A fast-casual Burmese restaurant is set to fill one of downtown Mountain View’s most storied storefronts this winter, bringing tea leaf salad, halal hot dishes and a menu priced well below the Bay Area’s established Burmese spots. TleafGreen is expected to open in December or January at 790 Castro Street, the longtime home of Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria, and it will be the only Burmese restaurant in the city.
According to Palo Alto Online, TleafGreen is a fast-casual spinoff from the team behind three full-service Burmese restaurants: Burma Bay Cafe in Fremont, Burma! Burma! in Dublin, and Burma 2 in Walnut Creek. Yong Ming Yang, who hails from Myanmar, and John Luo are two of the five business partners behind the concept. Luo told the outlet that the team actually signed the Mountain View lease before opening their first TleafGreen location, intending the Castro Street spot to debut first, but city planning processes delayed the Mountain View opening, pushing the brand to launch in San Jose in April instead.
A Faster, Cheaper Take on Familiar Flavors
TleafGreen offers a rotating lineup of Burmese and Southeast Asian salads and hot dishes, including the brand’s best-selling tea leaf salad, made with fermented tea leaves, fried garlic, yellow beans, peanuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, for $13.95. Other popular salads include the Burmese chicken salad and the golden mango salad, both priced at $12.95, and diners can add chicken, salmon, fried soft tofu or shrimp for $2.95 to $4.95. The menu also features eight housemade salad dressings, per the same report.
Hot dishes such as black pepper chicken, string bean beef, Burmese shrimp and eggplant tofu are available in three sizes ranging from $6.90 to $16.90, alongside sides like jasmine rice, brown rice, Burmese noodles and pineapple fried rice priced between $2.85 and $9. The restaurant also serves dishes like mint jalapeño chicken and basil dried chili beef. Luo said the fast-casual model lets TleafGreen price its menu 20 to 30 percent cheaper than other Bay Area Burmese restaurants while keeping the flavor and quality the same, and every meat option on the menu is halal.
From a 24-Year Pizza Fixture to Burmese Kitchen
The Castro Street space TleafGreen is taking over was occupied by Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria for 24 years before the pizzeria relocated to San Antonio Road, according to Palo Alto Online's reporting. The new restaurant will have around 35 to 40 seats inside, plus additional seating on an outdoor patio.
TleafGreen’s debut location, which opened in April at 5353 Almaden Expressway in San Jose, is known for its signature tea leaf salad and customizable bowls, salads and hot-bar dishes, according to Visit San Jose. That location also offers vegetarian, halal and gluten-free dining options, giving a sense of the menu Mountain View diners can expect once the Castro Street doors open.
Eyeing Santa Clara, Palo Alto and Beyond
Luo said the team hopes to expand to two additional locations next year, with Santa Clara and Palo Alto of particular interest, and that the ultimate goal is for TleafGreen to become a national chain. That ambition arrives amid a well-established Bay Area Burmese dining scene; San Francisco’s Mandalay Restaurant, which opened in 1984, is considered the region’s first Burmese restaurant, and the city’s Burmese food offerings remain largely concentrated in San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The region was once home to the largest Burmese population in the country, a legacy reflected in long-running spots from Burma Superstar, serving since 1992, to Burma Love's outposts in San Francisco and Menlo Park.
TleafGreen's arrival would mark a new chapter for that culinary tradition on the Peninsula, bringing a quick-service model to a cuisine historically served in full sit-down settings. For now, Mountain View diners will have to wait until winter to find out exactly when the tea leaf salad starts flowing on Castro Street.
