Eating in Mrauk U, Myanmar

Mrauk U is a village and certainly not a culinary capital, though we found some good places to eat (and a bad one).

Happy Garden Restaurant



Owner U Min Cho and his daughter Bone Bone (pron. Bon Bon) are welcoming and friendly. Their service and the cute garden setting made this my favourite restaurant in Mrauk U.

The menu has a range of Myanmar & Chinese cuisine. Salads are 1,000-2,000 Kyat, chicken and pork mains are around 2,000 Kyat, Prawn and fish are 3,000 Kyat. We tried several items, which were all pretty good.






U Min Cho, the owner at Happy Garden Restaurant

U Min Cho struck up conversation with us, eagerly taught us how to speak in Myanmar and told us of his plan to build bungalows on the site, which he hopes to have ready by 2015. He plans to charge $15 USD for a single and $20 USD for a double.


Part of the Happy Garden menu. We gave the Crisply Fried Pork Colon a miss!



Pyae Wa  restaurant.

Pyae Wa
This local restaurant is on the main road across from the market. Their curries are Myanmar style, they have meat on the bone and are a little oily but they’re tasty and cheap.  There aren’t prices on the menu, but what they charge is reasonable.

The chicken and beef curries we had were 1,000 Kyat each and a serve of rice is 200 Kyat.

We ate here on our second day in Myanmar and were confused when we were ordered curries and were also served two soups each– a bean soup and a sour fish broth. We didn’t question it and ate them. The staff did charge us 200 Kyat for soup (normally it’s given for free in Myanmar) but we didn’t mind because the soups were tasty and only the equivalent of 20 cents.


Our HUGE bill... the equivalent of $5.10 US!

 

Triple One

This is a very popular place with locals, and is on the outskirts of town a few doors down from Shwe Thazin Hotel.

Their menu is cheap and strikingly similar to Happy Garden’s (same spelling mistakes and all)! It’s a relaxed vibe with the owner’s young son and daughter helping to take orders and wait tables.

 

Moe Cherry was listed as Top Choice in the 2011 edition of Lonely Planet. Either standards have changed or the LP journalist didn’t eat at many places. The curries were dry and not very flavoursome, I’m glad they upsold us some vegetables because the dry meat dishes and rice alone would have been difficult to swallow.
There are no prices on the menu, which is unusual for a westerner-friendly restaurant and it seemed that the staff made up the prices as they went along. Our bill included beers, grilled fish, chicken curry and pork curry, all of which we’d ordered. The vegetables and three serves of rice we’d ordered weren’t mentioned and I’m sure we were charged extra for the jackfruit dish and potatoes.

 

 

Mr. Rocky (Guide) - Mrauk U, Myanmar

Guide – Mr Rocky
0942 1720 168
rockymrauku@gmail.com

Kyaw Hla Maung, or “Mr. Rocky” is a historical researcher and a great source of knowledge on Rakhine history. Now in his sixties, he has led an interesting life. He’s studied and lived abroad and speaks English well (through a Myanmar accent).

A passionate historian, he commissioned research on the origins of the Burmese language, and proudly showed us a large chart of the findings at a temple that we visited. He has vowels and consonants tattooed to his body and as a young man used to secretly study ancient Burmese scripts in the forest with his friends. He was arrested several times as a student for using forbidden scripts. His personal stories are amazing.

Rocky’s knowledge of the area, English vocabulary and passion for history and archaeology make him an excellent guide. He accompanied us to Wethali and asked our driver to stop at an archaeological excavation site and a monastery on the way.

At the excavation site, we walked inside a 4^th-8^th Century religious building where Brahmin, Hindu and Buddhist statues have been found. As we looked around, at least 50 men and women worked to uncover walls that experts believe are part of a water management system. This site was buried during a volcanic eruption.

We made another stop at a monastery where the monks are building a Buddha Museum to showcase the ancient relics and Buddha castings that they have possession of. We were privileged enough to be shown the collection privately.

 

When you book Rocky as a guide you’ll need to book a driver with appropriate transportation too. A jeep or air conditioned van are best for the bumpy, unsealed roads around Mrauk U. You might get coated in dust in a jeep, but it’s all part of the adventure! The road to Wethali was a good sealed road, but the roads within the village were rough and at one point, our driver, Mr. Rocky and my partner even got out to move some large rocks aside so that our jeep could get through.
Your guesthouse should be able to help you book transportation.