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.]