Style and Sustenance

With its selection of Myanmar and Thai dishes amid a splendid setting, Padonmar Restaurant offers a meal with a sense of occasion

By GRACE HARRISON / YANGON

Nestled in lush corner of Dagon Township is the popular gem Padonmar, known for its excellent Myanmar and Thai food and romantic ambience.

Garden tables offer alfresco dining under huge trees, complete with evergreen grass. For those who prefer to sit indoors, there’s also the large, air-conditioned Padonmar hall, with its mural of a lake with pretty blue- flowered Bengal clock vines.

Striking as these settings are, however, the real atmosphere is in the main building, where dramatic temple-like settings are created with fun trompe l’oeil murals hand-painted by local painter Kyaw Min Han.

The building has several rooms, each with its own distinctive design. In the Ingyin room, you will find yourself among the temples of Bagan, while the Padauk room is the place to go to get close up to golden pagodas.

The special 10-person Padonmar room offers cozy privacy within a sweeping landscape.

“The whole house is decorated like a palace,” says owner-manager U Sonny Aung Khin, explaining the interior design choices.

The same attention to decorative details is also evident elsewhere. The nook off the bar features three fine nudes by the highly regarded artist Myint Naing. And along the staircase, there’s a photo gallery of VIPs who have paid a visit: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, activist/comedian Zarganar, US Senator John McCain, international financier George Soros, British pop singer Cliff Richards, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and an array of government ministers, ambassadors, actresses and beauty queens.

Padonmar, which means “lotus” in Myanmar, was founded by U Sonny Aung Khin in 2003, and spent its first seven years of existence at a different location on Inya Road before moving to its current home— an 80-year-old house that has hosted an art gallery and was also once lived in by the famous American heart surgeon Dr. Michael Segal and his wife—in 2010.

“We lost touch with our custom- ers for a year, but after a year we found each other again,” says U Sonny Aung Khin, adding that despite the disruption, he has no regrets about the move.

“It’s a great location, a bigger house, a bigger compound, and it has good parking. Padonmar is popular with tourists and these days there are many family reunions. A lot of people are coming back to visit the country, some for the first time in 40 years.”

Although Padonmar serves both Myanmar and Thai cuisines, 80 percent of customers prefer the local fare, which is prepared by specialist chefs.

“I had to build two separate kitchens. Thais cannot make Myanmar food and Myanmar cooks cannot make Thai food. The cuisines use different ingredients. Thai is very sweet, sour and hot. Myanmar is closer to Indian curries, but more subtle,” says U Sonny Aung Khin.

The menu includes an excellent

Padonmar Restaurant

No. 105/107 Kha Yae Bin Rd, Dagon Township

Between Pyi Daung Su Yeik Tha and Manawhari Rd

Tel 01-538-895

Email Padonmar.restaurant@gmail.com selection of classic Myanmar and Thai dishes, including all the usual curries—mutton, beef, pork, chicken, prawn and bean curd—as well as some that are perhaps less familiar, such as the fried mango fish curry (6,000 kyat).

You can make a satisfying meal by matching your curry of choice with a vegetable dish and a serving of coconut rice. The minted bamboo shoots (4,600 kyat) go especially well with meats, while the roselle-leaf soup with tomato, acacia leaves, watercress and sour radish (2,400 kyat) refreshes the palate.

The restaurant’s unusual and enticing salads, made with such ingredients as drumstick leaves, pomelo and pennywort, are also well worth trying. The grilled eggplant salad (2,800 kyat) is a house favorite.

Besides making a tasty salad, the young tender leaves of the drumstick tree (which also has a long fruit that is boiled and cooked in Myanmar-style curries) are also good as a healthy side dish. The roselle leaves are similarly versatile, and are delicious served up fried with bamboo shoots (3,200 kyat). And if you’re looking for something leafy but with a meaty dimension, you can’t go wrong with the watercress with mushroom and shredded mutton (4,800 kyat).

With its authentic Myanmar food, interesting art and inviting garden, Padonmar is an essential dining experience. Be sure to put it on your “should go” list.