Ruby Burma

I was passing by the other day, and found out it was closed for good… haven’t got the chance to try it! no

The menu is authentic & delicious & satisfying. The ambience is a bit bright & stark.

Great traditional spot where you really feel the burmese vibes. Every meal we tried was delicious and tasty. Some were spicy like Shan Kwan Swae (chicken mixed with noodles and veggies).
The owner of the place was so friendly and welcoming, almost getting the feeling you have when you’re in Asia.
Now get out of your comfort zone and try something new like this. Especially, it’s one of the only burmese spot in MTL.

A great place for a nice meal on St Laurent. They have a lunch promo on 9 dishes (11.50 $ including tax) and number 5 is the best noodle dish I’ve had in a while. I had previously tried the curry and the salad with family, and I remember us all being very satisfied. I remember the tea leaf salad like it was yesterday! It’s decently priced when you think about quality/​authenticity of the food — and the location. Plus, service is super friendly and casual, I was offered free tea for lunch there and enjoyed it just sitting by the window. I will definitely be back.

I was here for the fame of the tea leaf salad. I came in the restaurant on Sunday evening and immediately made an order of the salad and seated myself at the table close to the counter as the owner said I could sit where I prefer. It was a very warm evening and the big window was opened to allow air circulation and direct connection with the street. This actually attracts some flies and spider wondering around my table and kept me accompany throughout the whole dinner experience.
Fifteen mins later the owner brought my tea leaf salad along with a fork and knife without water. The salad was already mixed, unlike some previous pictures here on Unilocal showed serving as unmixed items (I guess they don’t do it anymore). The seeds and peanuts made the salad crunchy and tasty but the vegetable part is just lettuce and tomato lacking varieties and flavours. There was some chopped tea leaves in between that tastes bitter (yep, it is supposed to be bitter. No surprise on that). 7 mins into eating, a glass of water finally came from a smiling waitress. She looks friendly.
The salad cost 11.50 dollar before tax, 13.23 after the 15% Quebec tax, and 15.21 after the default 15% tips. The credit card machine prompted me to give 15%, 20%, or 25% tips. Really?
The restaurant feels like a fast meal place in general. The pricy salad and all, I am not gonna recommend it.

C’était la proposition d’une amie. Quand j’étais arrivé sur les lieux, je n’avais pas lu les avis.
Sauf que quand j’ai vu le décor qui ressemblait à un restaurant de bouffe cheap, je n’ai pu m’empêcher de lire les avis avec l’article de La presse. Les avis étaient plutôt favorables.
On était le 1er juillet, jour férié, alors je vais leur laisser un doute sur la qualité médiocre du service. Nos verres d’eau étaient vide. Lorsque j’ai demandé d’ouvrir une bouteille de vin, la serveuse a mis l’ouvre bouteille sur la table et est partie. Les plats né sont pas arrivés tous en même temps. Le restaurant était à moitié plein.
La nourriture c’était correcte. Il manquait de goût, les saveurs pas assez relevés. Les plats étaient originaux et goûtaient des plats de cuisine maison, ce qui est bien. J’ai aimé les salades. On a essayé pas mal toutes les suggestions des autres commentaires et ce qui est bon c’est vraiment les salades. Le reste était bien, mais manquait de saveurs.
Le prix est très abordable pour un apportez votre vin.
Je n’y retournerai pas. Mais je le suggérais comme restaurant apportez votre vin pas cher.

Restaurant birman très bon et simple: nourriture, service et lieu !
La nourriture y est gouteuse et légère, à essayer sur le Boulevard St-​Laurent !

Ruby Burma is an amazing little gem located on buzzing St-​Laurent Street. Upon entering and sitting down, my husband and I noticed the calm and serene atmosphere of the Burmese restaurant. Big windows allow for a great view of the street, its pedestrians, its nearby businesses and, in spring and summer, a nice breeze.
Although most meals at Ruby Burma contain meat, there are de facto some vegetarian curries on the menu, and it is also possible to request a vegetarian version of other dishes.
It was our first time eating Burmese food and we were blown away! We had a Mixed Vegetables Curry and a Shan Noodle Dish, both very tasty, well spiced and simply delicious. I had the opportunity to try with the noodles pickled Chinese vegetables, something I had never had before, and I loved it. The richness and the freshness of the food were topped by an incredible service provided by the owner herself.
Since Burma (Myanmar) shares borders with India, China and Thailand, it comes as no surprise, in retrospect, that their cuisine displays spices and ingredients from each of those neighboring countries, prepared in a unique (Burmese) way.
Since my recent visit at Ruby Burma, I’m simply sold on Burmese cuisine and will definitely go back to sample more dishes in the near future!
P. S. Try their Burmese tea, akin to an Oolong tea. It’s pretty good!

I was really excited when I came to this place because of what I read on Unilocal.I’ve had some really amazing tea leaf salads in my life (especially in San Francisco), so I was expecting a meal up to that standard. While the tea leaf salad I had here was ok, it wasn’t that fresh and mainly consisted of nuts and lots of iceberg lettuce, without much of the diversity of flavor I’ve come to expect. My friends had a chicken curry dish with rice, which sounded amazing on the menu, but ended up being just ok. This place had so much potential, and while it wasn’t horrible, it wasn’t really anything special either. I don’t think I’ll be back.

Loved this place!
This was my first time trying Burmese food and I was not disappointed. We went here on a Saturday night and found a table easily.
We ordered:
Split Pea Fritters: Yumm, it come with a tamarind sauce and some chill flakes on the side. You can add that to your sauce based of your spice level.
Basa Fish Curry: Superb! This was my favourite dish and I wiped it clean.
Another fish curry no. 33: I don’t remember that name of that dish but it too was good but not as good as the Basa curry.
Chicken Rice: It was a really unique dish with raisins, nuts, onions, rice and chicken. I thought it would taste like Indian Biriyani but it didn’t. Must try at this place!
Kat Kyee Kay: I may have spelt the name wrong but this was a noodle based dish with crushed peanuts, Chinese sausage and vegetables. It was my least favourite dish and I barely ate much of it.
The owner of the place is a wonderful lady, she is extremely sweet and welcoming. If you haven’t tried Burmese food, this would be a good place to start :)

The service is ridiculous. The food is unoriginal. The server/​chef lady made recommendations based on our ‘ethnic palate preferences’ and they were still horrible. She served us a yellow, strange fish curry dish and a chicken dish which was a bit better. The appetizers — something called ‘bee-​a-​joo’ were strange and lacking in proportion.

Très bon et frais. Les saveurs sont différentes, un judicieux mélange de chinois et d’indien.

Bring your own wine, SAQ (place to buy alcohol in Québec) just in front. Very decent price, great flavor, spicy meat. I recommend Martin Coday, Albarino white wine with the food :)

There is a special charm about eating out on a slow evening in Montréal. More often you end up chatting with the owners. This was one of those evenings. Sunday afternoon drinks led to late night dinner. As we stumble into Ruby Burma we were greeted by a pleasant Burmese lady, who also happens to be the owner.
Despite my friends unintentional efforts to insult the owner, she kept a calm demeanor and explained that my friend could replace chicken with tofu if requested (Good News Vegetarians!)
This was my second visit, the last time I can confirm they know how to pack heat in the food. This time I was intrigued by «Dan Pauk» or as the owner explained to me, a «Burmese Biryani». Now the Biryani is a very complicated dish to make, everybody has their unique twist to it. Some people can go simple or some people can complicate the dish with lots of flavour and saturated fat. Here I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t the standard «lets bombard it with heat so you cannot taste the flavor» Biryani that Montréal is cursed with. The sweetness came from fried onions (which are caramelised at this point) and a helping of assorted nuts (Bad news Allergetic people!). Also the accompanying cucumber «salad» mixed with the Dan Pauk is an excellent dash of complexity to the experience.
If you ever get a chance to talk with the owner for a longer period, ask her about her life, travelling the world with her husband. Sometimes restaurant raconteurs will surprise you!

yum yum yum!
Went with a party of four — we were seated immediately. The waitress was quick and polite and answered all of our questions. The owner was really sweet and came over to our table to explain a dish to us since we weren’t familiar with burmese food.
Everyone was really happy with their meals and extra points for so many veggie options!
Definitely will be back again!

I want to begin with the fact that I am Burmese and really wanted to like this place. Most people don’t know where Burma is on the map and to find a Burmese restaurant is like gold.
My husband and I ordered his favorite dish Nangyi Thoke — chicken noodle dish. Surprisingly the dish was pretty good, but the noodles were just so chewy. Definitely was not expecting that. We also ordered the Mohinga Hinyay, which is just the fish soup. That required a lot more fish sauce, lemon, and spice, but I personally was too timid to ask for those ingredients. I thought it would be rude to have to dress up their dish as if it was my kitchen. The last dish was the biggest disappointment, Watthay Hin — pork and potato curry dish. No where in Burmese cuisine is pork curry tomato based, where are the spices that make Burmese food different and unique.
I hope that the owner will one day make her food actually taste like Burmese cuisine. Ask for some fish sauce, lemon, and red chili pepper — that might give her a hint to make the dishes a tad bit more authentic.

Tried the chicken rice noodle dish and it seemed to be fresh and unique. The chicken broth that came with it seemed to be home made as well as I didn’t detect any msg. Portions are small and the amount of meat is skimpy, half an hour has passed since my meal and I’m hungry again. Guys might wanna order an appetizer or 2 to go with their meal.
Service wasn’t the greatest and was slow in general but the place seemed clean enough. I enjoyed my meal, this place gets an A for effort.

Ho-​hum. What a varied couple of experiences we had here.
The first time my partner and I visited Ruby Burma I swore that it was the first time I had ever said «there’s a party in my mouth» and meant it. Honest to goodness, the tea leaf salad is nothing compared to anything I’ve EVER tried. If you’ve never tried Burmese food, get on it, NOW! We were even able to go grab a bottle of vino to match our meal since it’s BYOB (and the SAQ is across the street!)
That time the service was a bit slow– but honestly nothing to think twice about.
Thrilled about the food the first time round’ I decided I would bring a group of my girlies to kick off our ladies night. I suppose I jynxed the affair since I talked the place up so much– it took us over two hours (we were a table of five) to eat. By the time we even ordered we had already polished off the first bottle of wine; the waitress informed us it would take about twenty minutes to get our food since the cook was alone and they were preparing a large takeout order. Ho-​hum. An hour and another bottle of wine later five hangry and tipsy foodies got their meals from one especially sassy waitress. In general, the food on the table seemed to be up to its high standards, although I found my coconut soup was tepid and the noodles were way overcooked.
The cherry on top was when we went to go pay– I was the last at the table to pay– the waitress now informs me that there was corking fee (which there wasn’t last time???) and she just assumed I’d take it since I brought the wine. Ho-​hum.
Ok. Rant over. Maybe avoid this place on a weekday? They seem to be understaffed on weekdays. You should still try Burmese food.

Né vous arrêtez surtout pas au stle du restaurant, qui fait plus chaîné/​fast-​food que petit restaurant typique, ce qu’il est !
Des plats simples, bons et vraiment originaux. Les petits beignets en entrée sont vraiment excellents (le 1), puis salade au thé pour moi (top !) et pâtes aux oeufs pour mon chum (vraiment un goût original). Tout ça pour un excellent rapport qualité/​quantité/​prix.
Bref, il y a des très fortes chances que nous y revenions !

One of the best Asian cuisine in Montréal. This place went beyond my expectation! The dishes tasted good and most of all low prices!
We got the tea leaf salad and chicken noodles.
Those dished looked fresh and made with all natural ingredient.
The tealeaf salad was crunch with nuts and the dressing was kinda like Italian dressing but with some additional Burmese flavour.
The chicken noodles was awesome, it came with some soup, but tasted better without. The different flavour mixed together well and I just wanted more.
I will definitely be a regular at this place.
Also, the service was good too!

My last meal of 2013 summed up an amazing year: trying new things and great food.
Never tried Burmese cuisine before, but if this is what it tastes like over there, my next trip is catching the next flight there.
We ordered 3 things (see pictures if you don’t mind salivating):
Latphet Thoke (tea leaf salad)
Byah Kyaw (chickpea fritters)
Ohn noh kauksweh (coconut milk soup noodles)
Everything was amazing. The fritters were some of the best fried food I’ve put in my mouth (and I’ve eaten a lot of fried stuff). Dipped in the cilantro tamarind sauce will make an addict out of you. The tea leaf salad had tons of ingredients, great texture and great balance. The noodles were very, very hearty, perfect for a –25 degree NYE in Montréal. Sprinkle some pepper flakes, lime and raw onion (provided) to give it that great kick.
Every staff member (except one) is from Myanmar, so you can bet your savings on the authenticity.
Check out the owner’s bio on the Unilocal page, she’s a very interesting person! Got to chat to her about the situation in Burma aka Myanmar and ask her travel advice! One of my new favourite cuisines (although I do say that a lot…)

What a nice bright new little light on a sometimes dingy, mini-​skirt-​over-​ridden stretch of St Laurent! We moseyed in last night on our way from the Pop HQ up to shows and found just what the reviews below describe — bright, spacious, clean, not fancy but lovingly tended to. Our waiter was young, kind and attentive with a dear smile and — most importantly — we didn’t feel like we had to overstress the fact that we were looking for low on the spicy meter (my friend has a serious reason for asking, and all too often the request is ignored.) You could tell he took this question seriously, and we knew we were in good hands.
But anyway — the food! The fermented tea leaf salad is such a combination of light and savoury flavours, plus cripsy roast nuts and seasame seeds I plan to pop in and just order this for myself for a quick meal in the future. So filling and delish! We also shared the chickpea fritters, yummy and not greasy which would be their downfall, but nothing to bang gongs over — next time I’ll try the Inles Fries instead! We also shared the tamarind pork curry which was just perfect. Soft delicious pork, no bits of fat left lurking beneath the thick sauce, all succulent bites ready to get melty in your mouth. Not too spicy or too fruity, just an amazing flavour with a kick.
You can tell this is a family place making every dish with love, bringing incredibly delicate Burmese flavours to Montréal (yay! and finally!) I’ll be back.

It’s terrific to have a Burmese restaurant in Montréal. Until now I was only able to get a Burmese fix on visits to San Francisco. My favorite part of Burmise cuisine are the salads. These salads are made with many ingredients and are full of a multitude of tastes and textures. The Tea Leaf Salad is a must have. Another must have starter is the Inles Fries. These are made fresh daily and so wonderfully creamy inside, like nothing I’ve had before.
We’ve tried a number of the main dishes including, the seafood Htamin Kayaw (fried rice), various curries and Kartkyi Kait (noodles) all of which were very enjoyable. However, in my mind the Inles Fries are the star of the menu.
All the dishes are great for sharing so go bring some friend and spend the evening sampling the menu.

Burmese cuisine is a rarity around here, so the recent opening of this restaurant (April) is a welcome addition to Montréal’s culinary scene. I stopped in on a Saturday afternoon and while the place was busy, we were still able to get table at the back. I found the restaurant to be bright and very clean, and the tables spread out enough such that you don’t end up eyeballing your neighbor’s dishes. What can I say? I like my personal space!
With so many delicious items on the menu, it was tough to make a decision, but I finally went with the Northern Lights salad, which consists of 24 ingredients. Did I remember to write down those ingredients? No I did not — but I can tell you that there are four types of noodles and papaya in there. This dish was served at room temperature, which was perfect given the crazy heat wave we’ve been having lately. You have the option of adding meat (chicken, pork or beef) and making the dish as spicy as you like it — just let the waiter know. I really enjoyed the dish — it was very flavorful and the right level of spice for me. Can’t wait to go back and try the infamous tea leaf salad!
One thing to mention — the portions are huge so you might want to consider sharing, unless you’ve got a very large appetite! Considering the very reasonable prices, you are definitely getting your money’s worth at this place. My only ‘complaint’ was that the service was a little slow — but I wasn’t in a hurry so no big deal.