Restaurants in Chiang Mai
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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 – the bakery’s cheesecakes are famous among food bloggers.
reviewed
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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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Anusan Night Market
Some way south of Galare Food Centre, 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.
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AUM Vegetarian Food
Feel healthier and less anxious with a full belly of AUM’s health-friendly meals. There’s organic coffee from Laos, seasonal juices and a range of all-veggie Thai-style stir-fries. The restaurant is friendly with an attached second-hand bookshop and an additional eating area with floor cushions and low tables.
reviewed
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Khun Churn
You might think that vegetarian means rustic, but Khun Churn has kept up with the times with its 21st-century minimalist dining space. The main attraction is the extensive daily buffet (80B) as well as à la carte fruit drinks, crispy rice with coconut dip or pomelo salad. It’s closed on the 16th of each month.
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Mike’s Burgers
A little bit of Coney Island has been transplanted into Chiang Mai at this replica American burger stand. From the worn red vinyl stools, barely a barrier away from the moat-road traffic, watch the fry-cook flip burgers, or swivel 90 degrees for a view of Doi Suthep. There are other branches on Th Nimmanhaemin and near the night bazaar.
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. Chiang Mai locals might sniff at the quality, but for newbies the ambience and the dishes are a treat. Daytime meals are served in a large canteen out front.
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Antique House
A postcard setting for out-of-town visitors, Antique House is a quaint two-storey teak house and garden filled with wooden antiques and mellow nightly music. The menu is mainly northern Thai with all the central Thai classics, but the dishes are just window dressing for the Thai-style ambience.
reviewed
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Ratana’s Kitchen
For all the talk of Chiang Mai having cool temperatures, it still gets hot by mid-day. 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.
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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.
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Taste From Heaven
Eat like an elephant at this vegetarian restaurant benefiting the Elephant Nature Park.
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Jerusalem Falafel
You might yawn at the thought of yet another Middle Eastern restaurant in a backpacker ghetto but later you may start to sing 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, halloumi and feta cheese are home-made here.
reviewed
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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 restaurant hosts monthly classical concerts and many of the city’s music professors and students hang out here. In the low season, the restaurant is open 5.30pm to 10.30pm.
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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 to the good-times ambience. The clientele is a mix of Thais and fa·ràng, lured into a singalong by the classic-rock band. There’s inside and outside dining, as well as a spiffy new overflow building across the street. Some veterans opt to dine on the docked boat (90B surcharge) before the nightly 8pm river cruise.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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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 on weekends while other local musicians perform during the week. The menu is a pleasant blend of northern, north-eastern and central Thai specialities.
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.
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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.
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Dong
Northern Thai food for northern Thai people, Dong nails the Lanna specialities – nám prík nùm,lâhp kôo·a and gaang hang·lair – in a gewgaw-free setting, an incredible demonstration of restraint considering Chiang Mai’s obsession with wooden knick-knacks. But the service is so slow you’ll wonder if they had to trek to Burma to fetch the dishes.
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