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From Mingalaba in Burlingame to Burma Taste in Sunnyvale, the Peninsula has quite a selection of Burmese food – but notably, all are sit-down restaurants. That’s where Mountain View newcomer TleafGreen is hoping to fill the void.
Expected to open in December or January, TleafGreen is a new fast-casual Burmese concept by the team behind full-service Burmese restaurants including Burma Bay Cafe in Fremont, Burma! Burma! in Dublin and Burma 2 in Walnut Creek. TleafGreen made its debut in April in San Jose, offering a variety of Burmese and Southeast Asian salads as well as hot dishes, including mint jalapeno chicken and basil dried chili beef.
The restaurant is opening in the former space of Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, which relocated to San Antonio Road after 24 years on Castro Street. TleafGreen will be the only Burmese restaurant in Mountain View, with other Midpeninsula options including Burma Love in Menlo Park and Rangoon Ruby in Palo Alto.
Yong Ming Yang, who hails from Myanmar, and John Luo are two of five business partners behind TleafGreen. Luo said they had signed the lease for the Mountain View location before the San Jose location and had intended to debut the concept in Mountain View, but city planning took longer than expected.
What differentiates TleafGreen from other Bay Area Burmese restaurants, Luo said, is that the fast-casual model allows them to price the menu 20-30% cheaper while keeping the flavor and quality the same. He also notes that all the meat at TleafGreen is halal.
As the name implies, tea leaf salad is a top selling item ($13.95), Luo noted. Tea leaf salad features an earthy and tangy dressing made of fermented tea leaves, as well as a crunchy texture from fried garlic, yellow beans, peanuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Chicken, salmon, fried soft tofu or shrimp can be added for an additional $2.95-$4.95. Other popular salads include the Burmese chicken salad and golden mango salad ($12.95-$12.95).
Hot dishes – including black pepper chicken, string bean beef, Burmese shrimp and eggplant tofu – are available to order in three sizes ($6.90-$16.90), with jasmine rice, brown rice, Burmese noodles and pineapple fried rice available separately ($2.85-$9).
The Mountain View restaurant will have around 35-40 seats, Luo said, plus additional seating on the outdoor patio.
Next year, TleafGreen hopes to expand to an additional two locations, with Santa Clara and Palo Alto of particular interest. The ultimate goal, Luo said, is for TleafGreen to become a national chain.
TleafGreen isn’t the only health-conscious, fast-causal Southeast Asian restaurant with national chain dreams that recently debuted in Silicon Valley. Fast-casual Thai restaurant HolyShred recently opened in Palo Alto, with plans to expand aggressively within the next year.
TleafGreen Burmese Kitchen, 790 Castro St., Mountain View; Instagram: @tleafgreensj.
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