So yummy! After long drive from Southern California, we stumbled upon this gem of a place . Had their noodles and eggplant and we were very satisfied. Very clean and cautious staff due to covid. Go check out this place . read more

I really didn't like the garlic noodles too much, but I absolutely loved the tea salad! It was a great experience read more

Burma Ruby - Fried Calamari - Burmese Near Me - Palo Alto, California

My go to if one person in the party is vegan, one gluten free, one's a carnivore--everyone is happy. Very impressive and elegant atmosphere for the price. It's very noisy though! I've had several excellent meals here but lately it's been inconsistent. read more

My wife and I visited Burma Ruby for a quick late lunch. The street and outdoor seating was empty (mid-week, 230pm). Unfortunately. the preparation of meal (noodles with chicken) had missing ingredients and very little chicken. Noodles and sauce was tasty, however. The biggest issue was very slow service. Despite an empty restaurant, the food took nearly 30 min to arrive and the wait staff was inattentive to our needs. After posting an earlier review, the owner reached out to apologize and promised a better experience in the future. We'll consider visiting again and report any improvements. read more

I had Chicken & Shrimp biryani. The portion size, taste & presentation was good. Broccoli and garlic was okay nothing exceptional. Mango Salad was good too. I also ordered Mr Lee drink(for whiskey drinkers) and it was exceptional. read more

Burma Ruby - Chicken & Shrimp Biryani - Burmese Near Me - Palo Alto, California

Always great to visit this place. I am a big fan of tea leaf salad. Amazing taste a must try. Evrything else and the staff too was good. Happy holidays. read more

Pleasant food. Good service. We had the samosa soup. I didn't know what to expect. It's quite good! Also loved the coconut rice and chicken. read more

Highly recommend this place. I'd never had Burmese food before Burma Ruby, and I'm pretty hooked now. To be honest, I find that the dishes are a bit high or miss with me, so I think it took me three visits before I found exactly what I wanted. Regardless, it made me want to return three times! Recommendations: tea leaf salad, rangoon lemongrass chicken, garlic noodle Pros: Food, University is always a nice place to walk around before / after meals Okays: Service is always a bit slow for whatever reason Cons: n/a read more

Went here for dinner on a Friday. The food is extremely salty. We found a string in one of the dishes, not even a nice piece of string.. We let them know, the serving staff didn't seem to be very apologetic or really bothered by this, like that was a normal thing to serve. I would steer clear of this place read more

I expected a lot more out of this place since I had been to the Rangoon one in San Carlos and it was decent. But boy was I wrong. Food: Every SINGLE dish was lukewarm and tasted extremely subpar, I suspect one of them was microwaved because it was cold in the center and steaming on top. The portions were extremely small, the Beef Curry we ordered had maybe 5 pieces of very very tough to chew beef. The taste itself was also one-note. Service: They couldn't get their signals right. We keep getting asked the same questions by three different waiters (?) So we basically answered the same thing three times every time interaction was needed. On top of that, when the waiter came to fill our water, he literally stood a whole table away and basically poured water completely out of my glass and created a PUDDLE OF WATER next to my water. He did not notice nor clean it up. The puddle remained there for the rest of the evening. Honestly, I felt like I just wasted my money. I will NOT be coming here again, and neither should you. read more

We love this place. Especially their tea leaf salad. We also love all their meat dishes. I feel like the vegetarian dishes are OK, but we almost always order meat dishes, so I am giving it 5 starts. They have such wide variety tasting dishes, anyone and everyone can be happy with what they order! read more

We have had such good experiences eating at the other Burmese places in the Bay Area that we were pretty excited to try out this place. We came here on a Saturday evening and the place was pretty packed. We were seated pretty quietly. While the place is fancy the food was *terrible*. The tea leaf salad was just about okay. We then had the veggie kebat. This was so terrible. The veggies were almost raw. It was not even cooked al dante. I had to scoop out the carrots because my fork refused to go in. Imagine eating almost raw beans, carrot and ugh, tomatoes in a very thin layer of sauce. We ordered this dish because it was described so well on the menu, but couldn't get to the sauce at all since it was a thin layer at the bottom of a pile of raw onions, tomatoes and worse, raw okra. Rangoon noodles was too garlic-ky and was so tart that my dinner companion just abandoned it in two spoonfuls. We paid about $60 for a meal that we both barely touched. read more

Very ordinary food. Not much variety in taste and mostly on the sweeter side. I ordered pad thai and it was just sweet, garlic noodles was bland. Place is very expensive for the quality and quantity that they serve. I don't think I'll go back. read more

Just went here for dinner tonight and really liked it. I haven't been to Rangoon Ruby, though they are supposed to be very very similar. The inside is a bit small, with a hole in the wall kind of feel. It's a bit trendy for my taste, with the neon lighting, but w/e. It was busy enough on a late (9:00 PM) night that I had to sit at the bar, so be aware. I had the garlic pork with a side of brown rice. It was very good. The price is a bit high, but the portions are pretty big. Two dishes could probably feed three people. Anyways, the dish consisted of flatish (filet style I guess?) pieces of pork in a reddish brown sauce with towns of onions and dried garlic flakes, which were a nice touch. I got it spicy, and temperature was a good heat without being distracting. The dish itself was tasty and the pork pieces were a good size and very tender, much better than some of the pork I've had at Chinese restaurants (I assume this is choice of style). Definitely one of the best pork dishes I have had. In summary, I will come here again in the future, probably for take out. The prices are high, the portions seem large, and the flavor, at least of my dish, seems to be some combination of Thai and Chinese. Hope this helps. read more

Burma Ruby - Ice tea, garlic pork, and brown rice. The portions are quite large. I'm sitting at the bar, so there is unfortunate blue neon lighting. - Burmese Near Me - Palo Alto, California

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Service is horrible. Order took a long time to come. The wait staff were kind but severely understaffed. A couple seated outside had to walk in after a long time to ask for a menu. During the meal, the phone at the front of the restaurant started to ring and rang for 5 mins before staff came to pick up the phone. Food was okay. There was a huge slice of ginger in the curry dish cut in the same shape as the potato that was in the dish. read more

Absolutely love this place! Their GM is not just running it but actually serves people and makes drinks. The food is really interesting and tastes amazing. We were skeptical at first (5 years ago) but we get in love the moment we tried it! Since then we take all our guest to this place to try it! read more

Burma Ruby is an all around decent burmese joint in the heart of downtown Palo Alto. Though I can't comment on the service since I ordered takeout, I can share my thoughts on the food! The menu fairs the typical burmese american offerings - tea leaf salad, coconut rice, and your entrees varied by protein. I went for my go-to: the mango tofu with coconut rice. The mango tofu was flavorful and fragrant, but could've used a kick of spice. The coconut rice seemed a bit overdone, and wasn't nearly as coconutty as I've had elsewhere. I do have to give a shout out to the lunch specials though - they're a pretty decent deal for the amount of food you get! [Yelp 2017 4/100] read more

Very disappointed with the management. Serving size has gotten smaller. No one to take care of the customers complaints. Not going back.

Yummy! So many vegan entrees and enough the food is incredibly juicy! So flavorful, and enough vegan food do I am never bored. The staff is warm and welcoming, and even on very busy times you're never left out:). read more

Nice experience. I was there last week for my birthday. Busy restaurant. The staff is friendly, some of them need to smile more though because they look overwhelmed. read more

Mon - Fri, from 5pm to 7pm is happy hour buffet. Options are limited but good enough for the unbeatable price: $5. This place is a MUST go to if you try to save money and have a great meal. Especially if you work on university ave, or stanford shopping center. read more

All around wonderful experience. The food is amazing, the service was wonderful, and the whole restaurant has great ambiance. Our server, Christian, was great and provided us some amazing recommendations for dinner as well as dessert. He was also a very nice person and is wonderful at his job :). The manager, John, was also a pleasure to meet and added to the great atmosphere of the place. It's really nice to see a manager who is willing to bus tables and help the staff with all their work while also going around to the guests and making sure they're having a good time. The service and the food completely justify the downtown Palo Alto price tag, and we'll definitely be back! read more

The food here made my stomach hurt immediately. I do NOT recommend the garlic noodles - they were oversauced and the tofu was sour. These are not the garlic noodles you are of thinking of. I won't make the mistake of not checking a restaurant on Yelp again. Service was good though. read more

Fantastic meal. We had a hickup with the takeout order, so we were grumpy when we got home. Everything was great, though, so we recovered. The tea leaf salad is to die for. read more

This is for food mainly, service was ok and ambiance was good. I ordered the pumpkin tofu stew told the waiter I was vegan (he asked if I was vegetarian, props for that). The stew I got based on the menu was missing 85% of the ingredients (onion, garlic, ginger and spices) I'm pretty sure those ingredients are vegan. With that said those ingredients were missing and they added some broccoli. The food had zero taste and was definitely not worth the $15. The rice was cooked well. My meat eater friends said their food was delicious. Even though there is a vegan friendly menu the food is not good. read more

Burma Ruby - Pumpkin tofu stew missing ingredients. - Burmese Near Me - Palo Alto, California

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Superb food, an amazing combination of indo-Chinese Burmese food, loved the flavors!! Must go! The flavors are amazing and the chef personally comes and recommends which is great :) read more

Burma Ruby - Burmese Near Me - Palo Alto, California

First time here n I ordered Pad Thai chicken noodles. It came after waiting for 30 mins. Lots of noodles with 4 small pieces of chicken!!! Service wasn't that great n it doesn't taste good. Will not go back again. read more

I don't understand the popularity of this restaurant. I've dined here three times and each time service has been weak, food mixed, the tea selection poor and last night, the server had very little knowledge of how to even serve tea! She was late in greeting us, late in noticing we had finished our meal and artificial. Two out of three dished were good - the same each time I've eaten there. Don't get your hopes up. read more

I had business lunch at Burma Ruby on a weekday. We ordered Tea Leaf Salad, Calamari appetizer, Mango Chicken Lunch, Burma Shrimp Lunch, and Country Style Beef Curry Lunch, with jasmine rice, and hot tea. I found it amusing how their signature Tea Leaf Salad is served: initially, its ingredients are grouped separately on the plate, and then the server mixes it up at your table. All dishes were flavorful and very satisfying, with spot on service - timely, but not in your way professional. Side note: you tend to forget how that's supposed to be done at the multitude of restaurants in the Bay Area, the city, and up north, some places are lacking in good service, and others are interrupting the flow of the meal with either untimely or overly chatty and unnecessary friendliness, forgetting to do what you asked for. None of that here. I should try them for dinner soon. read more

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The food was delicious and filled me up. Tasted pretty authentic, and the service was satisfactory too.

Rangoon Ruby used to be one of my fav restaurants in downtown PA so I was pretty excited when they opened a sister restaurant to accommodate more Burmese food loving customers a few years ago. I haven't been to Burma Ruby in at least over a year. Unfortunately, a lot has changed. Booked a noon reservation for a work lunch. When we arrived, the restaurant was almost completely empty so we snagged a table outside. Started with tea leaf salad, lettuce wraps with shrimp and I ordered shrimp kebat as my entree. The tea leaf salad is still very good. The lettuce wraps were decent. However, the shrimp kebat was terrible. There wasn't much flavor other than spiciness. Also, the shrimp was weirdly breaded. I looked around the table and noone was able to finish their meals. Service was good but food quality is poor. Food is expensive for the quality; total for 4 was $120 including tip (no drinks, 2 apps, 4 lunch entrees). Strangely, they are now advertising a happy hour in which there's $5 all can you eat food with the purchase of 1 drink. I used to think of this as a nice bustling place with white tablecloths and good unique Burmese food but the ingredients weren't fresh, place was almost completely empty, and it seems like they're trying everything possible with the HH deal to get people in. Pity. read more

The food is good here. If you don't mind sitting literally shoulder to shoulder with strangers, then this is a great place for you. I, on the other hand, am very put-off when I'm seated almost on-the-lap of the customer at the next table. It was VERY awkward. We waited 30 minutes and then the hostess brought us to this teeny, tiny table which was sandwiched between a million other teeny tiny tables. We were stepping on people and brushing against other seated customers as we were being seated. AWKWARD, very AWKWARD. If this is your thing, and this is your idea of being urban and metro, then welcome to Burma Ruby. Have a nice community meal! But if you are anything like me, and look forward to eating your food in a comfortable setting, where you can talk openly and freely to your table mate without feeling like you're talking to the rest of the table, then steer clear of this place! We went during peak hours, so if you can manage to get in when it's not crowded, that would be the thing to do, because the food was good and we didn't have any problems with the service, ambience etc. Because of the mega-awkwardness of our visit here, we will not be returning. A word to the owner/manager if you happen to be reading. Space out your tables! You have plenty of space and plenty of business. In the end, you'll have happier, more satisfied customers and isn't that what you're after? "Going for too much" with what seems like greedy table-crowding, might pull in more dollars for a time, but I think can hurt you in the end. read more

So yes food is decent, but I have had Burmaese before since I live in Alameda. Portion seemed small for the Nan Gyi Dok since I would normally take leftovers from Alameda's Burma Superstar. Now here comes the kicker. Rather than let their food be the star (which was great, except the chicken was a tad bit dry, but plenty!) they had to put up that "note to our guests". I get that Burma Superstar did the same thing, but instead they put it as a tip, but this is so ridiculous. I might be comparing apples to oranges since Burma's was to help backend and front end staff. I read a response that said: "margins are low". That doesn't excuse you at all. I don't care if you raise the price secretly. Most of us assume it's higher food costs or rent. Also the host wanted me out by 8 to honor a reservation. I'm sorry. What?!? Don't try to rush someone and make them feel that unwelcome. Might as well say: "sorry, reservation". I'll probably come back at a later day. But this and ACA fee? NEVER. Since Buramaese food is accessible in the East Bay, I can just avoid and go to other places on University Ave. read more

It's the same owners as Rangoon Ruby, and the space actually isn't that much bigger. Apparently, the chef at this location came from Burma superstar? The menu is the same as at Rangoon Ruby. One gripe: at both places, I always have to ask 3 or 4 times before I can get some chopsticks. With a group of 11, we did everything family style, but we needed doubles on a lot of dishes since portions aren't that big. - Palata: not like roti but more like green onion pancakes with curry - Tea leaf salad: less flavorful this time? more mild? I usually like it for all the textures and flavors - Salt and pepper calamari: texture was a bit rubbery - Fried tofu: nice and crisp - Duck garlic noodles: noodle texture was a little off, and the duck flavor didn't go through - Jalapeno mint pork: very flavorful, reminded me of larb - Basil chicken: like a sweet soy base, not bad - Eggplant: surprisingly not super oily - Chili beef: tender, good with rice - Pad thai: standard The drink list is quite topical, but you can order whatever at the bar. It is nice that for a birthday, they do the same thing as at Rangoon Ruby with the sparkling fire cracker candle in a bowl of ice cream. I think I was less impressed with the food than I was at Rangoon Ruby. Or maybe it's just not a great idea to eat here with such a big group? read more

Came here on a mid-week evening for dinner. It was surprisingly busy compared to other restaurants and luckily they had a table for us 4 even without reservations (advice, make a reservation next time). We had the pad thai, lamb curry, sesame chicken, and tea leaf salad. All the portions were good enough for a family style dinner. You can also adjust the spiciness level of the pad thai and curry. Overall, it was very tasty food that was well seasoned. Only draw back was that it was pretty noisy despite being a relatively medium sized restaurant. The walls really echoed the chatter. read more

Waitress described Burmese food as a combination of Thai, Indian, Chinese food. Service was very attentive, but was quite bothersome at times and kept checking in on our table every 5 minutes to see if we wanted to have our table cleaned. Appetizer- palata with lamb curry (not bad, but not that impressive) Main course- Tea Leaf Salad - the waitress explains what the ingredients are (romaine lettuce, dried garlic, lemon, tea leaf in olive oil, dried corn, mild jalapenos, tomatoes, and etc) and then squeezes the lemon and mixes it in front of you. Pretty delicious, would definitely order this again. Lemongrass lamb with coconut rice - The coconut rice is absolutely delicious. It's a sweet sticky rice, and goes well with saucy foods. The lemongrass lamb wasn't anything special. Dessert- Oven Baked Sooji with Vanilla Ice cream and strawberries was also quite delicious. It had a cream of wheat texture and complemented the ice cream really well. Would definitely recommend this. In general, felt that the dinner was quite pricey, but definitely worth trying out. If it's too crowded at Burma Ruby, Rangoon Ruby a few blocks down has exactly the same menu too. read more

I haven't eaten much Burmese food, but that will change now that I've eaten at Burma Ruby. The tea leaf salad alone is worth the visit. So many flavors. I was overwhelmed. The fish noodle soup was hearty and savory and perfect on a chilly night. The mango shrimp was sweet with a nice hint of heat. Didn't have room for dessert. Next time. read more

I often wonder what would happen when the staff come by and ask how the food is and you say it was bad. Well today I found out. When the server asked I told him that the food (I got the tea salad and mint jalapeño chicken) was not that good. He apologized but that was about it - I didn't expect much; after all, he probably doesn't have much say. The 1-star reflects the quality of the food - even if you just compare it to it's sister restaurant, Rangoon Ruby down the road. read more

This being my first time at a Burmese restaurant, I'm not sure how this compares to other restaurants but the samosa soup was delicious! The soup was well seasoned yet light and the samosa and falafel in the soup were delicious and soaked up so much flavor. The raw onions cabbage also added a nice crunch and freshness read more

Burma Ruby - Samosa Soup - Burmese Near Me - Palo Alto, California

Busy place with a nice looking dining room. The service was very good. Special salad was presented very well. Basil Beef was delicious and so was the garlic chicken. The special noodles fell very short and were disappointing. If you decide to go make sure to make a reservation as I mentioned this place get very busy and we lucked out to get seated because of a cancellation. Great location with friendly staff. read more