Nan Yang

Five stars for the memories, when I celebrated a birthday in its original Chinatown location. The paradox of the eight treasure bean curd, which did not contain branched, was intriguing and ethereal. The garlic noodles were a revelation, the tea salad evocative of distant lands, the different varieties of rice a standout. At its pinnacle, NanYang was better than the Oakland branch of Burma Superstar and on the same spectrum as the original SF one.
Ironically, both Nan Yang and I ended up a short distance but a great cultural leap to Rockridge, at a time when authenticity still meant compromise. The compromises made this place less of a destination for me – the varying reviews were all correct about hit or miss dishes.
But that eight treasure bean curd alone has been outstanding and needs to be enshrined. Someone open up a food cart with its highlights. Or maybe an outpost in Chinatown.
Thanks for the birthday memories.

4 stars for the garlic mango noodles and the green mango salad, polite service, and nice setting; 3 stars for the somewhat heavy hand with the oil, okay but not inspired spring rolls and vegetable and mushroom noodles (which had only a smattering of the wood ear mushrooms advertised on the menu) and for the wobbly table. Went in large part to go before the chef retires.

the patriach behind Nan Yang is retiring soon, will sell the biz. so i grabbed a lunch special to remember his Burmese fare.
eats: beef curry lunch plate (7.5)
–lettuce salad, strong vinegar dressing
–beef chucks tender/​chewy, not flank steak,
–curry brownish, on the pungent side.
notes:
–dinner fare pricey
–haven’t tried much burmese fare
–signature salads aren’t my food of choice.

I really wanted to like this place — I really did. I went for dinner with a friend last night with high hopes and was disappointed. We were looking for a spot where we could eat on a patio or other outside table since he had his pup with him and settled on Nan Yang. The waitress was very nice and brought a plastic drink lid (…still think that was odd) with a bit of water in it for his dog.
The food was generally disappointing, though. I ordered the garlic noodles with seafood (listed as the house specialty) for 14.95 and it was nowhere near worth that. Two squid rings, three small scallops, a shrimp and two pieces of surimi in some lukewarm noodles swimming in mild yellow curry. That’s about it. My friend ordered the chicken curry and said it was «meh,» so as Unilocal suggests that two stars is a «meh,» that’s what I’m giving it.

Very friendly service — and at 1:30 on a Saturday not crowded as others have said. They should be doing a better business as the food is quite good. This visit I tried the curried knish appetizer — really a treat. Scarfed it down — use the lemon wedge it compliments the flavors nicely.
Lunch special prawns with spinach and bamboo shoot was a slightly sweet very light curry broth with just a bit of heat. Well executed.
I’ll be back.

Delicious. Just amazing —
I came here a few months ago and forgot to write a review but I went back today and felt compelled to comment on just how great this place is.
True, the interior is nothing special but the food is fantastic. I tried the ginger salad because the menu description intrigued me — it’s supposed to «invoke raptures of joy.» I have to say, although I wasn’t quite that joyous, I was pretty happy. Solid, filling, and tasty salad. Good for anyone looking for a healthy meal.
Today I went back and tried the prawn salad and ooooooohhhh myyyyyy gooooooood. So simple and yet so amazing. I’ll definitely be coming back to eat here.

I went here for my birthday and got the garlic noodles with prawns. soooo delicious!!! I highly recommend this place. My brother and bf got the beef and chicken curry dishes and they were both pleased.
The people there were very nice and the restaurant had a very homey, welcoming feel to it.
I am looking forward to going back soon.

This place is wonderful. I went here with a fairly large group of friends because we knew we would be able to find something that everyone would enjoy eating. We had a couple vegetarians with us, and this is a definite favorite for my vegetarian and vegan friends.
The nice thing about this place is that it is not crowded at lunch, so we were able to have good conversations and be as loud as we wanted. It was quiet and we didn’t have to feel like we were annoying anyone else by talking too loudly.
The Samosas are a favorite and a must.
Any of the garlic noodles are great even for a vegetarian option.
The tea salad is funny if you want something unique.
They do the Vietnamese Coffee with the condensed milk properly.
Great place to go with friends for lunch. Better than any of the other options on college ave.

Food
Amazing mango salad. I’ve never had mangoes in a salad before but they way they slice it so thin and toss it in whatever salty dressing they’re using makes it taste so naturally right.
Great garlic noodles with chicken too. Chicken had like 5 seasonings or something? Very distinct taste combined well with the garlic.
Unfortunately, their coconut rice is not as good as Burma Superstar’s which is the only reason for a ½ star down.
Service
Good! Fast. Never had to wait to be seated during lunch. Polite.

I am in love with this place!
Mango noodle salad is the Bomb! I have been to this place twice and cant wait to go again. My boyfriend first took me to this place and now Im hooked. Costumer service is also nice. =D

Nan Yang ‘s Garlic Noodles with shrimp is my top choice here! I had my birthday, anniversary and valentines dinner here. I learned about this restaurant from my boyfriend when we had our first date here. ;] and since then, we’ve been coming here so much that the owners already recognize us. lol We had a complimentary ice cream on our anniversary and it was so coconut-​y and creamy.
Would I try something else? No
Why? Their Garlic Noodles is just too good
How’s parking? Not bad, we always park right in front of the store. If not, there is free parking about a block away next to the gas station.
FYI, they have two sets of tables in the front if you can’t leave your dog inside the car (because of the stupid alarm system that goes off when the car senses movement inside the car)

Today was my first visit here in a while, I ate here once before several years ago but it didn’t seem to sink in that this was a Burmese restaurant at the time. My friend and I had a late lunch — he enjoyed his prawn curry which was a spectacular orange color, but paired oddly with a green salad on the same plate. The samosas were crispy and delicious.
I had something sort of different — I smelled yummy cabbage and noodles when I saw a plate on another table where the cook & another staff member were about to have lunch — the cook actually came and took our order, so I asked him about it — cabbage, bean sprouts, green onions and vermicelli — he offered tofu so I accepted — and he came out beaming «Not on menu!» telling me that he just made up the tofu part on the spot. It was delicious — not my grandma’s wide noodles with cabbage, but similar enough and darned tasty with the bean sprouts and green onions.
I’ll be back again — would love to try their tea leaf salad and some other items — perhaps a dinner sometime soon!

Nan Yang is a hella good Burmese restaurant in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. We met some friends here this weekend, and I’m so glad that we did.
We ate family-​style, and ordered the following dishes:
Appetizer Sampler — As my wife will attest, I love variety. Sampler plates were designed for people like me. This sampler has two pieces each of five-​spice chicken, samosas, fried potato cakes, and eight treasure bean curd. The chicken was delicious, the samosas and fried potato cakes pretty good, and the eight treasure bean curd (made of milk, not bean curd) was just kinda weird.
Beef with Mango (special) — Awesome. Vibrantly flavorful beef with the best mango ever, served over garlic spinach. The only way to make this better would be for the beef to be more tender, but I’d go back just for this dish exactly the way it was.
Garlic Noodles with Mango and Chicken — This isn’t on the menu, but we didn’t want the garlic noodles with just the mango or just the chicken, and they were happy to put this together for us. Yummy.
Eggplant with Pork — Drier than I expected, but quite tasty. Strips of smoked eggplant served with ground pork cooked with Burmese spices.
Fish Curry — Salmon steak in a sweet and sour red curry, served with rice. Very flavorful dish, and the salmon was cooked perfectly.
We don’t live anywhere near Rockridge, so Nan Yang will never make it onto our regular rotation, but we’ll look for opportunities to visit again when we find ourselves near Oakland again. You should too.

Apparently we’re oblivious because we had no idea there was a Burmese place near us on College until I saw Susan S’s review earlier this year.
We started with the Burmese staple of Tea Leaf Salad (
) which is more traditional than the B-​Superstar version with tomatoes and no lettuce. The tea leaf flavor was not very pronounced and the tomatoes seemed to dominate the other dried ingredients as well. We didn’t finish this.
For one entrée we had Seafood Garlic Noodles which the menu said was a house specialty (Flat noodles tossed in garlic oil and soy sauce. Topped with scallops, smoked mussels, prawns and calamari sautéed in light curry and coconut milk
). Not quite what I was expecting with very little garlic coming through the curry. That said, the flavor was good overall though the calamari & mussels were overcooked and tough. They should rename this Seafood Curry Noodles like their other dishes with curry sauce.
From their Specials Menu we also got Seared Scallops with Portobello Mushroom (Seared jumbo scallops and portabella mushroom marinated with butter and wine, then wok seared in our special house oyster sauce). It wasn’t mentioned, but this came with black rice and some bok choy (
). Not sure what was going on in the kitchen, but if you look at the picture the scallops are not «jumbo» and there was also some shrimp (we were not told of these substitutions when we ordered). Seafood was perfectly cooked. Tasty oyster sauce. Possibly the least Burmese of our dishes, this was probably our favorite dish, even with the substitutions.
Tea Leaf Salad — 2 stars (more fermented tea and fewer tomatoes please!)
Seafood Garlic Noodles — 3 stars
Seared «Jumbo Scallops» — 4 stars
Service — 3 stars

Awesome Mango Salad!!!
VERY VERY GOOD Garlic Noodles with Chicken
I really like the Vietnamese Coffee!!!
The Chef is also the owner and is very hands on with the food and very friendly — my wife and I love this place. I should note that we almost always come just for the Garlic Noodles with Chicken and the Mango Salad. (See Photos)

I’ve been here twice now and both times were great. I think my favorite dish is the garlic noodles with mangoes (seasonal item). The flavors of the sauce and onions really seep into the noodles.
As for how authentic it is for Burmese food, I have no clue, but the vermicelli with prawns dish is another yummy in my tummy.
The service is great as the staff doesn’t come by too often, but enough to make me know that they care.
I do agree with one of the Unilocalers, that they should add music to give it a better ambiance. On the bright side to not having music is that I can easily have a conversation.
The chef makes guest appearances, he’s usually in/​out of the kitchen.

The food here is pretty decent. Their mango salad is sweet and tangy. Their tea salad is also pretty good. On the other hand, I have had better tea salad else where. As far as the entrée is concerned, the presentation of the food is pretty awesome. The taste of the each entrée tends to be on the sweeter side than anything else.
As far as the ambiance of the restaurant? This is the type of place where they will allow you to sit around and chat with your friends as long as you like. No rush. The service here is pretty good too. The waitstaff is very attentive.

I’ve never had Burmese food before, so I was pretty excited to try this place. My family and I ordered a bunch of plates, and I’ll highlight some below.
–Mango prawns: I liked this dish, but wished the prawns were cooked differently. The mangoes, however, were really good.
–Garlic noodles with chicken: Pretty good! The chicken was whatever, but the garlic noodles were pretty good. Next time I would just get the noodles itself.
–Okra w/​prawns: I love okra… but wasn’t a fan of the curry in this dish. I love curry, but it was more of a soupy, curry powder that made up this dish. To me, okra doesn’t take all that great in curry.
–Fried bananas w/​ice cream: Yum! The bananas were deep fried perfectly.
I would definitely go back here again. The service here is great and really sweet.

The service is AmAZING! We called when we were getting out of a movie late and they stayed open… for us!
Big, fancy pants restaurant.
Great menu. Free hot tea — a rareity for Burmese.
We loved the prawns over garlic noodles. They tasted sweet and garlicky.
The tea leaf salad wasn’t as good as others I’d had — too many tomatoes and too spicy. We returned it but they were VERY gracious and took it off the bill.
We also took my finicky niece and nephew and they concocted a special soup for them (very barebones — on purpose!) and they slurped it up til there was nothing left.
Overall, quite successful.

this was my introduction to Burmese cuisine and I must say I like it. Its like chinese/​thai/​indian all infused into one. you get chili and curry, plus coconut milk and lemon grass. I have no experience to compare this to, but I thought Nan Yang’s garlic noodles were delicious. we also order the sampler appetizer plate that came with 2 samosas, 2 ‘eight bean curd treasurers’, 2 fried tropical squash, and some five-​spice chicken. they were all very interesting and a great introduction to what I guess is Burmese food.
apparently BurmaStar is where the real Burmese food is, so I will try there next. then give a review update. But don’t worry, come to Nan Yang if you’re looking to explore a new cuisine and you won’t be disappointed. Nan Yang is the ORIGINAL BURMA RESTAURANT within the area. plus Nan Yang is Zagat rated and was once a Michelin recommended restaurant back in 2007.

Ein burmesisches Restaurant ist recht selten zu finden in der Welt (außer in Burma), und es war alles sehr lecker.
Bamboo Shots mit Spinat, kalt als Salat leicht sauer angemacht, klasse.
Nur irgendwioe erinnerte mich das dann doch nicht an Burma so richtig. War trotzdem lecker!