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.
Thanks for your insights and for sharing it with others. Will be trying some of those chickens for sure. Hope you have recovered from the excesses of Song................crash. Will be in CM in November maybe I will fall over you
I really enjoy reading your recommendations. I'm very happy to know that there is an adventurous food critic like you in Chiangmai. You have done a great job!!
Thu 6-May-2004 02:04 Posted by:Pongsak
Any way of reviewing the food at/around the Bully Sky ice skating rink?
Thu 3-Jun-2004 08:21 Posted by:Marie
The food displayed in your page is absolutely yummy! Must try to get to Chiang Mai soon. We are after all neighbours (Thailand and M'sia)
I'm moving to Chiang Mai in a month and this page is making my mouth water all the more. Quick Question: I've heard of an English Pub in Chiang Mai called the Red Lion. Do you know anything about it? I got pretty excited because my hangout here is the Blue Lion.
What an incredible website. It is truly a culinary work of love.
I didn't realise that there was such a diversified eating scene in Chiang Mai.
When I was last there in 1982 the relative choice of dining options was limited by your modern comparisons.
My wife and I are returning to Chiang Mai for a holiday in August 2005, and we can't wait to get there after reading your great website.
Hi, we are a couple of spanish chefs on gastronomical holidays in thailand. We will be in Chian Mai at the end of May. Could you recommend as some of the best spots in your city. No necessary to be the "fashion" or expensive ones, but the real ones in your opinion.
Sun 7-May-2006 21:05 Posted by:sonbahia sonbahia@gmail.com
Just want to thank you for the thai travel menu. I printed it out before going to Bangkok and both my partner and I ate on the streets quite a number of times using your menu.
Thank you so much!! Without that I wouldnt have known the real Pad Thai tastes like or how refreshing som tam is!! And we didnt get any food poisoning at all!! I even manage to order noodle soup with tom yam flavour (and egg noodles) rather than the ordinary noodle soup in one of the sois!!
It was greatly appreciated!
Best regards,
Merv and Ian
Tue 12-Sep-2006 08:53 Posted by:MervandIan
What a fantastic idea, stops all us daft tourists ordering everything & eating nothing!
Mrs & I are planning a trip in Jan 2007 so I shall be studying your menu whilst dribbling over my keyboard.
Thanks for doing something so simple, but so essential
Sun 24-Sep-2006 16:49 Posted by:manicmick hill.mick@gmail.com
I am visiting at the end of april 2007 and I found your web page with the Thai menu. I am going to study it and try it, even though they told me I could get food posion by eating on the street. I will let you know when I get back. Thanks its a great idea to help tourist like us.. afraid to try the local food.
Thanks for the Thai menu pages - have printed them out - going to BKK tomorrow!!
One question - I read a review of a Thonburi restaurant called (incongruously) Dairy Queen. Do you know of it or where exactly it is?
Hi, Dairy Queen Restaurant indeed sounds promising, it's in Bangkok though and I only do Chiang Mai. Still, I lifted this from the asiatraveltips.com site:
Dairy Queen - Not to be confused by the hot dog and ice cream stands you see around Bangkok. This restaurant is in our view one of the finest and most enjoyable Thai / Seafood restaurants in all of Bangkok. It is exceptionally well priced, enjoys a wonderful location (although some may consider a little far) on the Chao Phraya River and offers guests excellent food. The Dairy Queen offers guests a nicely decorated but very relaxed Thai style restaurant with both indoor and outdoor dining. The restaurant is extremely popular with Thai's which speaks volumes for the quality of the food you can find there. As it is a Thai style restaurant you can take your own bottle(s) of wine or whisky and the restaurant will just charge you a very small corkage fee. The restaurant also a moored part to the restaurant which offers floor seating and actually sits on the river. The Dairy Queen also has a boat which allows you to eat onboard while enjoying a cruise from the restaurant to around the Grand Palace area and back, this cruise only costs you around 70 Baht per person on top of whatever food etc you order. The restaurant is located adjacent to Saphan (bridge) Param Gau on Rattanathibet Road, and is only a 25 minute drive out of Bangkok (outside rush hour times) by expressway. Yes it may be a little out of the centre but that only adds to the adventure. We strongly recommend reservations at this restaurant especially if you prefer to be seated outside and / or next to the river. Call the restaurant on: 02-9218670 up to 5.
Hi, I'm impressed by your stuff. I edit a magazine and contribute to a lot of others. It would be nice to get your email so maybe we can work together on projects. Maybe even a regular food column. I don't want to post my email on the internet (spam!) but you can find mine here: www.oliverbenjamin.net/contact.html
thanks!
Thu 12-Apr-2007 03:26 Posted by:Oliver Benjamin
you should create similar menus for all languages - start with Asia alone, work your way, copyright as much as possible and you'd have quite a site, serious ad revenue I'd think. - easier said than done, but your menu will be VERY helpful. I'd had this problem in france and spain without such preparation or organization which you've simplified. take care, greg
Sat 21-Apr-2007 02:22 Posted by:greghud gregchudson@hotmail.com
Hi, Chancao!
Thanks for that travel menu - just printed it and surely will be using it! Here a proposal for a quick 'add-on'...
I know raw cow milk is not often used in Thai kitchen - however, I'm highly allergic to unoxydized Lactose, as it sits in raw milk (dairy products are fine). As a lot of people have this (in the Netherlands about 8% of the population) and in severe cases (as in mine) you can actually die from ingesting milk, if you do not swallow specific pills quickly, I reckon it would be great if you could add a sentence like "Please do not use milk" or the like...
Thanks again!
Axel
Fri 3-Aug-2007 09:50 Posted by:elziax
I'm putting together a post on Thai language cheat sheets so was chuffed to find yours.
The only thing I'd add (at this point) is tone markers... ok, and maybe a page on your site with sound...
Thanks so much for making the travel menu. It's going to be very helpful!
Mon 22-Dec-2008 00:48 Posted by:Andrew
Thank you for your menu, I shall take it with me and think of you as I order my first scorpion etc.
Thu 29-Jan-2009 19:50 Posted by:Swiss N00b
Just had a quick look as I'm in the progress of doing something similar.
Might have missed it or simply not there, but aren't those 'standard dishes': red/green/massaman curries
jungle/forest curry (red curry but clear, with fresh green pepper and plenty of chili) and some fish miang would be nice toi have too (less the forest curry as likely too spicey for most, miang is loved by about everybody when I have them try it).
Duck is lacking as well, in particular in regard of the food stalls that do nothing but quack-quack.
Plus something on BBQ and Sate maybe.
Thai fish cakes; rice soup; more on fish and seafood in general (steamed in lemon, grilled with garlic).
As said if already there then sorry, didn't read every detail.
Very helpful for first timers a menu like this, good job!
Sun 27-Sep-2009 15:41 Posted by:Markus tools4fools@gmail.com - [Link]
You are AWESOME.
I am going to Chiang Mai and I will eat at every food stall and hole in the wall place I see! I don't mind about the troubles that will occur in the bathrooms afterwards... its just a price you pay for good food!
Must try to get to Chiang Mai soon. We are after all neighbours (Thailand and M'sia)
i love the pixs, sooo cool, im from australia so the food sounds "interesting" 
