Best Places to Eat in Yangon: 9 Cheap Eats
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Travel advisory: Myanmar has been under military rule since the February 2021 coup, and parts of the country are in an ongoing civil war. Check your own government’s current travel advisory before booking anything; most currently advise against travel here. Some tourism spending can reach the military, so a trip is an ethical call as much as a practical one, and if you do go, favour small, local, independent operators over state or junta-linked ones. Everything below is written for if and when it’s safe and ethical for you to visit.
Eating cheap in Yangon: the short version
Food is one of the genuine bargains of a Yangon trip. A full meal at a street stall or tea shop costs a small fraction of what you’d pay for the same quality anywhere in the region, and the national dishes are built for exactly that kind of eating: fast, cheap, and communal. Here are the 9 things worth building your meals around.
| Eating in Yangon | |
|---|---|
| Cash needed | yes, plan on paying in kyat |
| Tap water | not safe to drink, stick to bottled |
| Best food streets | 19th Street (Chinatown), Bogyoke Market food stalls |
| Signature dish | mohinga (fish-noodle soup) |
- Mohinga. Myanmar’s national dish and the default breakfast, a fish-broth rice-noodle soup you’ll find at tea shops and street stalls across the city, each vendor with their own version.
- Shan noodles (Shan khauk swè). A dish from Shan State that’s spread nationwide, thinner rice noodles in a lighter sauce or broth than mohinga, often with pickled greens and chili oil on the side.
- Lahpet thoke (fermented tea-leaf salad). A genuinely national dish and unlike anything most visitors have had: fermented tea leaves tossed with fried garlic, peanuts, dried shrimp, tomato, and chili.
- A Burmese curry spread (hin). Order one main curry and it usually arrives with rice and a handful of small side dishes, vegetables, soup, a dip, more of a multi-plate spread than a single entree.
- 19th Street, Chinatown. The nightlife and street-food core of downtown since the 1850s, grilled skewers, noodle stalls, and beer stations spilling onto the closed-off street after dark.
- Bogyoke Aung San Market’s food stalls. Inside the 1926 covered market, alongside the antiques and jade stalls, a cluster of vendors serving mohinga, Shan noodles, and lahpet thoke to shoppers on a break. Closed Mondays like the rest of the market.
- Downtown Indian food. Pre-WWII Rangoon was roughly 55 percent South Asian, and that history is still visible downtown: samosas, biryani, and dal alongside the Burmese and Chinese food.
- A tea shop (laphet yay). The real social hub of the city, sweet milk tea and fried snacks at a low table, meant for lingering an hour rather than a quick stop. Order tea, watch the street, don’t rush.
- Myanmar Beer, with bottled water for everything else. Tap water isn’t safe to drink here, so budget for bottled water and go easy on ice unless you’re confident where it came from.
Where to actually go looking
19th Street and the wider Chinatown/Little India downtown blocks are the single best area to just walk and pick a stall, and Bogyoke Aung San Market covers the same dishes in daylight hours if you’d rather eat while you shop. For the full rundown of neighborhoods and what’s nearby, see our Yangon guide and things to do in Yangon .
A cooking class if you want to go deeper
A hands-on Burmese cooking class is a good way to understand mohinga and lahpet thoke beyond just eating them. You can browse Yangon food and cooking experiences on GetYourGuide or search food tours on Viator . Check the current official travel advisory before booking, and favour small local operators where you can.
For current conditions before you plan any trip, check the US State Department and UK FCDO Myanmar advisories, and see our travel tips for the cash and etiquette basics that shape where and how you’ll actually eat.
Don’t over-plan this one. The best meal most visitors have in Yangon is an unplanned bowl of mohinga at whichever stall has a line of locals in front of it.