Love People
Build places where people feel supported, challenged, and able to grow.
Our Story
What began around one table
kept growing.
Tea leaves from remote mountains of Namsan, Shan State. Busy nights on Clement Street. Three decades of hospitality, familiar faces, and meals shared late into the night.
The beginning
A small dining room
on Clement Street.
Burma Food Group is a Burmese-rooted group of restaurants and bars across the Bay Area, where every location takes its own shape—grounded in a shared perspective across cultures and tuned to its unique neighborhood.
Since 1992, we've been serving the bold, layered flavors of a country where China meets India and Thailand, from monsoon-rich curries to lahpet, the legendary fermented tea leaf salad once used as a peace offering. Each dish tells a story of ancient recipes, Rangoon's street energy, and real ingredients you can taste.
Come curious. Leave with flavors you can't forget—and a hunger to return.
Tea leaves
The story behind
the tea leaf salad.
Tea leaf salad has been part of Burmese tables for generations, and part of Burma Superstar since the beginning. Over time, it became one of the restaurant's most recognized dishes.
For years, fermented tea leaves could not be properly imported into the United States. Then in 2009, reports surfaced about unsafe production methods tied to tea leaf production in Burma.
Our team returned to the tea-growing regions of eastern Myanmar — Shan State — looking for a better path forward. There, they met small tea farmers whose families had worked the mountains for generations, often without stable pricing or direct access to buyers.
The work changed from there. Burma Food Group began building direct relationships with farmers, introducing updated food safety standards and more stable pricing practices. Those efforts eventually led to the first legal import of fermented Burmese tea leaves into the United States in 2014.
The relationship with those farms continues today.
The arc
1992 → today.
What started on Clement Street grew slowly across the Bay. New rooms. New neighborhoods. Same kitchen at the center of it all.
-
1992
Clement Street.
A small dining room in San Francisco's Inner Richmond. Tea leaf salad on the menu from day one.
-
2008
Across the bridge.
Burma Superstar opens in Alameda, bringing the restaurant beyond San Francisco for the first time.
-
2009
Oakland.
A second East Bay dining room opens on Telegraph Avenue, expanding the restaurant's presence across the Bay.
-
2014
San Francisco Mission.
A different kind of room. More space to linger, a larger bar, and later nights — while keeping the tea leaf salad, samusa soup, and platha at the center of the table.
-
2016
On the pantry shelf.
Burma Love Foods launches, bringing tea leaves, chili crisp, noodles, and other products from the restaurants into home kitchens, grocery shelves, and food service.
-
2019
San Francisco Downtown.
Burma Love opens downtown, continuing the expansion of the restaurants into new neighborhoods across San Francisco.
-
2020
Oakland.
Burma Bites, a smaller restaurant format opens in Oakland, built around quick meals, takeaway, and everyday staples from the kitchen.
-
2023
Hayes Valley & Springline Menlo Park.
Teakwood by Burma Love opens in Hayes Valley, shaped by the cuisines of Burma and Northern Thailand. That same year, Burma Love opens in Springline, Menlo Park.
-
2024
Chase Center.
Burma Love opens at Thrive City, bringing the restaurant into one of the Bay Area's busiest gathering places.
-
Today
More dining tables.
Burma Food Group now includes restaurants, bars, catering, and products across the Bay Area — all still connected by the same kitchen, recipes, and approach to hospitality.
The Process
Hand to bowl.
Tea leaf salad begins long before it reaches the table. The work moves slowly — through farms, fermentation rooms, kitchens, and many hands along the way.
How we work
Three things
that guide the work.
The restaurants may look different from one another, but the approach stays consistent — in the kitchen, in the dining room, and behind the scenes.
Love Food
Cook with care. Source thoughtfully. Stay connected to the traditions behind the food.
Love Life
Create spaces that bring people together — around the table and beyond.
Chapter Six
Platha
Flaky, layered ghee breads griddled hot — pulled, folded, and crisped at the edges.
"Addictive recipes from the crossroads of Southeast Asia."
— 72 —
Cookbook
Burma Superstar
at home.
Tea leaf salad, samusa soup, coconut noodles, and longtime favorites from the restaurants — adapted for home kitchens over the years.
Available at all our Burma Superstar and Burma Love locations and select Bay Area grocers.
Come on in
More rooms over time.
Restaurants, bars, and products across the Bay Area — all connected by the same kitchen and approach to hospitality.