Wo Wo Tou also happens to double as the name of the restaurant too, as you might have noticed from the title of the post!
This is actually the first time I've seen this Northern Eastern Chinese dish, and this sense of novelty actually extends to a lot of the other dishes from Wo Wo Tou's extensive menu which comprises of dishes from various parts of China. The "fusion" bit, I guess, means Thai-Chinese fusion to suit the taste of local Thais.
This is probably what sets this restaurant apart from other Chinese restaurants in Chiang Mai - You can try a lot of dishes here that's not available (as far as I know!) else where in Chiang Mai.
Ok..on with the review.. first dish.. Wo Wo Tou. The buns are served steaming hot, and are slightly chewy with a smooth texture and slightly sweet taste. A little heavier than mantou (Chinese steamed buns). You can choose between 3 fillings - catfish, pork or chicken, all stir-fried with pickled mustards, garlic, scallion, parsley and spices. We chose the pork, which was very nice. The filling is quite strong in flavour - salty and a bit sweet, and the more prominent sourness from the pickled mustard, which goes very well with the buns. There is a bit of sauce from the stir-fry, which makes the whole thing nice and juicy. 220 bath for the set (with 4 buns). Extra buns cost 10 baht each.
It's also interesting to note that this restaurant also focuses on the fact that food can be used as medicine and the menu tells us what each dish is good for. For example, wo wo tou works as a kidney tonic.
The Spicy Tofu is pretty much the regular mapo tofu. Given the name, I thought it would be quite spicy, but the flavour is quite mild (for me!). The fermented soy beans add a depth and richness to the dish. 180 baht.
This dish is good for "menopause and prevents many diseases such as cancer, blood clot..".
Fried Chicken with Dried Chilli - This one is for people who loves strong spicy flavour.. and as a bonus, you get the mouth and lip numbing, tingling "ma-la" flavour from Sichuan cuisine. "Ma" is the Chinese term for the numbing effect from sichuan peppers. "La" means spicy. May be the numbness helps us to eat more chilli!
In this dish, the meat from the chicken thigh is fried with the sichuan peppers, salt, and heaps of roasted chillies. My mouth and lips were left slight numb and and quite tingly after eating the chicken. Loved it! 190 baht.
This dish, according to the menu, is great for reducing blood sugar level and increasing blood flow.
There are a lot of other interesting sounding dishes as well, including Over the Bridge Noodles (a Yunnan dish), Frog Spicy Soup, Fried Duck Mouth (!). For the not so adventurous, there are also "normal" sounding dishes as Mushroom Salad, Sweet Potato Soup, Sweet and Sour Fish...
The restaurant, in addition to serving good food, is also nicely furnished. The outdoor section is lovely, and overlooks a stream and bushes. The only complaint I would have is that it's right on the busy Mae Jo Rd, so it can get a bit noisy from the cars zooming past.
If you look closely at the top left photo (below), you may notice some fans under the seats on the edge of the restaurant. Very interesting! I guess it would be nice sitting there on a hot day...our legs certainly won't get hot...and it might also work as a mosquito repellant too (I guess!).
All in all a nice restaurant. Lovely ambience, good interesting food not found else where.
Price wise: Around 180 baht/person. I think the prices are quite reasonable for the quality.
The serving size is OK (not huge, but acceptable). It would be nice if the portions are a bit bigger.
Wo Wo Tou
203 Moo 6 T. Faham, A. Muang,
Chiang Mai
(Mae Jo-Phrao Rd)
Tel: 053 246 777
Hours: 10am-10pm daily
Facebook page
Direction: Coming from the city towards Mae Jo University, take the 1st U-turn after Meechok Plaza / Ruamchoke Market. Stay in the left lane. The restaurant is between Suan Nonsee Restaurant (the restaurant with the lake in front) and Lotus Supermarket.
There are a few parking spots in front of the building.
View Wo Wo Tou in a larger map
