Bagan Restaurant: Sydney's Original Burmese Eatery

Strathfield’s Boulevard isn’t quite the road to Mandalay, but it is the home of one of Sydney’s few Burmese restaurants, Bagan Restaurant, one of the tastiest bargains in town.  Bagan Restaurant has the distinction of being the very first Burmese restaurant in Sydney and still one of only a very small handful in town. If Burmese food is relatively unknown to most of us, it’s a different story in Strathfield – Bagan is literally overflowing with diners, night after night.

Burmese cuisine, it seems, has largely flown under the radar. When you consider its geographical position bordering China, India and Thailand, however, it's quite possible that the famous food of its neighbours has largely overshadowed Burma’s culinary contributions. The good news is that Burma has borrowed its favourite bits from all these venerable cuisines and fashioned them into something quite unique and delicious.

Once inside the basic, brightly lit room, expect enthusiastic staff to hand over enormous, illustrated menus in plastic sleeves. There’s some familiar fare here in South East "Asianised" versions of Chinese and Indian dishes – but skip these and head straight for the stuff you won’t find anywhere else. Pennywort salad is tangy, herbaceous and robustly spiced, and the pae palarta is a crisp, delicate roti topped with dhal and fried garlic. The Burmese curries are less chilli hot than their Thai and Indian counterparts -- intensely earthy and only slightly less complex.

Elsewhere there are spiced pork balls (crisp outside and moist within), crunchy fried prawns, and chicken hokkien noodles with a powerful, garlicky punch.  Wash it all down a fantastic avocado shake or a rose flavoured falooda and marvel at the value – two people can sample a filling array of dishes for around $35.
 

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