Saw Naing is an Executive Chef and Partner at The Dutchess in Ojai, California. He arrived in the United States from Burma in 2007.
5
I worked with Jesse on a 15-20 person event for a family wedding. She was communicative, knowledgeable, and patient. We came from out of town so leaned a lot on local knowledge and recs.
The space was beautiful, staff were extremely kind and flexible.
There were veg, gluten free, and dairy free options or considerations.
The variety offered captured a lot of needed dietary considerations and ensure everyone had options to eat.
We also hosted a happy hour prior to dinner and were able to enjoy such a beautiful private space with its own music and bathrooms.
We had a great experience planning and having our event with the Dutchess team and had an incredible core memory night.
The hype is real. The food is phenomenal. Get the Burmese fried chicken sandwich and add an egg! The Burmese flavors and chili flavor really compliments the chicken. I couldn't decide between the chicken sandwich or the chicken and waffles so we got the scallion waffle on the side. Really glad we did bc the waffle was savory, one of a kind. The ambiance of the patio is also really nice and relaxing. There was a beautiful flowerpot next to our table that invited a beautiful hummingbird to join us for brunch.
3 stars on service bc it took a long time to get drinks after we sat and idk if we changed waiters but ultimately we had to flag down multiple people besides our original waiter to get service. It was very busy so I imagine the wait staff are juggling multiple tables.
This place also imposes a 4% "health fee" for employees. I'm always annoyed at seeing this as a separate line item, just include it into the price of the food.
The food in general was pretty good, but I was rather disappointed with our order of both the Tea Leaf and Crispy Rice salads. Despite the not-at-all similar names, the dishes came out almost identical and tasted too similar to have different names. I wish our server would be more proactive and told us that we essentially ordered the same thing.
See if you can tell the difference in these two pictures.
Came for breakfast and the pastries … and they have an amazing array of salty and sweet options. We got the veggie bagel with cream cheese, loved the freshness of the veggies. I also had a really solid iced coffee with oatmilk. Nice vibe on the inside and very friendly staff.
