Kat's 9 Lives

It's best to show up early to Burma Superstar as this place gets super crowded. We went last week and was seated immediately around 5:30PM. The place had a wooden furnish with many Asian decoratives adorned on the walls. Soon the place started to fill up and the noise level increased drastically. To start off the night, I ordered Thai Iced Tea and Ms. Lin ordered the Ginger Lemonade. The drinks were decent, nothing special. They were a little bit expensive, but the refills were only $1 each.Their most famous dish was the Tea Leaf Salad that was featured on Food Network. It's salad with imported Burmese tea leaves, tomatoes, lettuce, dried shrimp, fried garlic, sesame seeds, and peanuts. At first I asked for the dried shrimp on the side because I detest dried shrimp. In the end, I added it in because you really can't taste the dried shrimp since it was grounded so finely. It only added a fishier taste to the salad.To my surprise all the flavors worked splendidly together and you know it's rare for me to praise a salad. I loved the complex texture and flavor that the the tea leaves added. The nuts and components gave a wonderful crunch. This dish was the best of the night and the most unique. A definite must have! I probably will be back for the salad. We decided to try the Burmese Samusas with Chicken. They were Burmese raviolis filled with curry spices and potatoes. I prefer to eat samosas because they have a much better crust and filling. These were just curry potatoes and chicken stuffed in a wonton and fried. It wasn't anything special, if I knew I would have rather had another salad instead.Ms. Lin ordered the Platha as her carb. It's pan-fried layered bread. This reminded me of the Chinese pancake. It was good, but definitely not what we expected. We thought it would be more like a mix of roti and naan versus the Chinese pancake. I chose to order the Coconut Rice, which was aromatic jasmine rice cooked with coconut milk. The rice was extremely flavorful with a slightly softer texture. It really complimented all the dishes and brought out the flavors.For our main courses, Ms. Lin chose Chili Lamb and I chose the Garlic Chili Shrimp. The lamb was stir-fried with dried & fresh chili, onions, and basil. You cannot have this dish mild, it's made as is. This dish was spicy and a little bit more on the sweet side. The shrimp was wok tossed in a garlic infused oil and topped with toasted garlic. You can't make this dish milder as well, but it wasn't really that spicy. It truly was infused with garlic, which I love. I liked this dish because it was very flavorful with garlic, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Both dishes were solid and good, but nothing special like the salad. Can you tell I recommend the salad? O=PAll in all the service was friendly and the food was good. What really sold me on this place was the salad. Everything else is just good, but nothing too special. I don't know if I'd be willing to wait in this line for their regular food. If you don't go early, I'd recommend you to order take out and to definitely try the salad!

Burma Superstar
309 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 387-2147