Mike's Burgers

Burgers to die for!

Food

Service

Atmosphere

It's day one of Songkran, the Thai festival celebrating the lunar New Year.  The streets of Chiang Mai are a waterlogged battleground, jammed with super-soaker toting teens, mobs of bucket-laden children, and flatbed trucks armed with overflowing tubs for industrial level drenching.  It's the world's biggest water fight, and you know you can't step outside without getting drenched to the bone.  Of course, you could hide in your room and stave off hunger with hoarded Snickers bars.  But who are we kidding?  Mike's Burgers is just down the street.

You battle your way across the moat, and by the time you plop down on Mike's sidewalk stools, you can wring the water out of shirt.  But there's a patty with your name on it sizzling away on the grill in front of you, and within minutes you're sinking your teeth into the best burger you've tasted outside the States.  The staff is friendly, the root beer is cold, the fries are piping hot and the ketchup is real (an important factor - many Thais are fundamentally confused on the topic of ketchup).  Who cares that you're getting buckets of water sloshed down the back of your neck?  This is all-American food heaven.  You'll come back tomorrow, and the day after that, water gun in hand, to find that the hot dogs and Philly cheese steaks are every bit as finger-licking good.

You could feel guilty for gorging yourself on American food in a country with such incredible local cuisine.  But don't.  Indulge!  You'll thank yourself when you're still on the road three months later and you'd kill for some decent ketchup.