Bagan - Burmese in Alameda

[foodfan]

The Burmese restaurant on Park Street (Hinn Tha) has changed owners and is now called Bagan. The owners are the same as Burma Superstar and B Star in San Francisco. I had a good lunch there the other day but 'tried out' a holdover from the last owner, coconut curry and chicken soup with noodles, hard cooked egg and bean sprouts. Very good, smooth and rich and I took home as much as I ate. My fellow diner ordered sesame chicken which was sliced very thin, very sweet and dry, served with rice and chilled broccoli. Probably not their strong point. I will go back and try some more items. Based on what I have read about Burma Super Star, the tea leaf salad sounds like a winner. More variety at night (including the Rainbow salad) and will probably return for dinner rather than lunch. Prices are pretty much the same which makes it a little pricey for lunch ($9 - $11) range, only slightly higher for dinner. Has anyone else tried it yet? No link in Places - 1345 Park Street

[crimson]

Went there last night. Great tea leaf salad and samosa soup. great food without the wait (for now). Added a little more info in the Places area.

[lemoncoke]

My co-workers and I went to lunch at Bagan today. There was only 1 other table there at 12:30...

Tea leaf salad – Fermented tea leaves, with peanuts, pine nuts, sesame seeds, and grinded dried shrimp with a squirt of lemon. It was brought to our table, and they mixed it for us. Very flavorful, tangy, tasted similar to a Caesar salad but more peppery and briny. It was very good. The service was excellent because we had someone that was allergic to peanuts, and they brought out another salad without peanuts, as a comp.

Samosa soup – Very good. Full of spices, and just warms up the body. Be careful, they have whole dried red pepper in it. It was full of potato, falafel, and some veggies. It was very good.

Samusas – sort of similar to the soup, except it was deep fried. It was full of potatoes….

Chicken with mango – Good and flavorful. It had really great wok-breath. It was stir fried with sweet caramelized onions and mango. The sauce was a dark soy based sauce. Mango was sweet and savory. Good. Chicken was really tender and moist. Can’t remember if it was chicken breast or thighs. The lunch serving was really enough for one. Came with a big serving of rice and some sliced mango.

Fiery beef – the beef was thickly sliced, and not really that spicy. It was stir fried with green beans & pressed tofu strips. The sauce was a little salty, but other wise good. It had great wok- breath too.

Lemonade with Ginger – really good. The ginger wasn’t over powering and not too sweet.

Portions weren’t big. Each dish was averaged $9.

[East Bay Realtor]

I tried Bagan after reading a good review here, getting a recommendation from a friend who knows food very well, and recalling that another such friend highly regards the San Francisco sister restaurant. My dining companion and I were badly disappointed. We sat at a bistro table near the bar because the main dining room was full. It was very chilly there so we ordered the samusa soup to start. It was a kind of gunky porridge with lumps of what I assumed were the previously fried samusas. It was not very interesting or flavorful except for a peppery finish at the back of the throat. We ate enough to warm us up a bit, but could not finish it. It got less appetizing as is cooled and congealed. Because of the chill I had hot tea to drink, but my friend tried the ginger lemonade. It was not real lemonade, but a lemon flavored beverage with a lemon wedge and some chopped fresh ginger. My friend didn't finish it. I tasted it and agreed that it had a decidely artificial color and flavor. We ordered the mango chicken, pea sprouts, and coconut rice. The chicken was tender, but the dish was rather bland and insubstantial. There was no zip to it at all and I would have been disappointed in the serving size if I had liked the dish. The pea sprouts were a mixed bag, we hit a few tough pieces in a dish that should have been tender. The coconut rice was excellent: hot, fragrant, and fluffy with a definite coconut flavor, but not too sweet. Service was uneven. It started off well enough, but the 3 waiters were very busy and not as attentive as I would have liked.
I don't think I would return there again. I certainly would not recommend it based on my one experience. And, unless it's a warm evening, don't sit in one of the bistro tables by the bar unless you have your long underwear on.

[Robert Lauriston]

Went for dinner last night. Sign in the window said Burma Superstar. Samusa soup and tea leaf salad seemed just like the original. Nice not to have any wait.

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Burma Superstar
1345 Park Street, Alameda, CA

[Robert Lauriston]

Dueling Place entries. The only place I noticed the name Bagan was on the credit-card receipt.

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Burma Superstar
1345 Park Street, Alameda, CA

[DezzerSF]

I went for lunch a few month back and had the Samusas, Moh Hinga, and Nan Gyi Dok (Mild Coconut Chicken Rice Noodle Curry). It's hard for me to compare to the SF location since the cook was heavy handed with the salt that day, but everything here was good. Like Robert said, no wait at all.

[daveena]

Had a good dinner last night. I haven't been to either of the other Burma Superstar restaurants, so I can't make comparisons to them, but I ordered some of the dishes I really enjoyed at Mingalaba (Burlingame) to compare.

Paratha with curry dipping sauce (I think they just called it "multi-layer flatbread" on the menu) - paratha seemed almost deep fried - very crispy on the outside (and pretty oily). I enjoyed it (fried carbs, how could I not), but I prefer the version at Mingalaba (outermost layers crisped, but inner layers tender and flaky), which perfectly replicated the handmade parathas I enjoyed in India. The "dipping sauce" was actually a small cup of coconut chicken curry (the same curry would appear later in the nan gyi dok). I found the difference between this curry and the one at Mingalaba (and its sister restaurant, Mandalay in SF) to be really interesting - Bagan's version has a lot of cardamom and clove and leans Indian (Keralan, to be exact) in its flavor profile. Mandalay/Mingalaba's curry leans Thai, with lemongrass notes. I think I might prefer the Bagan version as dipping sauce (although I'd like it more if it were spicy. Also, the crispness of the flatbread made it hard to pick up any of the chicken pieces - a more supple bread would have worked better). In the nan gyi dok, I prefer the Mandalay/Mingalaba version, as it seems to harmonize better with the cilantro, fried shallots, etc mixed into it.

Dry-fried string beans - tasty, but with less of the addictive shallot/fermented shrimp paste than Mingalaba's version. A wee bit expensive at $9/plate, I thought.

Service was excellent - friendly, efficient, and professional. I asked our server about the Eater item that hinted that the owners were going to close Bagan and move it to Oakland - our server was quite emphatic that this was a false rumor.