Nakara Jardin Patisserie & Bistro

Nakara Jardin is such a lovely place I almost wanted to keep it as my secret garden and not blog about it. But, for the greater good, I guess I should let my wonderful readers know. : D

Nestled in a beautiful garden next to the Ping River, Nakara Jardin is a tranquil place to spend a few hours either by yourself or with friends. It's a little oasis in the middle of sometimes crazy Chiang Mai!  I really enjoyed the quietness eventhough it was a Sunday afternoon and the shop was quite busy.

Now, let's meet the young chef, Pomme. Chef Pomme opened Nakara Jardin only 2 months ago. Previously, he studied French Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok, and worked for 5 years in the city. Later on, Chef Pomme went back to Le Cordon Bleu to do the patisserie course and returned to Chiang Mai to open Nakara Jardin. The reason I know all this? I actually got to meet Chef Pomme as he brought us our order.

...And he's serving us this beautiful Blueberry Mousse Cheesecake (90 baht), which is not only pretty looking, but is also very good. I loved the plump, juicy blueberries sandwiched between the blueberry mousse and the cheese cake. The creamy tanginess taste is lovely, but I wouldn't mind a bit more of the actual cheese cake.

 

Opera (85 baht) - lovely too. The different textures are very interesting. For some reason, the cake kind of "melted" as we were enjoying it. Still tasted great though.

The Verdict
I love Nakara Jardin. The location is beautiful, the ambience is great, the cakes are good. Prices comparable to similar quality bakeries / cake shops / patisseries. What else can you ask for? I'll definitely go back and try other cakes. They also serve simple lunches like soup and pasta as well.

Nakara Jardin Patisserie & Bistro
11 Soi 9 Charoenprathet Rd
Chiang Mai 50100.
(Behind Ping Nakara Hotel)
Tel: 053 818977
Opens: 10am-6pm
nakarajardin.com

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Mood Mellow - French cake shop (Now closed)

 

Introducing...my current favourite cake shop in Chiang Mai, Mood Mellow. Recently moved from their previous location on Sirimankarajan Road to the hip Nimmanhaemin area,  Mood Mellow's French style cakes are not just simply beautiful ( both in look and taste! ), the shop itself is pretty funky too!

 

This time I had bambini (the white one in the photo below), and the lime tart.

Bambini is a cheesecake - and is so light and fluffy, only slightly sweet, and covered in white chocolate shavings and topped with a single gooseberry -  simply divine.

The lime tart is delicious too. Lovely and tangy, with nice and buttery base. Very nice indeed. 

 

Other cakes to try: Taro Cake - melt in your mouth softness with gorgeous purple colour! The chocolate cake is also great - full of chocolaty goodness! Mmm. I think I'll have to take another trip back to Mood Mellow soon! 

...Oh, don't forget to check out the toilet!

Mood Mellow
Soi 3, Nimmanhaemin Road.

Auberge French & Steak Restaurant (Now closed)

This new kid on the block has just been opened for about a week. Well, new kid on the Chiang Mai block... Auberge French Restaurant has actually been around for a while in Bangkok, and has just relocated to Chiang Mai's Palm Spring Hotel (at Palm Spring Village, Mahidol Rd).

This sparking new fine dining restaurant joins a throng of French Restaurants in Chiang Mai, including Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi's superb Farang Ses, and one of Asia's finest restaurants, Le Coq D'Or.

Auberge Restaurant holds itself up rather well, with an elegant decor, professional and friendly waiting staff, and most important of all, good food.

The Tasting Menu (1500 baht net with free flow wine) was worth a try. It had a sample of some of the chef's recommended dishes in small portions. Here are the dishes from the Tasting Menu:

Pan-fried duck liver (foie gras), a sea scallop, marinated salmon served with rocket salad. I'm no expert on foie gras - I don't have it that often!... But I thought Auberge's foie gras fattier than other restaurants'. The sauce was unexpectedly sweet but whole dish was very pleasant.

Truffle Soup & Pumpkin Soup - served separately, of course, in little cups. Both soups were lovely. The Truffle Soup was nice but quite salty. The Pumpkin Soup was great - it had a very pleasant smooth taste, yet it wasn't too creamy. Very nice indeed.

Raspberry & Lemon Sherbet. It was rather surprising to have these in the middle of the meal, but apparently that's a done thing in France. These were simply delightful! So smooth and a little creamy, yet still refreshingly tangy.

For the main course, there were the Roasted Lamb Chop, Roasted Duck Breast and Pan Fried Snow Fish. All the meats were very nicely cooked. Lovely and tender. Beautifully presented too.

To finish off the tasting menu, we were served a trio of decadent desserts - Creme Brulee (beautiful!); Chocolate Dome (very rich and chocolaty); and a profiterole (very yummy with the vanilla ice-cream filling).

So that was the tasting menu. We rather enjoyed it!

Other members of our group had steak - I must say it was VERY good, and there was even a choice of mustards and condiments to choose from to go with the steak. The Fettucini with Tiger Prawns in Lobster Sauce was also excellent.

We had a really good time at Auberge. Although a fine dining restaurant, the staff was very friendly and down to earth. We all felt very comfortable. Auberge would make good choice for that special occasion.

Auberge Restaurant Chiang Mai

122 Palm Spring Hotel

Mahidol Rd

T. Nonghoi, A. Muang, Chiang Mai

Tel: 053 308 388

Opens daily for lunch & dinner

Lunch: 11:30am-2:00pm

Dinner: 6:00pm-10:30pm

www.aubergerestaurantchiangmai.com

W for Wanlamun Restaurant, Patisserie, Tea Salon

What a name! They say "W for Wanlamun"'s French pastries are fantastic, some of the best in Thailand, and rivals those in Montreal and San Francisco. In addition, they are supposed to have lovely fusion and authentic (traditional) Central Thai (Bangkok style) food, prepared by the patisserie chef's mum. So I was curious...

The ambience was lovely. There is a air-conditioned indoor section, and a very nice outdoor garden area. Simple but comfortable. The waiting staff were very nice and helpful too, but sometimes they were a bit hard to find.

Since we were there at dinner time, the dessert will just have to wait! A selection of Thai dishes were ordered, including this simply sublime Yum Som-O (Pomelo Salad), a sweet and sour dish with combination of pomelo, prawns, pork, deep fried chopped garlic & shallots and toasted coconut, possibly one the best I've had. It was amazing how every ingredient complimented each other so well, there was just the right balance of sweetness, tartness and spiciness giving a "high tone" and the "earthiness" - a kind of undertone (if that makes sense!). The toasted coconut gives the dish a whole different dimension, and somehow every ingredients work together to become a kind of symphony in your mouth. Hmm..I think I'm getting carried away here, but it was really very nice. 110 baht.

The Hor-mok Pla Chon (Steamed Serpent Head Fish Curry in Banana Leaf) was also lovely. Beautiful firm texture, and not too spicy. Nice presentation too - someone told me it reminds them of a flower. Incidentally, this is the "cheapest" dish on the menu - 60 baht.

All the other dishes we had were also very good. We ended up ordering quite a few dishes as the servings were quite small (and we also wanted to try out other dishes as well!).

Other dishes of note were: Mee Grob (Crispy Fried Noodles) - very, very good ; Kaeng Keaw Wan Loog Chin Pla Krai (Fish Balls in Green Curry served with plain rice and Salted Egg Salad) - this dish was particularly interesting. The Green Curry was very nice, but the "salted egg salad" turned out to be tiny balls of salted egg yolk in a sour, spicy and slightly sweet dressing. Amazingly, it worked! The little balls of egg yolk (they gave us 3 - may be one per person?) and the curry were scrumptious eaten together.

So after a rather filling meal, we had to do what we came for --- try "W"'s famous pastries. By this time, there weren't a lot of choices left - a lot of the pastries have been sold in the afternoon. We ordered two to share - a lemon tart (85 baht) and a rather fascinating sounding Thai Tea Millefeuille (115 baht).

The lemon tart was quite good, but I don't know if it's the best in Thailand. The millefeuille turned out to be fantastic. The pastry was firm but crispy, actually rather hard to cut (and eat gracefully!), the thai tea custard had a firm texture and had the right amount of sweetness and went perfectly with the pastry. Gorgeous!

So would I recommend "W for Wanlamun"? It's a definite "YES"! I'll definitely be back - probably for afternoon tea next time. I've heard that coffee is quite good there too. It's not cheap though - the total bill for the 3 of us came to be 970 baht (well, it's on the expensive side for Chiang Mai). However, considering the quality and enjoyment factor, I think it's worth it.

W for Wanlamun

1 Chang Moi Rd, Soi 2.

A. Muang Chiang Mai

Tel: 053 232328

http://www.wanlamun.com/

Map here

Tuesday-Sunday

11:30am-10:00pm

Lunch: 11:30am-2pm

Tea and Pastries: 11:30am-10:00pm

Dinner: 6:30pm-10:00pm