50th Street Bar
50th Street Bar and Grill is the closest thing Yangon's Chinatown has to a proper expat pub. Located on 50th Street between Merchant Road and Mahabandula Road, the bar operates from a renovated colonial-era building with an open ground floor, indoor seating, and a small upper level. The interior is pub-styled with a long wooden bar, draft beer taps, sports screens, and walls covered with rugby and football memorabilia. The kitchen serves Western pub food alongside Burmese dishes, and the craft beer selection is the best in the Chinatown area, including rotating taps from Myanmar Brewery and occasional imported kegs. The bar has hosted weekly trivia nights, pub quizzes, and rugby screenings for years, creating a reliable calendar of events that the expat community uses as a social anchor. Capacity is around 60 inside with some additional street-side seating. The crowd is predominantly expats, diplomats, and internationally minded Burmese professionals, with tourists making up a smaller portion.
What to Expect
Walking into 50th Street feels like entering a British pub that somehow ended up in Southeast Asia. The AC is working, sports are on the screens, and someone at the bar is probably arguing about football. It's a comfortable, familiar environment that serves as a decompression chamber for expats dealing with the daily realities of life in post-coup Myanmar.
Warm, community-driven, and reassuringly normal. The expat living room of Yangon.
Background rock and pop via speakers, with sports commentary during matches
Smart casual to casual. Collared shirts mix with t-shirts without anyone caring.
Expats looking for familiar comforts, trivia enthusiasts, sports fans who want to watch matches with fellow fans
Cash (Myanmar kyat preferred) and cards accepted. US dollars accepted at a reasonable rate.
Price Range
Draft beer 3,000-5,000 MMK, craft beer 5,000-8,000 MMK, cocktails 6,000-10,000 MMK, pub food 5,000-15,000 MMK
Draft beer ~$0.85-1.40/~0.80-1.30 EUR, cocktails ~$1.70-2.85/~1.55-2.65 EUR
Hours
11:00-23:00 daily
Insider Tip
Check their Facebook page for the weekly events schedule. Trivia night is the most social evening of the week. The fish and chips are surprisingly good for a bar 9,000 kilometers from London.
Full Review
50th Street Bar serves a purpose beyond just selling drinks. It's a community center for Yangon's remaining expatriate population, and that social function is what keeps people coming back. The physical space is pleasant enough: colonial bones with pub furnishings, good air conditioning, and a bar that stocks more variety than anywhere else in the neighborhood.
The draft beer selection rotates and usually includes three or four options, which sounds modest until you realize most Yangon bars offer exactly one: Myanmar Beer. Imported options appear occasionally and sell out fast. Cocktails are mixed competently, and the whiskey selection behind the bar has more range than expected.
Food is a genuine strong point. The kitchen takes the pub menu seriously, and items like the fish and chips, burgers, and steaks are executed well with quality ingredients. The Burmese dishes on the menu are also good, which suggests the kitchen staff eat their own cooking rather than just catering to foreign tastes.
The weekly trivia night has become a Yangon institution. Teams of expats, diplomats, and aid workers compete with genuine intensity, and the evening reliably draws 30 to 50 people. It's the single best event for meeting the international community if you're new in town.
The location on 50th Street is slightly removed from the 19th Street beer station chaos, which gives it a calmer base from which to explore. Many people use 50th Street as a starting or ending point for a Chinatown evening, bookending the street-level drinking with something more comfortable.
The Neighborhood
50th Street sits a few blocks east of 19th Street in the Chinatown area. The surrounding streets have a mix of Chinese-Myanmar shops, street food vendors, and colonial architecture. It's walkable to 19th Street in about 10 minutes.
Getting There
Located on 50th Street between Merchant Road and Mahabandula Road. From Sule Pagoda, walk west about 15 minutes, or take a taxi for 2,000-3,000 MMK. The bar is on the east side of 50th Street.
Other Venues in Chinatown & 19th Street
Kosan
Popular backpacker bar on 19th Street with a rooftop terrace and mixed crowd of travelers and locals. One of the few spots with English-language staff.
Pioneer
Well-known beer station at the heart of 19th Street serving cheap draught Myanmar Beer alongside BBQ skewers. A Yangon institution.
Mojo Bar
One of Yangon's few dedicated live music venues, hosting local bands playing rock, blues, and pop covers most evenings.
Feel Bar
Open-air beer bar on 19th Street with plastic furniture and a casual atmosphere. Draws a mostly local crowd with some of the cheapest draught beer in the area.