Burma, Chef Jane Tinpe's Burmese on 6th & H Street in Chinatown - Closed

[Al Dente]

The missus and I had a solid meal at Burma on 6th last night. Try the spare ribs with honey-- they were tender and full of flavor. The beef curry was disappointing as I had read in the Post and Washingtonian that it was packing some serious heat, but this was bland and flat. We also tried a dried bean curd dish with stir-fried veggies which was a winner.

Despite the space being a former jujitsu studio or some such, the place has an agreeable warmth-- kind of like eating in someone's home. I'm sure I'll be back because I have a feeling there are some dishes on the menu that I'll enjoy more than that curry. Salads and apps were $6-8, and entrees around $11.

[JimRice]

I go there for lunch fairly frequently, and I find the food to be usually yummy, but inconsistent. For example, normally the "Golden Fingers", which are strips of squash that are battered and deep fried, are usually in a light, crunchy tempura batter, but last time the batter was heavier, and not quite as tasty. The salads are almost always good, though. Other dishes I like are the sauteed squid, the mango pork, and the Mandalay Nanjee noodles. One of my lunch partners loves the chicken curry, although it doesn't wow me quite as much. I like to begin lunch with a half-portion of the tamarind soup, but this varies greatly in intensity and tartness.

I haven't liked the sour bamboo shoots, which tasted 'old'. I cannot find a better description, perhaps more fermented than pickled. Also, one time when they didn't have the Gold Fingers, they recommended the fried eggplant instead, and it wasn't as good.

Another thing that is an acquired taste I think is the Mohingar, a soup thick with shredded fish. I like it, but it took trying it a few times. Now, when I have a cold, that's one of the things I like to eat. It comes with a little plate with hot pepper, cilantro, and lemon, which you can add to your own taste. This might be the way to get something really spicy. Also, they can make other dishes spicy if you request. I've done that before with one of the noodle dishes. Ask the server which one would be good with some hot peppers added.

[Waitman]

Boy, maybe I caught them on a bad night, but the last time I ate there it was dreary in the extreme: dreary room, dreary service, dreary food.

If you drag your kids to enough restaurants, over time they learn to recognize the difference between bad food and food they just don't like. And when you hit a twofer, you get a special look from them that combines sympathy and bitterness: sympathy that you went to the trouble and expense of bringing the family to the restaurant and didn't enjoy yourself; and bitterness that they didn't want to be pulled away from the video games/pizzas/Whatever in the first place (plus having to put on a decent pair of jeans) and now, even you are complaining about dinner.

That's the look we got after Burma.

[cucas87]

I hadn't been to Burma in more than 5 years when I went last night with an old friend. We had a good meal. It was on the cusp of very good but it didn't get there. The main room of the restaurant is small with tables that are fairly close together. We were there at 7 last night and the room was full and loud. Not so loud that I could not hear my friend, but loud enough that I could easily hear the people at the table to my left, who were having a spirited debate about the relative merits of reading both the Washington Post and the Washington Times (debate redux: tastes great/less filling).

We only ordered 2 dishes last night, both of them main courses: the chicken curry with potato (number 41 on the menu) and a rice-noodle dish (number 21 on the menu). Both dishes were good but could have been excellent with a few modifications. The chicken curry appeared as a bowl of 4 bone-in pieces of chicken and chunks of potato in a fairly thin, cumin-colored sauce. The sauce was flavorful but not spicy and would have been delicious with the addition of salt. The real surprise of the dish was that the potatoes were soft but not mushy. The curry was served at room temperature and would have been better warmed up a bit. The noodles were tasty but they also needed a hit of salt. We received a bowl of chili-garlic sauce on the side, which I added to the noodles. The sauce was vinegary and spicy, and I'm pretty sure it was the same brand as the chili sauce I recently bought from Super-H.

The service was gentle and unobtrusive. The tab, including my diet coke, came to less than $24 pre-tip. I would go back, but I am not rushing.

[Flavortown]

Dropped by here with some friends tonight, and though the food certainly wasn't fantastic, it was passable, and the service was very friendly. With only two or three other tables in the place, I suppose they were free to pay lots of attention to us. Anyway...

Gold Fingers(5.95), sticks of calabash (squash) lightly battered and fried was our appetizer. It was a generous portion, and they were new for me since I'd never had anything with that form of batter before. Apparently they use a rice powder batter, which results in a light, crispy coating, which is oddly sticky. As for the flavor, it was kind of boring, but the tamarind sauce served alongside it perked things up a bit. I ordered #41, Chicken Curry with Potatoes($10.95), and found that while it good, it could have had more flavor, and the curry was a bit too thin for my liking. Other dishes ordered were Sauteed Eggplant, eggplant that was cooked until relatively sauce and flavored nicely, Kokang Chicken, which was strips of chicken breast topped with a multitude of herbs and sauces (looked good, but didn't get to taste it -- apparently it was spicy though), and Fried Noodles with Chicken, essentially lo mein, which I found rather bland, yet inoffensive.

I don't plan on going back any time soon, but you could definitely do much worse than Burma for a quick, relatively cheap dinner.

[Tweaked]

I kinda dig Burma for its why are you leading me up this ghetto staircase dreariness. The inside of the restaurant is about the same.

Some hits and misses:

Golden Fried Prawns - fine, nothing wrong, nothing special.

Spring Ginger salad - I love me some good ginger salad and this was a solid effort. Not quite as good as the version served up at Spices.

Tofu with tomato curry sauce - complete miss. Don't even bother.

Kauswe Thoke - noodles tossed with ground shrimp, onion, cilantro, hot pepper, garlic, and fresh lime...a plate of plain looking noodles but such a depth of salty, shrimpy, garlicy goodness. I would go back for this one dish.

[Fishinnards]

Looks like Burma's days are numbered (as well as Kanlaya Thai and Urfa Tomato Kabob) according to the WBJ.

"Douglas Development Corp. has purchased a pair of adjacent Chinatown mixed-use buildings for $6.1 million with plans to combine and refashion them into a more modern office and retail property."

"All of the tenants will be out by the end of the year, said Norman Jemal, Dougas principal. A woman who answered the phone at Burma Wednesday afternoon said she was aware of the sale and hoped that the restaurant could remain, but that does appear to be in the cards."

I will miss this place.

[Gadarene]

That's really unfortunate.

[Genevieve]

Oh, that is a shame!

Went there a couple months ago and enjoyed my usual ginger salad (they are always accommodating about adding shrimp or tofu to it).  Shared it and the Kauswe Thoke, based on the recommendation above - it's not something I would've thought to order, and it was really good and very unusual in flavor.

[JimRice]

The Post has an article on Burma and the closing.

D.C.'s renowned Burma restaurant, a Chinatown gem, is serving its final meals

[DonRocks]

The Post has an article on Burma and the closing.

D.C.'s renowned Burma restaurant, a Chinatown gem, is serving its final meals

Burma closed along with Kanlaya Thai and Urfa Tomato Kabob, all located at 740 6th St. NW. The building, along with 736 6th St. NW, was purchased by Douglas Development, and plans are to turn it into one large development.

Here is Douglas Development's plan for the space, and I suspect if you mill through their tweets, you could find a progress report somewhere. If you go to that page and click on "Retail Flyer," you can get a pretty good idea of the plan.