Burmese House

For Father's Day this year, I wanted to take my dad somewhere a bit different from our usual haunts. My dad is half-Burmese, and I'd initially planned to go to Rangoon House - he's been once and says it was great - but they're unfortunately closed on Sundays. Inkeeping with the Burmese theme, we took a little gamble and googled "Burmese restaurant Melbourne". Burmese House is where we ended up.


Burmese House
303 Bridge Road
Richmond VIC 3121
(03) 9421-2861

I only made the booking a couple of days before Fathers' Day, and was surprised by how easy it was to get a table. I must admit I was a bit nervous that the restaurant wouldn't be very good, but I needn't have worried. It was fabulous!

Burmese House is on Bridge road, near the corner of Church street. It's the one with the teapot shaped sign. I'd read online reviews that said the upstairs was much nicer than downstairs, so when I booked I requested we sit upstairs. Although when we got there I thought the downstairs looked pretty good too, and I would have loved to watch the chefs cooking. Next time, next time!

Upstairs

The menu has a mixture of curries, stir-fries, and noodle dishes. They don't seem to serve pork, so we couldn't order Dad's beloved Burmese pork curry. (His grandma used to make it!) I guess I'll have to learn how to make it myself. So speaking of which, anyone got a recipe for Burmese pork curry?

We started off with a couple of entrées.

Roti bread with a dipping chickpea sauce - $7.50

The roti bread was nice and crispy, and whilst I've come to accept that no roti here will ever compete with the roti back home, Burmese House do a good version. The chickpea sauce was similar to a spicy soupy dahl, topped with delicious crispy onions. On a less celebratory occasion, I'd have been happy to have a big bowl of this to myself for dinner!

Marrow (long melon) fritters served with tamarind sauce - $9.80

Deep-fried food is usually a safe bet, and these marrow fritters were great! Marrow is a zucchini-like vegetable, and it was cut into thick-ish strips and deep-fried in a light and crispy batter. They were a little bland by themselves, but the sharp and salty tamarind sauce really perked them up.

For mains, we ordered 3 dishes to share between the 4 of us. You can choose from very hot, hot, medium or mild, and we chose 'hot'. (The mild has no chilli whatsoever, so everyone from chilli-wusses to chilli-champions will be happy!)

Tamarind Beef - $16.80

Tender slow-cooked beef, smothered in rich gravy - fabulous. This was my favourite dish of the evening.

Chilli Chicken - $18.80

Stir-fried chicken with cashew and dried chilli - $18.80

'Chilli chicken' and 'stir-fried chicken with cashew and dried chilli' sounded a bit similar on the menu, but our waitress assured us they tasted different, and indeed they did. The chilli chicken was like a dry chicken curry, with a lovely layering of flavours.

Steamed rice - $3.00 per serve

Now, even though we all enjoyed the curries, the stars of the night were the chilli sides we ordered. First up was hot pounded shrimp paste (which I suppose is like a Burmese version of Malaysian sambal blachan), which was, unsurprisingly, very hot!

Hot Pounded Shrimp Paste - $4.80

But my parents really, really loved the Balachaung, which they said tasted just like Malaysian "hair ko". It's kinda like prawn floss, with little pieces of dried shrimp and chilli. Super tasty and addictive! Mum and Dad say this is the type of thing you eat with plain white rice. Another item on my list of things to learn how to make.

Balachaung - $4.80


We really enjoyed Burmese House, and I'm really glad we took a chance on somewhere new! We left full and happy, making plans to return.

For Father's Day this year, I wanted to take my dad somewhere a bit different from our usual haunts. My dad is half-Burmese, and I'd initially planned to go to Rangoon House - he's been once and says it was great - but they're unfortunately closed on Sundays. Inkeeping with the Burmese theme, we took a little gamble and googled "Burmese restaurant Melbourne". Burmese House is where we ended up.


Burmese House
303 Bridge Road
Richmond VIC 3121
(03) 9421-2861

I only made the booking a couple of days before Fathers' Day, and was surprised by how easy it was to get a table. I must admit I was a bit nervous that the restaurant wouldn't be very good, but I needn't have worried. It was fabulous!

Burmese House is on Bridge road, near the corner of Church street. It's the one with the teapot shaped sign. I'd read online reviews that said the upstairs was much nicer than downstairs, so when I booked I requested we sit upstairs. Although when we got there I thought the downstairs looked pretty good too, and I would have loved to watch the chefs cooking. Next time, next time!

Upstairs

The menu has a mixture of curries, stir-fries, and noodle dishes. They don't seem to serve pork, so we couldn't order Dad's beloved Burmese pork curry. (His grandma used to make it!) I guess I'll have to learn how to make it myself. So speaking of which, anyone got a recipe for Burmese pork curry?

We started off with a couple of entrées.

Roti bread with a dipping chickpea sauce - $7.50

The roti bread was nice and crispy, and whilst I've come to accept that no roti here will ever compete with the roti back home, Burmese House do a good version. The chickpea sauce was similar to a spicy soupy dahl, topped with delicious crispy onions. On a less celebratory occasion, I'd have been happy to have a big bowl of this to myself for dinner!

Marrow (long melon) fritters served with tamarind sauce - $9.80

Deep-fried food is usually a safe bet, and these marrow fritters were great! Marrow is a zucchini-like vegetable, and it was cut into thick-ish strips and deep-fried in a light and crispy batter. They were a little bland by themselves, but the sharp and salty tamarind sauce really perked them up.

For mains, we ordered 3 dishes to share between the 4 of us. You can choose from very hot, hot, medium or mild, and we chose 'hot'. (The mild has no chilli whatsoever, so everyone from chilli-wusses to chilli-champions will be happy!)

Tamarind Beef - $16.80

Tender slow-cooked beef, smothered in rich gravy - fabulous. This was my favourite dish of the evening.

Chilli Chicken - $18.80

Stir-fried chicken with cashew and dried chilli - $18.80

'Chilli chicken' and 'stir-fried chicken with cashew and dried chilli' sounded a bit similar on the menu, but our waitress assured us they tasted different, and indeed they did. The chilli chicken was like a dry chicken curry, with a lovely layering of flavours.

Steamed rice - $3.00 per serve

Now, even though we all enjoyed the curries, the stars of the night were the chilli sides we ordered. First up was hot pounded shrimp paste (which I suppose is like a Burmese version of Malaysian sambal blachan), which was, unsurprisingly, very hot!

Hot Pounded Shrimp Paste - $4.80

But my parents really, really loved the Balachaung, which they said tasted just like Malaysian "hair ko". It's kinda like prawn floss, with little pieces of dried shrimp and chilli. Super tasty and addictive! Mum and Dad say this is the type of thing you eat with plain white rice. Another item on my list of things to learn how to make.

Balachaung - $4.80


We really enjoyed Burmese House, and I'm really glad we took a chance on somewhere new! We left full and happy, making plans to return.