Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
These events are not related, but just as downtown Palo Alto loses its only Burmese restaurant, it gets another, better one. Long a fixture of the quiet side of Bryant between University and Hamilton, little Rangoon hung on with a timid Burmese menu that most patrons shunned for the more familiar Chinese dishes. Fine for a quick lunch, it was never much fun for dinner: sparse and quiet, though friendly. It finally closed (long after I thought it would) and will be replaced by something called Altar. Maybe they’ll serve goat, or something biblical like that. Hopefully not virgins.
Meanwhile, Baklava has closed. I did like it but was finding the food less and less good. Quickly the space on Emerson just north of University (where nothing has survived for long since Left at Albuquerque, well, left) reopened as Rangoon Ruby. Now this is a Burmese restaurant. The whole menu, and it’s not a small one, features Burmese dishes with their distinctive blend of Thai, Cambodian, Chinese, Bangladeshi, and local influences. We had a hard time narrowing down our choices so two of us ended up ordering four dishes (and enjoying the leftovers later). You will find curries (unique to Burma), noodle dishes, exotic appetizers, and a variety of meat and fish dishes. Vegetarians will go home happy. Appropriate for this type of food, Rangoon Ruby has an excellent selection of beers on draft, mostly from California; I did not delve into wine. The layout is basically the same as Baklava and is comfortable and pleasant. The high ceilings and glass front help. Try it.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Baklava & Rangoon out; Rangoon Ruby in, Altar coming