About Us

When Cherie Aung-Khin started her manufacturing business in Yangon in 1993 she soon found out that there was no proper healthy food for her to eat every day during work hours. In Myanmar only roadside stalls and Chinese and Indian restaurants were available. Being a health conscious person and needing to avoid oily and unclean foods due to her very sensitive allergies she had to hire a cook to prepare her daily meals at the office. Most Myanmar people talk a lunch box from home but Cherie needed a substantial meal daily to support her very lengthy working hours. Also she did not want to eat cold food, spoilt by living too long in Thailand.

When Cherie started her first retail shop in 1995 she also included a small Myanmar restaurant, using a former garage on the premises. She decorated it in a very charming local bamboo and thatch concept, with seating for 30. Her same old cook was now the head chef and she introduced local dishes to the menu with some additions from Thailand. The dining tables were set up to an International standard using simple bronze cutlery mixed in with rattan and lacquerware tabletop items. Furniture was not a problem as her newly started furniture and home accessories manufacturing business provided the showroom and the restaurant with everything necessary, all set to her own designs. However lighting material was not readily available and so she created hanging lamps form paper lanterns. Thus with a very limited budget, the restaurant was started with a few raw handed village boys as waiters trained to serve the cuisine in an International style and standard. What should she call the restaurant in Myanmar - green elephant restaurants restaurant? Of course, GREEN ELEPHANT as she was born on Wednesday under the sign of the Elephant and in a green and lush garden atmosphere in a Myanmar style shed under thatch roof with bamboo poles.

Naturally it was a big success as it was the only Restaurant serving home cooked Traditional Myanmar food in a very healthy style; authentic and tasty. Due to the success in Yangon she bought out an ailing restaurant in Bagan in 1997 and made it into the very foremost first class Myanmar cuisine restaurant on the beautiful banks of the Irrawaddy River. A huge Nim tree in the centre of the garden providing a wonderful natural shade to the customers to sit down and sip French wine, which had never reached Bagan village before.

In the year 2000, with her first two successful restaurants as track records, Cherie opened the present day GREEN ELEPHANT RESTAURANT in Yangon. This time she was personally involved in the creation of the open air, two story wooden building, designed so that customers can enjoy the garden feel in a small, compact area. It has seating for 300 with indoors and outdoor areas for all visitors to enjoy the same authentic food and ambience, which Cherie tightly supervises and control to keep up the all around quality. The restaurant is full with foreign visitors all year round and now days includes local Myanmar customers as well.

2002 March saw the birth of the GREEN ELEPHANT MANDALAY, Being the second largest city in Myanmar and also a trading town, Mandalay needed a good Myanmar restaurant as travellers who visited the city had no opportunity to taste the local style cooking and its variety of fresh vegetables from surrounding restaurant in Myanmar - green elephant restaurants areas, something that is now so easily available in Yangon area. An old colonial house, built in 1920 by teak traders was a perfect premises and the central, private location was a huge asset. There again Cherie hired and trained the local staff, who had never seen the way Myanmar food could be presented.

The concept of GREEN ELEPHANT RESTAURANT is to serve the authentic Myanmar cuisine with a flare and style, something that one cannot find in this country easily. Cherie fully believes that all her learning from the outside world should be used to set ways and trends for Myanmar. Quality is the key for ELEPHANT HOUSE and the food, service and ambiance at the restaurants keep this policy without cutting any corners.

What Does the future Hold?
With the steady increase of foreign tourists travelling to Yangon and the need for highly quality daytime and night time entertainment and food Elephant House looks to expand in the near future offering a larger variety of dishes including Food & Chinese food.

With the main tourist route for holiday travellers to Myanmar being Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inlay Lake, Green Elephant is looking at the possibility of providing quality at every stop with plans to open a restaurant in lnlay Lake to complete the route.