Restaurants in Chiang Mai
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A
Dada Kafe
Promoting itself as a healthy alternative, this eatery is very popular for breakfast. There are simple but comfy chairs and tables and a menu featuring freshly prepared food that has a good stab at sandwiches, pasta dishes and Thai mains. It specialises in juices and claims to have the liquid fruit answer to many ailments including acne, heart disease and high-blood pressure. True or not, they are delicious.
reviewed
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B
Love at First Bite
Tucked deep into a residential soi on the east bank of the river, this famous dessert shop is filled with middle-class, cake-confident Thais. Don't be surprised to see folks posing in front of the dessert display case for a souvenir photo. It's on the eastern side of the river about 500m north of the tourist office.
reviewed
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C
Da Stefano
An intimate, well-decorated, air-con place, Da Stefano focuses on fresh Italian cuisine, with one of the better wine lists in town.
reviewed
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D
Anusan Night Market
Anusan is a buzzing food market best known for its Thai-Chinese seafood restaurants. Stalls surround a large cluster of tables where each 'restaurant' has a section allocated with its own waiters. Nearby are other stand-alone restaurants, some of which have their own prawn holding ponds acting as centrepieces for their menu speciality. The prices are higher than they ought to be but these are special-occasion splash-out restaurants for Thais. Try Lena Restaurant here, where a kilo of succulent grilled prawns will set you back 300B. Or have a stab at the fish in Thai spices and basil leaves.
reviewed
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E
AUM Vegetarian Food
Aiming square at the health-conscious traveller is AUM's vegetarian delights. There's organic coffee from Laos, seasonal juices and a range of all-veggie Thai-style stir-fries, soups, salads and rice dishes. The restaurant has an eating area with floor cushions and low tables. A more expensive, limited Japanese menu (that includes sweet chilli maki) is also available.
reviewed
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Khun Churn
Thais love their buffets – it's the all-you-can-eat allure for these food-loving people. This place is certainly one of the best going around. There's a plethora of well-prepared vegetarian dishes and salads to choose from and basic fruit drinks are included. The shady outdoor setting will entice you to linger.
reviewed
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G
Taste From Heaven
This fine vegetarian restaurant makes delectable curries and fusion dishes incorporating Indian cuisine (such as veg samosas). It's also very friendly, ethically sound – with proceeds going towards the Elephant Nature Park – and has a cooling garden out the back for outside dining.
reviewed
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Riverside Bar & Restaurant
This rambling set of wooden buildings has been the most consistently popular riverside place for over 20 years. The food – Thai, Western and vegetarian – is just a minor attraction compared to the good-times ambience. The clientele is a mix of Thais and fa·ràng. There's inside and outside dining: the bar area inside is musty and worn, and rather boisterous, while outside by the river is more sedate. Some veterans opt to dine on the docked boat before the nightly 8pm river cruise. It's right on the river just 300m north of Saphan Nawarat.
reviewed
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Tianzi Tea House
Such hard-core health food is usually found in dirt-floor hippy shacks, but Tianzi has adopted the ascetic's meal to an aesthetic surrounding. Pretty open-air săh·lah, decorated with flowers and dappled with sunlight, host a range of organic and macrobiotic dishes, such as Yunnanese tofu cheese.
reviewed
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Heuan Phen
At this well-known restaurant everything is on display, from the northern Thai food to the groups of culinary visitors and the antique-cluttered dining room. Try the young jackfruit with a spicy paste. Daytime meals are served in a large canteen out front.
reviewed
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K
Antique House
Antique House is a quaint two-storey teak house and garden filled with wooden antiques and mellow nightly music. Better to come for dinner rather than lunch – it's a much better time to experience the magic of this beautiful setting. Excellent fish dishes especially the tab-tim fish in both Chinese and Thai style. Also available is cook it yourself BBQs and rod duen (fried crispy worm!). This place is just north of the old city, off Th Chang Pheuak.
reviewed
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L
Ratana's Kitchen
For all the talk of Chiang Mai having cool temperatures, it still gets hot by midday. Jump out of the oven and into Ratana's kitchen. It isn't a culinary legend but the dishes and prices are sensible and it's got a prime spot near Pratu Tha Phae for wilting tourists.
reviewed
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M
Bake & Bite
Bake & Bite prepare delicious European- and American-style pastries, pies and sandwiches on your choice of bread. They also offer more vegetarian options than most for breakfast, and have good chocolate cake. There's another branch at 183/8-9 Th Chang Klan.
reviewed
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Giorgio Italian Restaurant
With a trattoria setting near the night bazaar, this well-loved Italian restaurant features all the favourites from the boot-shaped peninsula. During the high season, dinner is also served on Sunday.
reviewed
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Jerusalem Falafel
You might yawn at the thought of yet another Middle Eastern restaurant in a backpacker ghetto but let us sing the praises of this exotic import. The restaurant is a lively place to assemble with friends and nosh on a meze platter of falafel, shashlik, hummus and tabouli. Yoghurt, haloumi and feta cheese are home-made here.
reviewed
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P
Spirit House
Sometimes the most charming restaurants are just display cases for an eccentric personality. This antique-filled dining room is the creative outlet for the American owner who's a master of many trades, from antique dealer to classical musician. A former chef in New Orleans, he's a self-described 'nut about food' and builds the daily menu around what looks interesting at the market. The leafy surrounds and rustic feel add to the charm. This place is just off busy Th Chang Pheuak, near the market.
reviewed
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Sai Ua Gao Makham
Chiang Mai reveals its Chinese heritage with its devotion to pork products, most obvious in the northern Thai speciality of sâi òo·a (pork sausage). Good quality sâi òo·a should be zesty and spicy with discernible flavours of lemongrass, ginger and turmeric. One of the famous sausage makers is Sai Ua Gao Makham, a small stall in Talat Mae Huay (Mae Huay market), which is a few kilometres south of the Night Safari on the way to Hang Dong.
reviewed
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Q
Mitmai Restaurant
A clean, simple and spacious Yunnanese place specialising in delicious vegetable soups made with pumpkin, taro, snowpeas, mushrooms or other vegetables. Try the tôm sôm plaa yâwt máphráo (hot-and-sour fish soup with coconut shoots). The bilingual menu also includes yam (tangy, Thai-style salad) made with Chinese vegetables, as well as Yunnanese steamed ham, and many vegetarian dishes. No MSG is used in the cooking.
reviewed
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I-Berry
A Bangkok-based ice-cream store has churned a pretty wooden lot into a hip phenomenon. Students and locals flock here with cameras in tow hoping to run into the famous owner, comedian Udom Taepanich (nicknamed 'Nose'). If he's not around they'll settle for the huge yellow sculpture out front, said to mimic the star's signature feature (his big nose). The ice cream is pretty good, but watching Chiang Mai's celebrity worship is even better.
reviewed
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Chinatown
Chiang Mai's small Chinatown is located on Th Ratchawong, north of Th Chang Moi. Here you'll find a whole string of inexpensive Chinese rice and noodle shops, most of them offering variations on Tae Jiu (Chao Zhou) and Yunnanese cooking. Recommended is Aomngurn, next to the New Mitrapap Hotel. This funky looking place with blackboard signs outside serves fantastic grilled chicken and various Chinese/Thai dishes. There are English menus.
reviewed
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Ban Kaew Heuan Kam
Outside of town on the klorng road, this pretty teak building is a thoroughly Thai affair (even the menu is written in Thai) and it’s a lovely spot to invite a Thai speaker to dinner. Without a translator, the first two pages of the menu are mainly northern Thai dishes (such as #1008 frog salad, #1014 steamed chicken in pandanus leaf, #2003 Burmese-style curry and #2012 fish curry with forest vegetables).
reviewed
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T
Huan Soontaree
Visiting Thais from Bangkok make the pilgrimage to this rustic restaurant, built on the west bank of the river, partly for the food but mainly for the owner, Soontaree Vechanont, a famous northern singer popular in the 1970s. She performs at the restaurant from 8.30pm to 10pm Monday to Saturday. The menu is a pleasant blend of northern, northeastern and central Thai specialities. This place is on the river about 4km north of the city.
reviewed
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Mengrai Sai Ua
Chiang Mai reveals its Chinese heritage with its devotion to pork products, most obvious in the northern Thai speciality of sâi òo·a (pork sausage). Good quality sâi òo·a should be zesty and spicy with discernible flavours of lemongrass, ginger and turmeric. One of the famous sausage makers is Mengrai Sai Ua, near the Holiday Inn on the east bank of the river.
reviewed
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Favola
Le Meridien’s showcase Italian restaurant features a flamboyant chef who has transformed mama’s cooking into a high-tech affair using molecular gastronomy techniques to prepare foams, infused oils and savoury ice creams. Hints of vanilla and pumpkin oil add dramatic character to fettuccini, but the best bets are the surprisingly affordable pizzas with wood oven–crisped crusts.
reviewed
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Herb Garden
This small and friendly place, run by a Thai-English couple, is one of those rare places where the Western food and Thai food is equally good. Thai dishes like néua deh dio (beef salad with sesame seeds and basil) are delicious. For something very English, choose the bangers and mash (with proper pork sausages) and the treacle tart. Breakfast is good here too.
reviewed