Looking for a culinary change of pace, and tired of paying for it hand over fist? Though DCist has reported on some adventurous new restaurants arriving on the D.C. scene, let’s face it–none of them come with thrift in mind. Which is why a trip out to Silver Spring (yes, that Silver Spring) to visit the newly re-opened Mandalay Restaurant & Cafe sounds like it could really hit the spot.

If you never had the pleasure of visiting the restaurant at its prior location, on “scenic” Route 1 in College Park, you’re in luck: Mandalay has moved to a larger–and Metro accessible–spot near Whole Foods in downtown Silver Spring. The space may have changed, but the menu is the same: outstanding and consistently surprising Burmese food, served as spicy as you desire. Burmese cuisine can be described as a flavor melée between the foods of India, China, and Thailand, though it certainly has a personality all its own. eGullet members have been looking forward to the restaurant opening for some time, noting that the other Burmese restaurant in town, Chinatown’s Burma, has

crashed and burned, burned, burned, based on lunch last week. The salads were once delightful plates of ginger and cabbage and oil and vinegar and crunchies and munchies you’d never dream up. Now they are now sad and sour vinegar-drenched goosh.

The denizens of College Park, who have lost one of the few good restaurant alternatives in the area, should blame the move on the real estate boom: the former landlord refused to renew Mandalay’s lease, instead choosing to build an apartment building on the spot.

Entrees at Mandalay top out at $8.99. If you’re headed up, DCist recommends the ThinnBawThee Thoke (green papaya salad) and the WetThar ThaYetThee Hin (pork chunks simmered with pickled mango curry). Adventurous foodies — be prepared if you ask for your meal to be extra spicy!

(Image of Pork with Pickled Mango Curry, courtesy of eGullet member “iamthestretch”)