake.
Top Restaurants at Ngapali Beach
Ngapali Beach was nominated by CNN as one of Asia’s Top 25 Beaches and it is certainly an ideal destination for a rest, after a long trip in the high temperatures of Myanmar.
Unlike many other beaches in Asia, Ngapali is vulnerable to monsoon weather and shuts down from May to September, when typhoons and rainstorms violently shake the coast.
Hence, hotels and restaurants run their businesses for just for a few months at a time and no effort is spared in providing the best possible service. Seafood is the dominant theme for all restaurants.
Pleasant View Islet Restaurant
This would certainly create a highlight from your vacation at Ngapali Beach! Pleasant View Islet Restaurant offers an exclusive, picturesque and up-market dining experience, with its superb location on a rock in a fishing village.
Hardcore foodies wade their way through shallow water to get to the islet, or take a free boat at high tide. Enjoy a seafood platter, followed by a scrumptious main course at sunset. This is the kind of vacation you deserve.
Catch
Catch is the name of the restaurant at Bayview Beach Resort. Most meals, however, are served at the sunset bar; especially dinners, at which an amazing sunset view on the ocean comes along with the hot plates of food.
Catch serves western-inspired food, with a wide range of wine and cocktails. Soft music plays in the background and customers are caressed by tender ocean breezes. What else could you ask for?
Ngapali Kitchen
Smaller and more unassuming, Ngapali Kitchen is a family-style restaurant by the main road. Besides seafood, its specialty is traditional Burmese food. Despite its small scale, dining tables for 2 and 4 people are well separated, to ensure everyone feels comfortable.
See other dining options at Ngapali Beach in our article Top Restaurants at Ngapali Beach.
Before you embark on a trip to Myanmar, keep in mind that the country is still on its way to becoming a world-class leisure destination. Respect and understanding will be highly appreciated at every point of your Myanmar trip, especially while dining in Myanmar.
For any special requests, such as pure vegan, gluten-free or halal, we will do our best to make it happen for you. Not only on the food front, every detail of your Myanmar trip should be and can be done in your own way. Talk to our travel advisor and tailor-make your trip now!
Visit Myanmar with Asia Highlights
We provide tailor-made tours to Myanmar. Tours typically start or end in Yangon or Mandalay and last approximately 9 days; visiting Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inle Lake.
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