Teni East Kitchen

Baby kale, fermented tea, fried shallot

Fermented tea leaves meet baby kale before the crunch arrives. At Teni East Kitchen in San Francisco, Tiyo Shibabaw, chef and owner, works that Burmese register through a California pantry. Since 2016, she has held the chef and owner role here, after working as general manager at Burma Superstar until 2016. That earlier room taught a different discipline: the timing of a full floor, the pace between greeting and check drop, the way flavor lands differently when service keeps its rhythm.

At Teni East Kitchen, Shibabaw carries that dining-room training into menu authorship. The plate still has to move through the pass cleanly, but the central decisions happen in texture and brightness: lemongrass fragrance, fresh greens, fried garlic, shallot crunch, heat that rises without weighing down the dish. The house is known for Burmese food with a California spin, a phrase that can sound loose until the tea leaf kale salad explains it. The essential Burmese ingredients remain. Baby kale changes the chew and the freshness, not the lineage.

A salad built like a snack

Shibabaw describes tea leaf salad through its roadside habit: “It’s eaten as a roadside snack with tea. It’s kind of like an energy burst because it does have caffeine. But here we add a little twist, and it goes well with the baby kale.” The method depends on contrast more than ornament. Fermented tea leaves bring their tannic, savory depth; nuts and fried shallots give the bite; baby kale pulls the dish toward the Bay Area’s preference for greens with structure.

The same hand shows in the coconut shrimp curry, where kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, Thai chilies, shallots, and fresh butterflied shrimp point the kitchen toward Southeast Asian aromatics without making the bowl heavy. The pea shoot salad works another part of the register, with radishes, fried garlic, and turmeric dressing set against the tender green. Roti with dip, crispy fried whole fish, tea leaf kale salad, and the lunch plates build a menu of small plates and à la carte choices that rewards sharing, but the discipline stays the same: fragrance first, then crunch, then heat.

The room at Broadway and 40th

The room is bright, airy, and modern, with exposed wooden beams and a conversational hum rather than a performance of quiet. In Temescal, at the corner of Broadway and 40th, the restaurant feels built for plates crossing the table: roti torn by hand, curry passed back, salad lifted with a fork to catch the fried shallots before they fall. It gives first-time Burmese diners a clear path without sanding away the flavor.

Recognition has followed the work, including a Michelin Bib Gourmand held by Teni East Kitchen and local notice for the pea shoot salad. Awards sit outside the plate; the kitchen keeps the flavors direct. The leaf, the nut, the shallot and the baby kale meet in Tiyo Shibabaw’s tea leaf kale salad.