what should we order at Rangoon?

[yannie]

I've had one excellent family-style dinner experience at Rangoon that involved breads, salads, tofus, etc., and one pretty mediocre lunch off the lunch menu.

I'm looking to repeat my dinner experience. We need some (but not all) vegetarian choices. We'll definitely order some thousand layer bread, but what else? Ginger salad? Tea leaf?

[thehungrything]

Potato and glass noodle salad
Spring ginger salad
squid salad
Chicken keema

[phillyjazz]

I often wonder why vegetarians can justify condemning a restaurant meal as "mediocre" when the restaurant in question does not specialize in vegetarian cuisine. I have eaten lunch at Rangoon at least a hundred times over the past decade and never had a mediocre meal.

[Cattus]

A restaurant doesn't have to "specialize" in vegetarian food to make it taste delicious - it's not difficult to do. I was completely underwhelmed when I ate at Rangoon. The night market noodles had little flavor and the other dishes weren't very memorable. And the portions are quite small. I haven't been back since. The best Burmese food I've eaten (outside of Burma itself) is at the Spice Island Tea Room in Pittsburgh, PA.

[phillyjazz]

Perhaps the chef just does not particularly enjoy making vegetarian dishes. I have nothing against vegetarians, People can eat what they want. I just don't value their opinions when it comes to food prepared by "normal" or non-specialized restaurants, whose best dishes may be meat-based.

To each their own,. I was completely underwhelmed with Pittsburgh, PA.

[Steve]

The ginger salad is enormous, or so I remember. The jungle tofu is excellent, if more Thai than Burmese. I'm pretty surprised you had a problem with it being flavorless.

[Seeker19104]

Love the tea leaf salad! Get it every time I go to Rangoon.

[Hungryin theBurbs]

There are so many things I love there. I'm not sure what all is vegetarian, because I suspect there is shrimp paste and/or fish sauce in a lot of things.

Dishes I love:

Crispy tofu triangles
Lentil fritters
Thousand layer bread and potato curry
coconut rice
Spring Ginger salad
Squid salad
Tofu salad
Festival fish soup
Kung pao anything
Jungle anything
just about all of the fish preparations

[hollyd]

LOVE the Jungle Tofu! Basically tofu, green peppers, green beans in a coconut green curry sauce. So good.
I also like the Night Market Noodle but occasionally find it tastes like Cambell's tomato soup. Strange, but only once or twice have I thought so.

[PhillyA]

Rangoon has developed into one of my absolute favorites. I love it. Some favorites (the ** ones I believe are vegetarian, but you might want to check because I'm not really positive):

Firecracker Lentil Fritter**
Coconut Galanga Soup (might be able to get a Veg version)
Spring Ginger Salad**
Papaya Salad**
Basil Noodles (warning: taste more like GARLIC noodles to me, but I love them)
Spicy Kung Pao Chicken (NOT like normal Chinese food Kung pao)
Jungle Chicken (there's also a Jungle Tofu)

I wish I'd tried more of the vegetarian entrees to make some recommendations (it's not unusually for me to choose a veg dish over a meat one, I just haven't seemed to much here)....out of curiosity, what did you have that was mediocre here? I've never had a bad dish, but I've also never come for lunch.

[yannie]

I tried the basil tofu and coconut tofu at lunch. It wasn't bad, it was just...eh. It seemed to me that the lunch menu choices were more typical "chinatown" offerings and were not as interesting as the rest of the menu. Thanks for your suggestions!

[mrslloyddobler]

Why didn't you try any of the given suggestions? You did have a choice to order off the lunch special menu, right? You've already had a bad experience with the lunch menu, so why would you make the same mistake again?

[PhillyA]

Um, I believe Yannie was just answering my question of what they had at Rangoon BEFORE. The suggestions we have made are to avoid ordering the weaker dishes again.

[mrslloyddobler]

whoops, reading comprehension FAIL.

[Bigley9]

second the lentil fritters

[jaba]

Just had the lentil fritters last night.

Holy crap.

[Bigley9]

Night Market Noodles are one of our favs!

[jaba]

Here's a great writeup about what one of Philly's most legendary chefs likes to order there:
http://www.phoodie.info/2009/10/28/th...