The sweet, the mellow and the unexpected

The sign over the door reads, “Romantic Steak House.” Beneath those words, in Chinese, it says “Little Unique One.” And on the front window, a small sign in a neat alphabet of hooks and circles reads “Two-Cat Oyster Noodles.”

What’s going on here? Well, the family that owned the Two-Cat Noodle Shop in Myanmar has moved to San Gabriel and opened a steakhouse. They also serve a full Chinese menu, including the oyster chow mein the Two-Cat was known for -- and Burmese dishes. If you’ve never tried Burmese food, this is a good place to sample a cuisine that splits the difference between India and Thailand.

This is, in its way, a sweet, romantic place. It’s far from grand (the clock on the wall suggests that this used to be a joint named Mom’s), but it has a quiet, gentle air, and the host, Don Tan, suggests dishes as solicitously as an old-fashioned Continental waiter.

The food tends to be mellow, rather than spicy. A good example is the onion “French” pork chop, served under sauteed onions with a slight caramel flavor.

The house special noodle is in the style of Fujian, where the Tan family originated. It contains pork, shrimp and mung bean sprouts, but otherwise it’s not much like any other chow mein you’re likely to have had. The noodles are soft, not crisp, and the general impression of plushness is emphasized by the presence of tiny oysters. The steaks have a bit of a Chinese air themselves, cut into chunks on a sizzling platter with a tiny bit of bean sauce.

The Burmese menu includes the Burmese national dish of cellophane noodles in a catfish gravy. By itself, mohinga is a bland, savory soup, but really wakes up when you season it with lemon juice, fish sauce and crushed peppers.

Burmese words are proverbially hard to render into our alphabet. A Yale anthropology professor I took to dinner was excited to find a dish named call yale khaukswe; however, others would spell it kaw yin khauk-hswe. It’s another thick noodle soup, this time full of shredded chicken and bean sprouts. By contrast, yo-dee-yar hin yale (yo-deya hing yin) is much like other Southeast Asian shrimp hot and sour soups, except for having some pork in it. Jac thar thoke (chektha thok) is a delightful salad of finely shredded cabbage, carrots and chicken in a light, lemony dressing with a bit of pepper heat.

And kar pard turns out to be our old friend kebab. (Burmese is rather casual about consonants at the end of syllables). However, the Burmese way of cooking kebab is to grill the beef, chicken or shrimp, then stir-fry it with onions, tomatoes and spices, so kar pard is essentially an Indian dry curry. Tan recommends having it with paradar, an oily, flamboyantly layered version of the Indian flaky bread paratha, which really does go well with it.

The dessert to get is faluda, another Indian import heavily adapted by the Burmese. It’s custard, red and green jelly strips, coconut, tapioca, vanilla ice cream and, I guess, strawberry flavoring, all topped with whipped cream.

Through the meal it may occur to you that this Burmese alphabet looks strangely familiar. It looks like ... the alphabet used by the space aliens in Stephen Spielberg’s “Taken” series on the Sci Fi Channel! So now you know: Space aliens write in Burmese! And I bet their desserts look like faluda.

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Romantic Steak House

Location: 119 E. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, (626) 307-5558.

Price: Appetizers, $1.75 to $8.25; main dishes, $4.25 to $8.75; desserts, $1.50 to $2.50.

Best dishes: Garlic chicken, mohinga, house special chow mein, onion French pork chop, ka pard (Indian curry beef) with paradar, faluda.

Details: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Monday; dinner, 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Monday. Beer and wine. Street parking. Visa and MasterCard.