Lum Lum Korean & Thai Restaurant

I love Korean Food. I became a Korean Food addict, surprisingly, in Beijing. I had a lot of Korean friends and often enjoyed Korean food with them. 

I was really happy to find out that a new Korean Restaurant opened near our office at Meechok Plaza (where the Rimping Supermarket is on the Middle Ring Road, on the way to Mae Jo). Actually, "new" as in quite a while ago, but I haven't gotten around to doing a review yet. So, without further ado, I would like to present  "Lum Lum Restaurant". 

Lum Lum is a cheerful little restaurant serving great Korean and Thai dishes. The good sign is that a lot of local Korean expats are regulars, and one of the owners is Korean. 

Amongst my favourite Lum Lum dishes are: Kimchi Soup (beautiful!), Deep fried Chicken Wings in Korean Chilli Sauce (a must try, but unfortunately they've been out of it the last couple of times we went). 

Last time we went, we had a Korean Khao Soy (spicy seafood noodle soup). Beautiful!

Korean Style Katsu Don. Katsu Don (Deep fried pork with rice) is a typical Japanese dish, but the Katsu Don at Lum Lum has a Korean twist - a very nice spicy sauce on top. Yum!

You're not at a Korean Restaurant if you are not served the little cold dishes (often complementary, but these were about 40 or 50 baht for the set at Lum Lum).

And a Thai dish - just to try it out. Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli with rice. Nice.

We also had an egg-roll dish, which was very nice. 

For 3 people, it came to a very reasonable 300 baht. Great value and we were all very full! 

If you are in the area, I'd highly recommend this great little restaurant! 

Lum Lum

206/5 M6, T Faham, A Muang, Chiang Mai

(Meechok Plaza)

Tel: 053 853 481

China Palace - Holiday Inn Hotel

This is my favourite place when I have cravings for Dim Sum (or Yum Cha), as we called it back in Oz. As you would expect, being in a hotel, the restaurant is very nice and rather spacious. A nice place to relax and enjoy your meal. 

Meals are quite reasonably priced too. It was around 430 baht for 3 people, including a 15% discount for Holiday Inn Dining Card holders (which you can get for free).

Everything was very nice, prepared by a Cantonese chef, and the Xiaolongbaos (dumplings with soup inside - last photo) were divine, as good as Din Tai Fung (my favourite Xiaolongbao restaurant in the world). 

@ Holiday Inn Hotel

Chiang Mai-Lamphun Rd

Tel: 053 275 3000

Galae Restaurant

This is such a beautiful open air restaurant. Dine amongst gum (eucalyptus) trees (which was a bit of a surprise since we are in Chiang Mai) and gorgeous flower garden overlooking a reservoir. After dinner (or lunch) you can even take a walk on the other side of the reservoir for some great views of Chiang Mai City.

And the food (a large menu of Thai and Northern Thai food) is not bad either. Most of the dishes are around 90 baht, and fish dishes up to 220 baht. Drinks are surprisingly cheap, at least cheaper than comparable restaurants eg. local fruit juices only around 30 baht.

We had BBQ ribs and dipping sauce (tamarind, I think) - quite fatty but delicious!

Green Curry with young coconut shoots - nice.

Deep fried Morning Glory Salad - although this was supposed to be one of the recommended dishes, I must say I've had better at other places such as Udommit, and other restaurants as well. Galae's version was rather oily, however, the serving very large!

Other dishes I'd recommend at Galae: Galae Chicken (Roast chicken in special tomato based sauce and cashew nuts) and Yum Woon Sen (Spicy vermicelli salad).

This restaurant is at the end of Suthep Road (behind Chiang Mai University), and not too far from Palad Tawanron Restaurant. If you're tossing up between the two, I'd definitely recommend Galae. The food and atmosphere are better at Galare, not to mention the prices! There is a 10% service charge at Galae, however.

The only thing is that being such a large, spread out restaurant, the service can be quite slow.

Galae Restaurant

65 Suthep Rd, Muang, Chiang Mai

053 328 455

[Update: 23/6/10 - having been back to Galae several times since when the review was written, I'd have to add that, when I said the "food is quite good" - I mean that the food was OK and you'll probably enjoy it. I prefer Galae to Palad Tawanron, but there are also other restaurants out there with very good food and very good atmosphere I that I'd prefer to Galae. See our "Recommended Restaurants" list.]