It’s rare to bite into something with a taste that’s indescribable, but that’s how we felt while trying the first forkful of Burma Burma’s tea leaf salad. With lettuce, cherry tomatoes, fried garlic and a paste of fermented tea leaves, the crunchy and acid salad was a tart assault on the tongue and ensured we took notice of the rest of our meal.

We balanced the healthy mix with an assorted fried platter where the stand-out was the bottle gourd fries. Each of the four crispy appetisers was distinct but we were underwhelmed by the sweet corn fritters (they reminded us too much of the cheese corn balls from Bombay Blue, albeit without the cheese) and the lentil fritters. The chickpea steamed cake filled with vegetables was bland.

Our drinks were perked-up by the pervasive flavour of lemon. The Kaffir lime cooler was a great way to beat the heat and the lemon iced-tea was brewed in-house and well balanced – neither too sweet nor too zesty.

Set up by Chirag Chhajer and Ankit Gupta, the grey and brown Burma Burma manages to feel modern but with enough knickknacks to make it homely. Behind the bar there are colourful teapots and other tchotkes. Gupta’s mother and her family grew up in Burma and armed with her knowledge they’ve opened up the all-veg, alcohol-free eatery. Besides a long menu, there’s an extensive tea list that features black, green, white, oolong and herbal variants with coloured stars alongside to indicate brewing times.

Following the appetisers we had raised expectations, which were shot down by the brown onion and roasted chilli buns, an assortment of five steamed buns with not enough of the filling. Luckily, this was the only dish we felt could have done with meat. Our other mains, an order of khow suey, sticky rice, mixed vegetable curry and gawbi pebya (stir fried cabbage and tofu with dried red chillies, lemongrass and soy) were mostly hits.

Tang, lots of it, was what separated the great mains from the bad. The khow suey was served with a cupcake tray of toppings that includes lemon wedges, peanuts, spring onion and other add-ons. The neon yellow soup was wellexecuted but needed some help from the lemon to get zesty. The gawbi pebya was kimchi-like with purple and green cabbage taking on an astringent pickled flavour which was mellowed by the chilli and soy. The one avoidable main is the toothin mixed vegetable curry made with a heavy hand of turmeric.

With the restaurant buzzing around us, we dug into two subtle desserts. The Shway Aye, a sort of Burmese falooda with sweet bread, lotus seeds and coconut jelly floating in coconut milk had our dining companion in ecstasy. Also good but not as great was the Tagu Pyi an – sago pearls sandwiched between baked thick coconut cream.

An inventive menu filled with some unusual tastes and enough differing textures will have us back. We can only hope that in the future, the eatery expands to offer something for the jaded carnivore too.  

THE BILL

Burma Burma Ground Floor, 5/7 Kothari House, Allana Centre Lane, Fort (). Daily noon-3pm, 7-11pm. No alcohol. All major cards. Meal for two R800-2,000