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Chanchao's Chiang Mai Food Review
Reviews of restaurants and Thai food stalls in Chiang Mai, Thailand
By: Chanchao in Chiang Mai
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| Friday, 1-Jan-2010 00:00 |
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*** Introduction ***
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A smile...
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...a day...
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...keeps the doctor away.
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NEWS:
It's been a couple of months without significant additions, due to being incredibly busy and working on a Thai Travel Menu. 
A Thai Travel Menu? Yes, a Thai Travel Menu. It can be used to order more interesting food at places that don't have a full English language menu, and it also provides an overview of typical places to eat in Thailand. Get it here: nachang.com/travelmenu
On this page I will be posting short reviews and pictures on food stalls and restaurants in Chiang Mai, Thailand. These will mostly be places I recommend, no sour slagging off of places I didn't enjoy, unless they really deserve it. I will very much include out of the way places that rarely get foreign visitors. Note that the listing now spans several pages, so I made an Index Page with links to all entries.
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| Sunday, 18-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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Trendy Coffee & Cake Shops
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Brown Bean Coffee
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Outside seating area overlooking the Ping River
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Hot chocolate with generous whipped cream
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There is inside seating as well
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Ping river view
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Map Location
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Coffee & cake cafe's seem to be mushrooming throughout major cities in Thailand, and Chiang Mai is no exception. Most of them mimic the Starbucks format, though prices are usually a lot more reasonable than Starbucks, for which, like Haagen Dasz I can find no other words besides 'total rip off'..  (Chiang Mai has two Starbucks outlets, one on the Night Bazar road near the Suriwong hotel and one in the Airport Plaza shopping mall. And Haagen Dasz you'll have to find for yourself if you want it!  )
Nescafe instant coffee used to rule Thailand, but this is finally changing. Nescafe became the de-facto standard for 'coffee' for a long time, taking over from the old-style Thai filter coffee stalls which are now increasingly hard to find. (Here's a good one though: Old style Thai coffee)
Now there are many independent, trendy little coffee shops around. Some of course do better than others.. I think a good one is just South of the Night Bazaar on Chang Klan road on the left hand side. But for this review I picked this new one, not because the coffee or cakes are better than elsewhere, but because of the nice river-side setting. It is in fact right next to the well known Riverside Restaurant, close to the Nawarat bridge.
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| Thursday, 15-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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Pa Thong Go breakfast pastry ("Chromosome Donuts")
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Pa Thong Go stall
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Making the little X-shaped donuts
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Close up :)
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In Thailand there are actually relatively few dishes that are really NOT commonly eaten for breakfast. Pretty much anything from fried rice to curries and noodles can be breakfast. There are however a few dishes that are more common. The thing that comes first to mind when you say 'Thai breakfast' would be 'khao tom', a plain rice soup that is eaten with various salty, soury and/or spicy side dishes. Many hotels that cater to a Thai clientele will have a khao tom section in their morning buffets.
But there are more typical breakfast things, like the pa thong go pastry I talk about today. Also this one may sit better with your average Western visitor as a breakfast choice, compared to rice soup with salty preserved eggs. You will not find pa thong go exclusively during breakfast hours, it can be had as a snack or light meal pretty much any time of the day and night.
Pa thong go are little X-shaped fried pastry, a bit like a donut perhaps. They're eaten usually with sweet soy milk, or a custard cream. The most common custard cream is the green one which gets it's colour and flavour from the pandanus leaf. Just dip and eat.  Other things you can dip your pa thong go in would be strong sweet coffee or Ovaltine. Aside from the X-shaped (chromosome shaped) ones, most stalls also offer a round shape, often with some sesame seeds on top. They're very cheap, like 1 baht each and a couple of baht for the soy milk or custard cream. This particular stall where I took these pictures is located at Chang Phuak food market, at Chang Phuak gate in Chiang Mai. This one is in operation in the evening and deep into the night.
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| Wednesday, 14-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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Madame Ian Vietnamese Restaurant & Buffet
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Madame Ian Restaurant
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Buffet dishes, or order from the menu which is *included*
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Also order from menu, it's included in the all-you-can-eat price
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This is the first time I mention a Vietnamese restaurant in Chiang Mai; there are perhaps 4-5 other places around town that I know of, but I picked this one to be the first for a review. I picked it because the food is nice of course, and because it offers an all-you-can-eat buffet. You're not limited to just the buffet-dishes though, you can order from the menu as well and this is included in the buffet price of 80 baht per person! There are only some dishes excluded from this, only those that involve the restaurant's home made 'moo yor', a kind of pork sausage usually wrapped in banana leaves. I completely don't understand why this particular thing is excluded, it's hardly the most expensive thing ever.. Or the most exciting for that matter, so I don't regret it, I just wonder about it. Sweet desserts are also included in the 80 baht buffet price, but not drinks including drinking water. But at 5 baht a bottle this isn't a major issue, you're still getting excellent value for money, especially when you bring a healthy appetite!
This place is very popular for lunch, and many of the dishes are a nice change from general Thai food. Madame Ian restaurant is in a shophouse style building (I forgot to take the first outside picture, I plan to add it later) on Wichayanon Road. This is the road that goes from the North-Eastern corner of the old city (Sriphoom Corner) towards the river. You find Madame Ian on the right hand side opposite the old President Hotel. (When going by taxi/tuk tuk, say 'President Hotel', when going by car, you can park at the hotel's parking lot).
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| Friday, 2-Jul-2004 00:00 |
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Noodle shops, old and new.. And Ostrich Noodles!
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Hor Jia Noodle Restaurant
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Bright, new interior with a Chinese theme
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For comparison: Daeng Ocha. Packed!
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Note: The ostrich noodle place didn't make it, I think it has closed. Yet the other 'old style' basic shop keeps running strong... This is SO typical! Some old places just keep going and going without ANY change or as much as some new paint here and there..
Without a doubt, THE most popular dish in Thailand for lunch or even other times of the day and night has got to be 'kuaytiow', Noodle Soup. I've talked about them before, from a 3 baht noodle shop to perhaps the most popular one in Chiang Mai. Now for the first time a head to head encounter: old versus new.. Be sure to click to see all pictures.
It's funny to note that when it comes to popularity, the 'appearance' of the shop seems to be completely unimportant. Many of the most popular noodle shops in Thailand look distinctly scruffy, worn out, messy or even dusty/dirty. Yet they're full of people every day.. and making good money! Owners of the most popular shops drive Mercedes Benz cars and send their children to top foreign universities. At times this made me cry out "why not invest a couple of hundred baht into some buckets of paint then!? The place looks grotty, like it hasn't received the most basic of maintenance for decades!" No arguments about the food quality though; at the most popular shops this is consistently high and service is blazing fast.
Then I ran into this new little shop I talk about today. It's still a noodle shop, but there's paint on the wall! There's a style and theme to the place, nice decorations, not just things that happened to linger around by chance for 30 odd years! It all looks nice and bright, and food and service are good too. It's called 'Hor Jia' and is on Chang Klan road right in between Bangkok Bank and Krung Thai bank. (Close proximity to plenty of middle-class bank employees is a dream location for any noodle shop)
For comparison with an old style noodle shop (and there are hundreds of these), I went to a shop called Daeng Ocha the day after, to shoot some pics for comparison. Daeng Ocha is next to Sanpakhoi market and a perfect example of a place where nobody ever dwelled on decorations or maintenance for more time than it takes to change the calendar to a new one on January 1st, or to glue the latest Coke or Pepsi poster to the wall. Funnily enough it is also a stone's throw to the Krung Thai and Bangkok Bank branches on Charoen Muang road..
Without a doubt Daeng Ocha makes far more money. I had to wait for a small seat on the side to become available.
Back to Hor Jia. They do very good noodles with pork meat, stewed with Chinese spices. But there's also a surprise on the menu: Noodles with ostrich meat!! Ostrich meat has been a bit of a fad the last couple of years, you find it occasionally on the menu as a substitute for beef, but I don't feel that it's ever become very popular. Do try it though, it's kind of nice when prepared the same style as stewed Chinese pork or beef! In addition they serve OK dim sum for 20 baht per tray of 2 pieces. Pork noodles go for 30 baht, ostrich noodles 40 baht. At Daeng Ocha, regular beef stew noodles go for 25 baht. Both places serve unsweetened iced tea for free.
Hor Jia is on Chang Klan road, South of the night bazar, in between the Krung Thai Bank and Bangkok Bank on the right hand side of the road. Daeng Ocha is in the soi off Jaroen Muang road that leads to Sanpakhoi Market and the Kawila Barracks. After crossing Nawarat bridge go straight at the traffic lights, then at the next traffic lights turn right. (At the Krung Thai bank on the corner)
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| Wednesday, 30-Jun-2004 00:00 |
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Burrito House
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Burrito House
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Simple but nice interior, no airconditioning
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Quesadilla (59 Baht)
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The place pictured here is now closed, though I believe the outlet at the top floor of Chiang Mai Pantip Plaza is still there. (Though who knows for how much longer.. )
It may seem unfair to now have 3 eviews of Mexican(ish) food and still zero Italian food, even though there are lots more Italian restaurants around Chiang Mai, many of them really excellent by any standard! Perhaps it's because Mexican is so hard to find in Chiang Mai. Or just because all of the places I mentioned are relatively inexpensive little places, my favorite kind.
Burrito House fits in nicely, it's a bit out of the tourist center and quite inexpensive. Don't expect great Mexican cuisine, think 'Taco Bell' and you will definitely not be disappointed.. Perhaps even pleasantly surprised.
The place does some Italian food as well, some standard pasta dishes and pizza. And some standard fast food like fries and burgers. There's also many ice cream deserts on the colorful menu, which actually looks like a menu from some big fast food franchise! Yet the prices are very friendly indeed. I include a picture.
Burrito House has two locations in Chiang Mai, one near the Novotel / Rim Ping Supermarket on Chotana Road and this one in a soi off Suthep Road near the back entrance to Chiang Mai University. To get there continue towards CMU on Suthep road past the intersection with the Canal Road. It's then in a soi on the left, before you get to Soi Wat Umong. There's a sign on the main road.
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| Monday, 28-Jun-2004 00:00 |
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Kitamon Japanese & Chinese Restaurant
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Kitamon Japanese & Chinese Restaurant
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Eat in an airconditioned room or outside on a riverfront terrace
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Sashimi set at 300 baht
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For Japanese food I mostly visit the cheapo places like Yatai (See review) but sometimes a relative splurge is nice too, and the food and surroundings definitely a step up. For starters it's nice to see seriously potent wasabi readily dissolving in your soi sauce, rather than see it and up as little chunky lumps floating around. And the surroundings make a difference too, a nice air-conditioned room or outdoors riverside dining area with plenty of staff is definitely nice for special occasions.
Kitamon is perhaps not the total high-end for Japanese food in Thailand, prices are still quite reasonable. It's a bit in the same league as the Japanese restaurant at Nang Nual on the other side of the river. Kitamon might just have the edge in this range, though Nang Nual does an all-you-can-eat buffet both lunch time as well as dinner time. Kitamon has this only at lunch time. Kitamon also does home delivery, and prices really are no higher than your average Pizza Hut delivery..
There are separate menus for Japanese food as well as Chinese/Thai food. The Chinese menu looks very interesting as will, with some good seafood choices. Will especially try the Crab with black pepper sometime. On this occasion though I stuck to the Japanese food which I think turned out very good indeed. There are some 'sets' on the menu, including sets with Japanese rice and grilled fish or meat, or sets with various sushi or sashimi items. The biggest set goes for 400 baht, the one pictured was the smaller set for 300 baht. It's served in an interesting little boat-shaped tray filled with ice to keep things cool. The nice presentation and friendly and fast service make this still very good value for money I think.
Kitamon is on the river, on the Western bank, South of town before you get to the Aom Muang ring road. It's on the left side of the road when coming from town driving South.
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| Wednesday, 23-Jun-2004 00:00 |
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The 'Everything' restaurants / Ahaan Taam Sang
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Semi outdoors food stall / restaurant. (Guess where this is?)
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Basic tables and chairs, typical open cooking area.
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Phad krapao kai / Chicken w. Thai basil and chillies
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Just from looking through these pages you may conclude there are many places to eat around Chiang Mai. In reality I haven't even scratched the surface yet..  Aside from writing about individual restaurants, I especially enjoy singling out one particular dish, style or category of food and then pick one restaurant or food-stall that I think does a particularly good job of it. Doing so leaves out at least one main category of restaurant, namely those that don't do one particular dish or style, but do 'everything'. 'Everything'-restaurants and food stalls are called 'Taam Sang' in Thai, which literally means 'made to order'. And they're all over the place!
Some will be an actual restaurant, like a shophouse, others will be food stalls with some tables and plastic chairs on the sidewalk. Some open only during the day, others only at night. Some actually have menus, others just list a bunch of random dishes on signs. Very few have English language menus. This may make them a challenge for the tourist, but by all means try them, especially the ones that look popular! Communications may be difficult, and shop owners may know a grand total of 3 English words: "Fried Rice" or "Fried Noodle". Also they may think that this is all that foreigners want to try, thinking that no foreigner can eat spicy food. So they may need some encouragement if you want to get dishes that are more interesting. You could try pointing at the ingredients on display near the cooking area, or you could point at dishes that other people in the restaurant ordered. Or you could try your luck in Thai language.. One of these days I should get around to making a 'Generic menu of Thailand' with loads of typical dishes on there in English and also in Thai writing..
Some tourists feel overly worried about food safety at the smaller places. Personally I've been sick from food twice in ten years, and both times this was at 'proper' well established restaurants! Still, when picking a place to eat it's good advice to pick a place that looks busy, if not for safety then at least because the food will most likely be very good as well! And, as many places of this kind feature an open cooking area, it's clear for all to see what happens to your food before it lands on your plate.
For the pictures with this entry I will not bother explaining where this particular place is located; there are so many similar places, often in little side lanes and alleys, no point in seeking out this particular place. I will add a listing of typical Thai dishes that you would find at these places soon(ish).
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| Monday, 21-Jun-2004 00:00 |
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Western Breakfast / Mad Dog
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Mad Dog Bar & Restaurant
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Pretty low key bar, pool table, TV, etc.
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Big British breakfast set
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After writing last week about what a perfect place The Upper Crust would be for breakfast, with all the Western food, coffees and cakes and newspapers and all, I went there for breakfast last Sunday. But... found out they only open at 12 pm noon! Really! So had to pick something else to spend an hour with some fried eggs on toast, some coffee and the newspaper. So I picked Mad Dog bar. It's perhaps more a retired-expat hangout bar than anything else, but they do serve fairly inexpensive food as well, the usual collection of American/British breakfasts, burgers and sandwiches and so on. They do pizza as well. I think the breakfasts especially make a lot of sense, and you do get a lot of food for your 70 or 80 baht. You get your toast, butter, jam, eggs with ham or bacon, orange juice, coffee for 70 baht, or go for the British breakfast for 80 baht which includes some fried potatoes as well. One step up there's even a 'super breakfast' but I shudder to think how big that will turn out. There's also burgers and sandwiches that go for around 40-60 baht, and some main courses that I’ve never tried. One interesting thing to note is the almost complete absence of anything 'vegetable' on the menu, and very few things that would qualify as really 'healthy food' in anyone's book.. I did notice that muesli with yogurt & fruit had been added to the menu, so that's at least something. (And it was rather nice too, with fresh mango thrown in, not just the regular banana-papaya-water melon mix.)
It's a low key bar environment, friendly staff, newspapers available, draft beer, etc. Good unpretentious place for a beer or a bite to eat that's Western expat/tourist oriented without going the girlie-bar route, which is a common theme for bars in the Thapae area.
Mad Dog is on Moon Muang road, South of Thapae Gate on the city moat, pretty much across from D.K. Book Center.
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| Monday, 14-Jun-2004 00:00 |
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Northern Thai 'Mueang' Food - Ban Rai Yam Yen
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Ban Rai Yam Yen Entrance, with cat. :)
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Live band playing Thai & Western country type songs
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Spicy minced catfish, salad w local vegetable, spicy clear curry
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Surprisingly enough, a good variety in 'traditional Chiang Mai food' is not all that easy to find in most of Chiang Mai's restaurants. Sure it's sold at pretty much all the markets all over town for 10 baht per serving in a plastic bag, but once you get to a proper restaurant you often don't find so many Northern dishes on the menu. Some restaurants offer a few of the ubiquitous ones, like a predictable 'Hors d'Oeuvre Muang' set or Hang Lay curry; this mostly for visitors from Bangkok and other parts of the country who want to taste the local food. Yet the truly hard core 'Mueang' dishes you mostly don't find. (Kafe restaurant deserves an honourable mention here because it manages to have both some Western as well as Thai and Northern regional things on the menu, and does a nice job at all of them.) But also Kafe doesn't have the huge variety of Mueang food that Ban Rai Yam Yen has.
Note that 'Mueang' means 'pertaining to Thailand's Northern Region'. It's more of an ethnic/cultural designation than a purely geographical one; people from the Northern provinces, roughly the area covered by the old Lanna Kingdom, will refer to themselves as 'Khon Mueang', Mueang People. This depending on context of course, it's not that they won't call themselves 'Thai' in a group of mixed nationalities because they will, but if you step up to any villager somewhere in the sticks of Chiang Rai or Mae Hong Son and ask 'Are you Thai'? then chances are he will reply "No, I'm Khon Mueang". (As opposed to any of the hill tribes in the area, Shan people, central Thais and so on). Along the same lines, when you talk about Northern Thai food, then people in the North will call their local fare 'Ahaan Mueang', Mueang Food.
Ban Rai Yam Yen restaurant is pretty far out of the city center, in the San Phee Suea area, East of the Ping river just North of the Superhighway ring road. It has featured on mainstream Thai TV shows on food and the major magazines, making it a rather famous place. It's the perfect place to take visiting Thai friends wanting to taste the local food, and of course won't disappoint any significant other who hails from the North of Thailand.. (That's assuming he/she can get over paying regular big restaurant prices for Northern food, which many people perhaps associate with the market or with Mum's cooking at home.) Ban Rai Yam Yen is not seriously expensive, but definitely moderate and on par with the big riverside restaurants such as The Good View, The Resort and all those. Another option for Northern food that comes to mind and which is equally famous is Huean Soontaree, on Wang Singh Kham road on the West bank of the Ping river.
Ban Rai Yam Yen is moderately priced, many dishes go for 70-80 baht, more for whole-fish dishes of course. They have Pla Buek on the menu as well, the Giant Mekhong Catfish. Also there's quite a lot on the menu that I will just describe as 'adventurous'. Great for shocking any visiting Western tourists. The interior of the restaurant is traditional wood, with lots of plants and little fountains around. There's a live music band as well playing both Thai as well as Western country type songs.
To get there you have to take Fa Ham road North past the Superhighway. So if on Fa Ham road then you pass under the Superhighway bridge over the ping river, then continue North for another 100-200 meters or so until you see the sign on the right hand side. The restaurant is 50-100 meters into that soi on the right. Alternatively, when driving on the Superhighway going East towards the Mae Jo intersection, make a U-turn LEFT directly after crossing the Ping river. (This means breaking hard and then U-turning the wrong way into oncoming traffic. This may feel like a highly dangerous move, which it is, but trust me that it's allowed. )
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