2 Best Restaurants in Bagan, Myanmar

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Bagan has a good selection of restaurants across Old and New Bagan and Nyaung-U, so if your first choice is full, there’s another option not far away. Among the cheerful Burmese, Indian, and Thai places are a handful of tasty, inexpensive Myanmar family-style restaurants.

Golden Myanmar 2

$$$ | Old Bagan

Of the cluster of restaurants just north of Ananda Temple, Golden Myanmar 1 and 2, owned by the same family, are the most popular with local drivers and guides, and offer the most authentic Burmese food. Sit down, smile expectantly, and dishes will begin appearing on your table faster than you can wash the grime from your face. Mutton, pork, and an array of chicken curries, fried fish, sautéed vegetables, Burmese salads (pickled tea leaf), and rice will leave you stuffed, but then dessert comes out—short, squat bananas and sweet little tamarind candies. The friendly staff will keep refilling your plates unless you say otherwise. The buffet is K3,000 per person, excluding drinks.

Burmese $$$ Lunch Dinner
Off Bagan-Nyaung-U Rd. near Ananda Temple, Bagan, Myanmar
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Green Elephant

$$$$ | New Bagan
If you want to try a wide variety of Burmese food and aren’t ready to dive into street stalls, Green Elephant is a safe bet. It’s popular with tour groups, but don’t let that put you off: service is friendly and efficient, and the food, though certainly not mind-blowing, is toothsome and comes from a clean kitchen. Indeed, it was her own food allergies that drove Cherie Aung-Khin to open Green Elephant. Because Aung-Khin previously lived in Thailand, Thai and Chinese dishes are available as well, but we recommend the Burmese dishes, especially the tea leaf salad, eggplant salad, and fish curry. Prices for fairly standard Burmese dishes here are much higher than what you'll pay elsewhere, but this is a safe, clean place to sit down to eat.