WHERE TO EAT IN CHIANG MAI: THE BEST RESTAURANTS

Everyone traveling to Thailand knows and visits Chiang Mai for one reason: temples; but not everyone knows that this northern city is the Thai gastronomic capital. Here you can find good, beautiful and cheap restaurants where you can gain a few kilos trying the countless traditional dishes and their flavors. In this article we tell you some of the best restaurants and places to eat in Chiang Mai, for sightseeing with the swollen cheeks 😉

Clarification: the restaurants that we recommend are not ordered by preference and we have all tried them first-hand belly.

GOHANYA Japanese

We do not think it is the richest Japanese restaurant in the city, but it is certainly one of the cheapest and hey, the food is not bad at all! We visited him several times. The katsudon It's very good (we can't say the same thing about yakisoba, don't ask for it). The place is tiny but quite cute, with clear references to Japanese culture. Do not miss it!

A good idea is to take "tapas" to share (fried chicken, takoyaki, gyozas, korokke, makis) and thus try different dishes.

By the way, another good option for low cost travelers who love the sushi they are the street stands that sell pieces for 5-10 baht. There is a pretty good one in the food court on the ground floor of the Maya (pretty good = you fill your gut with 10 sushis for € 1.5).

CLAY STUDIO COFFEE IN THE GARDEN. Breakfasts

One of the most charming places in the city: at the Clay Studio Coffee in the Garden you can have breakfast mango sticky rice (75 baht) surrounded by tropical plants and Thai terracotta statues ... for a second we seemed to be in Angkor! Drinks (coffee, tea, juices) cost about 40-70 baht and the dishes (rice with pork chops / battered fish, stiky rice mango, muesli bowls, American breakfast) are around 70-100 baht. There's also toasts rich with different toppings (egg, avocado ...) for 45 baht. Highly recommended!

Update 2019: apparently this beautiful site is closed 🙁 peeeeeero, right there, sharing the garden. The Faces bar is there, so you can go there.

SP CHICKEN. Roast chicken

We had read several opinions about this site and, although we did not find the grilled chicken richest we ever tried, we must say that it is very good. Tender, juicy and cheap (150 baht for the whole chicken, it's tiny, we got one for both of us, but if you usually eat a lot you may be hungry). The sticky rice to accompany it costs 10 baht, they also give you some spicy sauces. Also have homemade coconut ice cream (30 baht), which always comes in after any meal 😉

THE FUNKY MONKEY. Milkshakes

It is a small small, quiet, in the center of Chiang Mai and without many pretensions. We stopped here because we saw that there was falafel :-p We ordered the mediterranean dish (hummus, falafel, tabuleh, bread and tahini), 80 baht, it's normal eh, it's not the best we tried, the good thing is the price. We include The Funkey Monkey in this article, not so much for your food, but for the milkshakes! Mmm Rober tested the funky monkey shake: a slush of coffee, milk and banana ... buah, absolutely delicious! (40 baht).

Come on, it is a perfect place to eat cheap and taste a delicious smoothie.

RATANA'S. Thai

We ended up here almost by case and the truth is that we were positively surprised. The place is one of those that have a good atmosphere (better sit at the tables outside) and a half-crazy waitress XD. Between one cold beer and another we spent the night with Carmen and Antonio de Panipuri Viajes, some cracks. The massaman curry I tried it was really rich, spicy just (which in my case is very little) and tasty. It is a fairly busy place (it sure appears in a Lonely Planet type guide, because the level of guiri per m2 is high).

The khao I am not bad either (although it is not the best we tried even by far). Of course, pork curry (kaeng hang lei) itches a lot (although I was told no). So if you can't stand the spicy a lot ... don't take it.

KANJANA Thai

In this simple restaurant, managed by a mother and daughter, we ate some of the best curries Always, yes, they were a spicy tad so prepare some kleenex to dry the XD moquillos. We tried the massaman curry and one of the dishes of the house: the pumpkin curry, both highly recommended 🙂 They cost about 80 baht. Also the menu is very extensive so if you do not feel like curry you will surely find another option. For us it is one of the best options to eat in Chiang Mai well and cheaply.

There is a lot of vegetarian dishes, so you know 🙂

* Apparently the Kanjana has to appear on the Lonely Planet or some other fat guide, because there are more and more tourists! If you want to make sure you eat, without waiting, leave early (or late).

TOEY DIM SUM. Dim sum

It is not the most beautiful place in Chiang Mai (no, it definitely is not) but if you have dimsum-nostalgia it is your place. Each plate of dim sum costs 24 baht. There are pork, prawns, minced meat, crab ... choose the ones you want at the counter and the cook will steam them. There are 4-piece dishes (the simplest, pork and shrimp) and 2-piece dishes (more elaborate). Although in the end you will end up paying a negligible figure, the dishes are very rich and it is a way to change the style of food. If this specialty is cool, but the restaurant catches you a little in disarray, there are other more central dim sum premises: Jok Sompet, in the area of ​​the north wall, where there is dim sum for 32 baht and the By Dim Sum, where they cost 22 baht.

BAREFOOT COFFEE. Pasta

When I read somewhere lost in the network that this restaurant existed, I forced Rober to take me to meet him. The concept is simple: homemade pasta and pizzas, and when we say homemade they are real homemade! We ask for one meat lasagna (180 baht) and one carbonara (120 baht) that they prepared immediately before our eyes. Both dishes were VERY good, although the portions are somewhat small. The Barefoot Café is in a kind of artistic community (Penguin Villa) where there is also a clothing / craft store and a cafeteria (Penguin Ghetto) Perfect for a delicious coffee / cold tea after the meal. Highly recommended and original! And people are super nice!

Eye: updated in December 2019, apparently they have changed location and are no longer in the Penguin Villa (if you put Barefoot coffee on google maps, you will see it)

MAY KAIDEE. Vegan

Chiang Mai is a paradise for lovers of vegan cuisine and this site, which we discovered thanks to Carmen and Antonio, was a big surprise. The dishes are delicious and healthy (we recommend the pumpkin hummus and the khao soi, the latter only ate it with his eyes: Antonio asked for it and it looked brutal).

KIAT EIGHT. Roast Chicken and Satay

We arrived here after having read a recommendation on Mark's blog, a food guru, although as soon as we got the chicken rice dish (hainanese chicken) disappointed us a little (60 baht). It was cold and not very tasty, but super sweet. They serve it with a sauce that seemed to bite more than a habanero in hell (it didn't chop anything anyway), so we decided to leave it on the saucer, maybe it was our mistake.

So why do we recommend it? On the other side of the house: the satay! This one was delicious: 9 satay (the small plate) cost us 50 baht and the peanut sauce was incredibly good, so much that we put it in the chicken and voilà plate: revolutionized plate and delicious jiji.

K'S KITCHEN. Thai

One of the dishes to try in Chiang Mai is the kaeng hang lei (pork curry) And in this restaurant it is delicious. They say that also the pumpkin khao soi It's deadly, but we ordered massaman curry, one of our favorite Thai dishes and we didn't like it too much, so you know ... here try the pork curry (it's a spicy but very tasty pelin).

Update 2019: it is closed 🙁

BEAST BURGUER. burgers

If instead what you want is a good hamburger we recommend the Beasts Burguer, in the Nimman area. Here you can try some of the best burgers in Chiang Mai. There are vegetarian / vegan and carnivore options. Prices of hamburgers Est 180 / 250b (includes potatoes).

ARNOS. burgers

We tried Arnos burgers for the first time a few days ago (I write these lines in December 2019) and wow! In fact we ordered it via foodpanda, like when we have a lazy day and we did it because at noon (until 5pm) there is a lunch-menu that includes hamburger, drink and potatoes for 200baht. The ingredients are of quality, the delicious flavor (so much that we repeat on another vague day of those).

MAYA BURGUER QUEEN. burgers

Another good option if you want to eat hamburgers is the Maya Burguer Queen. Here we try the sweet potato, pumkin & cheese burguer (89 baht) * and a cheesburguer (109 baht). Very rich both! Also the potatoes (large 60 baht portion) are delicious. Drinks cost about 30-60 baht.

* If you want avocado it costs 30baht more. I didn't want it but they put it on me like XD. My veg burger was very tasty, with a sweet touch that I liked a lot but it was quite greasy and heavy so if you are on a diet (well, if you are on a diet you would not be eating an XD hamburger).

GOODSOULS KITCHEN. Vegan

We enjoyed our good evening dinner here with our friends Claudia and Jairo and we have to say we ate fancy. Of course, it took life to feed our mountain bodies, was it Christmas and they were going full? The truth is that he waits or not: everything was delicious and abundant ... the portions very generous. Extra tip for dessert: a tiramisu that was NOT tiramisu and that, however, I couldn't stop eating! Prices around 150baht per plate.

CAT HOUSE Varied dishes

We have to thank a blog follower (Thanks Gisele!) For recommending this site: we didn't know him and we liked him a lot 🙂 We tried the falafel and hummus dish and we have discordant opinions about the falafel: me, I love ginger I really liked Rober, who is not crazy about ginger, not too much ... but the hummus (has a lot of garlic) and the pita are delicious (the falafel too, man). The set costs 120baht. Rober also tried a salad and says it was delicious and another day it was made with a plate of shakshuka, some eggs with tomato, pepper, onion and spices and bingo! GOOD!

There are also options for breakfast, Mexican food and very rich milkshakes. The great part of the menu is veg but if you want you can add chicken to salad / curry.

HUAN MUAN JAI. Northern Thailand food

We discovered this place looking for a restaurant where to eat authentic northern cuisine and we were not disappointed. It was full of locals and the food was very tasty (something spicy but perfectly tolerable). We tried two typical dishes from northern Thailand: the khao I am (80baht) and thekaeng hang lei (pork curry) with rice (135baht). It is not the cheapest place (nor the most expensive ehhh) but the food is of quality.

PAKAMON FACTORY. Desserts and happiness

Paradise for sweet tooth. We discovered a few days ago this bakery-cafeteria and we are in love crazy. Here there are many types of cakes (65-85baht) but we recommend the one with coconut, we believe that it is the specialty of the house and it is of death and the cheescake with strawberry.

NIMMAN KATSU. Japanese

The restaurant is quite carillo but we ended up here because they have an offer of ramen (small) or katsu (rice with fried chicken fillet) for 89baht and the truth is that the food was rich. Of course, the ramen is quite quite small. We also take some takoyakis (80baht), they are crispy in the style of Tokyo. The place is very cool, reminded us of the typical Japanese tascas (although it had Christmas carols that took away some japo jaja atmosphere).

It is not the best japo in Chiang Mai, but if you walk around it is not a bad option.

MORE TIPS

• In addition ... do not forget to live the great gastronomic experience that supposes to eat in a food court (areas full of food bars in shopping centers with shared tables). Our favorite is the food court of the Maya Shopping Mall (There are two, one on the most traditional ground floor and one on the 4F, more modern and atypical, visit both if you can). Here you can eat pad thai, rice dishes with pork, with chicken teryaki, soups with wonton, vegetarian dishes and much more ... even takoyaki * _ *
• Another essential place to eat (rather, dinner) is at the Student Market food court. Here is a Japanese who prepares some delicious (and cheap) bentos although in general all the places are rich and the atmosphere is great. The bento that we show you below costs 89baht (about € 2 and something) and the best thing is that there are many different types (meat, fish, tempura, sushi ...)

• Night markets are other great places to eat for a few baht. The South Gate market It has a lot of offer although our favorite position is in the north gate market (near 7eleven): the one of the cowboy woman, famous for always wearing a cowboy hat XD, which prepares dishes of rice with pork very, very, very rich! It costs 50 baht and it is the best you will eat in Chiang Mai. Really, whenever someone asks us where to eat we send him here… it's one of the best meals in Chiang Mai, without a doubt 🙂

• If you want to eat a good pizza we recommend the restaurant By hand (for us the best) or the Girasole or Casa Ristorante.

• And finally we advise you to do something that we did not do (ains, damn time!): Eat in a buffet. There are a few scattered around Chiang Mai, although the best (and biggest) seems to be theSukontha Buffet, where by 209 baht you can put on your boots with meat, fish, seafood and vegetable dishes that you will cook yourself in a moo kata, a kind of bbq grill, in which you can also prepare a soup at the same time. An experience!

So far our recommendations, do you know others stalls and restaurants where to eat in Chiang Mai?

Video: TOP 13 MUST EAT FOODS in Chiang Mai, Thailand DIY Thai Food Tour (April 2024).