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Among Yangonites and foreign visitors, the city’s upscale restaurants are currently experiencing an upswing in popularity. The luxurious ambience and intriguing menu items at these fine-dining spots are luring even locals to become regulars.
Just 10 years ago, Yangon did not offer many dining options besides casual, often open-air Myanmar and Chinese restaurants. Fast forward to today, and about 100 upmarket restaurants are now serving up elegant meals in the city. These restaurants generally fall into two categories: those in higher-end hotels, and stand-alone spots like Da Mapi and Sandy’s.Hotel restaurants are proving a draw for both locals and hotel customers. “Our targeted customers are primarily Myanmar locals and in-house guests. The local customers are mainly families and groups of friends,” says Mr Michael Dass, the marketing and operations manager of the Summit Parkview Hotel. Parkview Café at the Summit Parkview offers both Asian and Western menus, which rotate daily. The café also offers Western, Chinese, Thai and Indian dinner buffets on different nights. “Most hotels usually depend on hotel guests during the high season and local customers during the low season,” Mr Dass says. “As for Parkview Café, our customers are mainly local during both high and low season. “Our hotels guests – mostly tourists and corporate travellers – usually order room service or entertain their guests at the Parkview Café,” he adds. Traders Hotel is also well-known for its several elegant restaurants, which include Summer Palace Chinese Restaurant, Tategoto Japanese Restaurant and Traders Café. These spots are also popular among Yangonites for their tasty, authentic food and pleasant atmosphere. Most offer buffets ranging in price from US$8 for high tea to US$18 for the dinner buffet. Ma Wai Wai Han, the assistant food and beverage manager at Traders Hotel, says that some customers come from outside the hotel, including a lot of locals, and that Summer Palace and Traders Café are the most crowded spots in the hotel. “Also, the Bento Box Set Menu in Tategoto at lunchtime is very popular because it’s quick, convenient and reasonably priced,” she says. “Many come for the nightly theme dinner buffets, and according to our sales analysis, the buffets are more popular than à la carte items,” says Ma Wai Wai Han. Elaborate buffets, created by expert chefs, are a staple in many of Yangon’s top hotels, with options including Sunday seafood barbecue, all-you-can-eat, theme nights and more. “The advantage of buffet style is that it offers customers a wide range of choices, and the food is also good. And the more you can eat, the better the value,” says local businessman U Tun Nainga. “I prefer to take my business partners to hotel restaurants. The extensive menus, quiet ambience and reasonable fixed prices are incentives for us,” he says. The restaurants in the Grand Plaza Parkroyal – Le Café, Phoenix Court Chinese Restaurant, Shiki-Tei Japanese Restaurant and the Lobby Lounge – usually receive a steady stream of customers, “but due to the rainy season, business is slightly slow,” says Mr Yap Tsok Faung, the hotel’s food and beverage manager. Grand Plaza Parkroyal’s restaurants target in-house guests, foreign expatriates and local residents, and use regular promotions – like their famous Sunday seafood buffet brunch and East meets West buffet – to attract customers. “Our promotions are designed with value for money in mind. The variety of dishes is plentiful to give customers more choices,” explains Mr Yap. “Dishes are prepared to suit both local tastes and foreign ones and to generate interest among our customers.” Of the many types of buffets on offer in hotel restaurants, a growing favourite is dim sum. Phoenix Court, “Our all-you-can-eat dim sum buffet lunch is becoming popular among local customers. It’s tasty and also good value for the money, due to the wide variety of dim sum items in the buffet,” says Mr Yap. Ma Wai Wai Han says that dim sum is also the most popular choice at Summer Palace restaurant. “We plan to have our dim sum chef create new items every three months,” she says. Other types of cuisine are gaining popularity as well. Rossini restaurant, which opened in the Savoy Hotel in December 2004, focuses mainly on Mediterranean food. Mr Alexander Voegl, the general manager of the Savoy, says: “Due to its ambience, style and wide range of prices and dishes, Rossini attracts a good mix of hotel guests and Yangon residents, though in the low season there are more locals coming to the restaurant.” Mr Voegl adds that by offering something different – Mediterranean-style classics – they have managed to attract an ever-growing stream of customers. “We also offer seasonal and market-oriented promotions, like all-you-can-eat pizza and pasta. These are mainly targeted at locals. Our most popular items are pizzas, pasta and fish dishes,” he says. The most famous stand-alone restaurants in Yangon, such as Le Planteur, Sandy’s and Sabai Sabai, are also seeing more local customers. “Compared to the high season, we’re getting fewer tourist customers right now, but more local people. Our business is the best in the high season,” says Daw Sandy Min Sein, the owner of Sandy’s, a Myanmar-food favourite. Ko Than Zaw, the supervisor of Sabai Sabai Thai restaurant, says their sales are steady despite the rainy season, and that sales have continued to improve since the restaurant opened in 1996. Mr Boris Granges, who opened the renowned French restaurant Le Planteur in 1998, says the restaurant now attracts a lot of local customers, as well as businesspeople from all over and tourists – especially those from Europe and Japan. “Some Myanmar customers are very familiar with French cuisine, but some come to Le Planteur to discover Western cuisine for the first time,” Mr Granges says. “I strongly encourage Myanmar people who are not familiar with French cuisine to come and visit us. Our staff is trained to help them to make a selection. I also encourage them to try new food and discover new flavours. This is also our goal for Western customers,” he adds. He says he changes the menu regularly to reflect the season and the availability of rare ingredients. According to him, “The essence of French cuisine is the high quality of the ingredients.” Stand-alone Chinese restaurants have always been popular in Yangon, and their sales are continuing to grow steadily, too. Some of these restaurants hire chefs from China to ensure a more authentic taste. For example, the newly opened White Rice restaurant in Kandawgyi Park, as well as Yankin Restaurant, have both hired Chinese chefs. In the early 1990s, Yankin Restaurant was one of the most popular Chinese restaurants in Yangon. It closed in 1995, only to reopen 10 years later in May 2005. The owner, U Htin Paw, says that since the reopening, the flow of customers just keeps growing. This classic favourite spot specialises in hot pot and dim sum, and U Htin Paw brought three chefs from China to create and oversee the dim sum menu. The restaurant imports its raw materials for dim sum from China, as well as dried tea leaves from Taiwan. “Our main aim is to serve the best-tasting food. Having reasonable prices, good service and good hygiene are also main goals,” says U Htin Paw. Like many upmarket Yangon restaurants, Yankin seems to have found the recipe for drawing customers – especially local ones – back again and again. No doubt this restaurant surge is also partly due to Yangonites’ increasingly curious palates, and the fact that they are always up for a new taste experience. And with tourists and expatriates rounding out the clientele, especially during the high season, these top-notch dining spots are sure to keep racking in steady sales – and customers.
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