Georgio

We were let down by Georgio several times - every time we went, we were turned away. We didn't have a booking, and there were no tables left for us. Finally, we got our act together and remembered to make a reservation! So after three years in Chiang Mai, we finally made it to Georgio.

We found Georgio to an unpretentious restaurant, very cosy and comfortable. The service was warm and friendly, and the food generally excellent. We went on a Saturday night and almost all the tables have been booked.

The menu was very extensive. I think the waitress said over 200 items! We had no idea what to order! The waitress was very helpful in her recommendations:

Cozze Alpomodoro (Baked New Zealand mussels served with special tomato sauce) - Huge juicy mussels (all 8 of them) with this very beautiful and tasty tomato sauce. Turned out to be great and rather big entree. 280 baht.

Ceasar Salad. I also really quite enjoyed this one. It was quite simple for a Ceasar Salad, actually. Crispy lettuce, very good parmesan, and a light but very tasty dressing - we could really taste the olive oil and anchovies. The great thing was that it also felt quite healthy...for a ceasar salad! 170 baht.

Linguine Gamberie Limone (Linguine with prawns and lemon zest). This was another great recommendation. I've never had anything like it. Prawns and lemon with pasta. It was lovely, nice and tangy and a little creamy. The prawns were also nice and fresh, the tails were even removed. Good attention to detail. 260 baht.

By the time all the food came out, we thought we probably needed to order another dish (which we actually really didn't need!) Anyway, we decided to order Spaghetti Pesto. Pesto is our family's favourite pasta sauce, and wanted to see how it compared with our homemade version. : P

Interestingly, the waitress tried to steer us away from this choice a couple of times. She thought it would be better for us to try to order something different - like a pizza, which, apparently, is pretty good at Georgio too.

So how was the pesto? Georgio's pesto (200 baht) was quite good. The spaghetti was drenched in olive oil, then the fragrant pesto sauce placed on top. I thought the dish was quite oily. So the verdict was that our homemade pesto is better!

In the end though, we did enjoy ourselves and will be back (eventually!) to try other dishes. The bill came to around 1040 baht (service charge added extra) for 3 persons. A little expensive, but we were very full! I wanted to try the tiramisu, but couldn't fit another thing in.

Georgio

2/6 Prachasampan Rd

Muang, Chiang Mai

(near intersection with Sridonchai Rd - close to the Night Bazaar)

Tel: 053 818 236

Opens: 11:30am-2:30pm and 6pm-10:30pm.

Website: http://giorgiochiangmai.com

Booking highly recommended.