Khun Nai Teun Sai

"Khun Nai Teun Sai" literally means a lady who wakes up late. Actually, the restaurant is named after a flower that opens up in the evening, according to the lady owner. The restaurant used have Khun Nai Teun Sai flowers growing everywhere, and the opening of the flowers in the evening signals the opening of the restaurant. Recently, however, the restaurant started opening for lunch as well.

Khun Nai Teun Sai is set in a Thai house on Nimanhaemin Road. It's a cute and cheery restaurant, so comfortable we felt like we were lounging around at home. The walls are decorated with colourful paintings, and even the toilets are quite artistically designed. What a lovely place! ...and I was instantly glad I brought my two camera wielding friends from the Philippines - there were plenty of photo opportunities!

Of course, ambience is not the only factor in a good restaurant, and the food here is very good. We only ordered a few dishes from their huge menu, and all of them turned out to be very nice:

Fried Mushrooms Tossed with Sesame Seeds. The mushrooms were amazingly tasty. The first bite brought out contented "ummm" from all of us. The mushrooms were quite chewy, but not tough. Actually, when the owner's husband cum waiter brought out the dish, we thought it looked rather like meat, more specifically for me, deep-fried sun dried pork. This must the the vegetarian version, I think. 77 baht.

Mango Salad with Grilled Pork. Another delicious, but very spicy dish, even for me. This is of course, after I asked for "mai ped" - "not spicy". LOL...I guess it's "mai ped" for the chef, but still very "ped" for us! Still, I really enjoyed it, and one of my friends did too. He valiantly tried to eat as much as he could despite the sweat pouring out of his head, and having to gobble down a few glasses of cool water! The other friend wouldn't even touch it. In the end, it was left to me to gladly finish off. I must say though, that Westerners would most probably not appreciate this dish because dressing is made from shrimp paste (which has a rather strong aroma). 87 baht.

We also had Stuffed Chicken Wing - deep fried & and huge!

Khun Nai Teun Sai also serves coffee, fruit shakes, and some cakes.

So, I'd say Khun Nai Teun Sai is a lovely little restaurant - very relaxing and comfortable, and has great food. Definitely worth a try. I'll certainly go back and try some of their other dishes.

Khun Nai Teun Sai

3 Soi 11 Nimmanhaemin Rd

Chiang Mai

Tel: 053 222208, 084 046 0712