J Kitchen Vegetarian Restaurant

Vegetarian meals... I would eat it sometimes but it's not usually something I seek out. Nevertheless, there are many very good vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai so vegetarians... have no fear! You'll always be able to find something to eat here.

The Thai word for "vegetarian" is มังสวิรัติ (Mung-sa-wi-rut), or "mung" for short. Basically you can go to any restaurant, eatery or street stall and ask for it - eg "pad thai mung", which means a vegetarian version of pad thai. Be careful in non-specialty vegetarian restaurants and street stalls though, as they may just leave out the meat but still use sauces with animal components like fish sauce or oyster sauce.

To be on the safe (and easy to remember side), you might want to use the word เจ ("jay") instead. The "jay" diet is roughly similar to the vegan diet but "jay" food does not contain pungent vegetables  such as garlic and onion. Read more about it here.

 "Mung" and "Jay" or vegetarian food is quite easy to find in Chiang Mai. There's even an "jay" festival held in Thailand each year in October. During this period, you'll be able to find "jay" food everywhere, even your local 7-11 store.

J Kitchen is a little up market, and I'd say a mid to higher end restaurant. It's quite a lovely restaurant with beautiful setting. It was quite busy on the Friday night when my friends and I went.

Despite the name, J Kitchen is a "mung sa wi rut" restaurant, but as we went during the jay festival, there was a special "jay" menu.

The first dish was "gaeng liang" aka "Thai Spicy Mixed Vegetable Soup", a lovely clear curry without coconut milk. The soup was lovely was filled with fragrant herbs and crunchy vegetables. A little spicy due to the pepper. Went down well with the riceberry rice. 105 baht.

Then came the deep-fried crispy shiitake mushrooms with Thai tamarind sauce. This was also lovely. Pretty much like a meaty mushroom tempura. Lovely with the tangy sauce.  120 baht. 
 

The eggplants were next. I actually thought I ordered stir-fry eggplant with Chinese celery, but we got deep fried eggplants with stir-fried celery on top, so we ended up with several deep fried dishes... (you may have noticed the french fries in the corner of the photo below!) but that's OK, J Kitchen deep fries very well. The eggplants and Chinese celery were delicious. :D 105 baht.

The Tofu Dried Curry (Tofu with panang curry) was also quite lovely. Pillowy puffy pieces of fried (again, lol) tofu topped with panang curry. This makes a great variation to the other dishes in terms of taste. The curry also went well with the other fried things eg. french fries (very nice, btw) and the deep fried eggplants. 140 baht.

I might also mention that J Kitchen is runned by the Vieng Joom On, the "pink tea house" located near the Riverside Restaurant in the city. Because of this, there is a selection of Vieng Joom On tea available at the restaurant. The tea is served in a large pot, but unfortunately, can't be refilled so if you want more tea, you'll have to order another pot.

The staff here is very friendly, welcoming and polite. The ambience is lovely and very comfortable. The air-conditioning is probably a little too cold. There was adequate off street parking.

The price overall works out to be about 250 baht per person and we were all quite full.

I'd certainly like to go back again and try their other dishes.

Have you been to J Kitchen? What did you think? Please write in the comment below. :)

J Kitchen by Vieng Joom On
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/jkitchencm/

Green Plus Mall 2 114/14 T.Nong pa Khrang

Amphoe Muang Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand

(At Chiang Mai Business Park)

Opens daily: 10:30am - 8:30pm

GPS Location: 18.7967, 99.02392

 

2Getherbar & Restaurant

When I was making dinner plans with a Thai friend and she found out I felt like Italian food, she unhesitatingly suggested 2Getherbar. She said the chef is Italian and the food there is excellent.

So there we were. My friend ordered the Pepperoni Pizza, her favourite at 2Getherbar. When I asked if we were sharing the pizza, she didn't look too happy. I ordered spaghetti pesto genovese. My friend then said that the somtum (aka papaya salad) here is excellent and proceeded to order the somtum with crab and fermented fish... not my favourite! What else can a curious foodie do, but order my own Tum Thai (just the regular somtum) to try it out. Well, that was a first! Going in for Italian food and also ended up ordering some papaya salad.

So here it is, the papaya salad. And yes, it was excellent. Crunchy papaya and peanuts, intense flavour and super spicy. My tongue was burning by the time I was half way through the somtum when luckily the pizza came out. BTW, normally you would have the somtum with other less spicy dishes. You can also order milder versions.

Luckily, my friend let me have some of her pizza. She explained later that pepperoni pizza is her favourite at 2Getherbar and normally she just eats the whole thing by herself, hence her hesitation in sharing the pizza with me! So while she gets through her papaya salad, I started on the thin crust pizza, which, I must say, was very good. I ended up eating 5 pieces (!!!), ie half the pizza (normally I would eat 3 pieces max). 240 baht.

After a little while, the pesto genovese came out. 120 baht. This is simply pesto, pasta and parmesan and it was a dream - deliciously smooth and creamy, especially when we added the extra parmesan. My friend, incidentally loved it and helped me eat quite a bit of it. :P

Who would have guessed a restaurant can make both great Italian food and Thai food (at least the papaya salad anyway)! Having tried the somtum, I would love to come back and try 2Getherbar's other Thai dishes, which incidentally also look great on the menu.

I must also say that the staff here is very friendly. During the meal, I see tourists coming to the bar as well as regular customers who the staff know by name. The restaurant wasn't overly busy on the Saturday night, but then I was told that a lot of people go to the Saturday Walking Street instead of the Night Bazaar, so perhaps the weekend would be a good time to come if you want to have a quiet dinner.

2Getherbar is located just a couple of doors down from Le Spice Indian Restaurant. If you come by car, you can park at Galare Night Bazaar (10 baht per hour).

The price, I think, is also quite reasonable, especially when compared to other Italian and Thai restaurants. Altogether, the bill came to about 300 baht each (including a glass of red wine for me and 2 glasses of white wine for my friend).

2Getherbar & Restaurant
19/1 Charoenprathet Soi 6
Night Bazaar, Chiang Mai
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/2GetherBarChiangMaiThailand/
Tel: 099 037 4331
Hours:  5pm-1am daily
GPS Location: 18.7847, 99.00149

Singto Khao Mok Gai

Khao Mok Gai is a Thai biryani style yellow fragrant rice with chicken "burried" in and cooked with the rice. The rice is served with fried shallots, slices of cucumber and a refreshing sweet and sour sauce with mint and ginger.

Khao Mok Gai is not widely available in Chiang Mai as Khao Mun Gai (Chicken rice). I've had Khao Mok at only a few places in Chiang Mai - one at Khao Soi Islam, where khao mok neur (beef version) is supposed to be really good, and which I found quite good when I had it. There's also a beef noodle shop at Meechok Plaza where I work where I can get my khao mok gai fix. It's good, but I wouldn't say it's amazing and the chicken piece that they serve with the rice is quite small.

Recently, I discovered Singto Khao Mok Gai, a newish eatery quite close to Meechok Plaza. It's quite a large eatery buzzing with local lunch time diners. I notice that the eatery is very clean and they do have menus in Thai and English.

Khao Mok Neur (Beef) - 60 baht | Khao Mok Gai (Chicken) - 45 baht

And here it is.. Khao Mok Neur (60 baht) and Khao Mok Gai (45 baht).  I must say the first thing I noticed with the large piece of chicken and quite a big serving of the beef (compared to other shops). The rice was well made, fragrant and packed with flavour of the spices. The sauce - sweet, tangy and refreshing adds a nice vibrant note to the dish. Delicious!

I also tried the Curry Chicken Laksa (45 baht), which quite different to Malaysian style laksas I'm used too. I suppose this is the Thai version! I've never had this dish before. It's pretty much curry noodles, a little like khao soi, but the curry is quite smooth, rich and tangy. Very nice as well although the tangy flavour is quite unusual.

Chicken Curry Laksa - 45 baht

Singto Khao Mok Gai also have various types of soups (chicken, beef, squid and oxtail) that I haven't tried. The oxtail soup should be ordered in advance.

In terms of desserts, Singto Khao Mok Gai has Lodchong (these are the green "noodles" in coconut milk) - 20 baht. The lodchong here is excellent and the coconut milk "soup" is lovely, fragrant and creamy. The dessert is served in a pinto and the ice is separated from the actual dessert so that the melted ice doesn't dilute the the coconut milk.

Lod Chong - 20baht

Singto Khao Mok Gai is a great eatery with excellent Khao Mok / Thai Biryani chicken and beef. Definitely a place to try if you're in the area! Don't forget to try the lodchong too!

Singto Khao Mok Gai
88/8 Moo 8
T. Sanphiseur A. Muang
Chiang Mai
Tel: 093 958 8264
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/singtomokgai/



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Let It Be Cafe & Eatery, Mae Rim Plaza

Lazy Sunday lunch with a friend. Mae Rim area. The easy choice is Mae Rim Plaza where there are now several new restaurants and cafes.

The obvious choice for me whenever I get a chance to go there is Steak of The Day and Fukuro, but today, we wanted to try something else and came across a cute small cafe called Let It Be.

The cafe looked very inviting, the menu, surprisingly, is more like an Italian restaurant's menu than a cafe, and importantly on a hot day (isn't it always hot in Chiang Mai?), it's air conditioned!

The cafe itself is quite small (one shophouse) and only had about 5 tables inside and 1 table outside. There wasn't many people when we arrived, but the small eatery quickly filled up with patrons. They had quite a good turn over too without being too crowded. We also felt very comfortable, enjoying our lunch and chatting away for quite some time and never felt rushed.

The menu was surprisingly quite extensive. There were several Western / Italian dishes - pasta and pizza; steak and grilled dishes - beef, pork, chicken, sausage and fish as well as some Thai dishes and salads.

We opted for the Lunch Set Menu that had several choices of mains as well as a drink, salad or soup and ice cream. I chose the Spaghetti Ham & Dry Chilli set for 175 baht.

The first course - House Salad. This was quite lovely, served with a light sesame dressing on crispy and fresh lettuce. There were also tender slices of duck on the top.

Salad with Duck and Lipton Iced Tea

For the main, I chose the Ham and Dry Chilli Spaghetti. It was lovely, a little spicy and had lots of garlic!

Ham and Dry Chilli Spaghetti

And for dessert... Ice Cream with Fruit Salad. It's a nice finish to the meal. Let It Be also have several desserts on the menu eg. Banana Split, Crepe Suzette and Chocolate Lava so there are a few choices for those with a sweet tooth too.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Fruit Salad

Incidentally, my friend ordered the Carbonara lunch set. She wanted a vegetarian version, made with mushrooms and the chef had no problems making it for her.

Let It Be Cafe & Eatery
Mae Rim Plaza
Tel: 091 869 5962, 094 610 1115
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/letitbesteakhouse/timeline
GPS Co-Ordinates:  18.91588, 98.94223

Tum Sap Pun Nua Lao Cuisine (ตําแซ่บ พันนัว)

Not knowing much about Laos food, I was curious. Looking at the name, "Tum Sap", I guessed that it would probably serve a variety of somtums (papaya salad), and I was right!

Tum Sap Pun Nua is a chic modern looking restaurant with a spacious, open feel. It's actually quite a comfortable place to sit and enjoy a meal. I've been there several times and thought the food there excellent. Surprisingly though, whenever I go, the restaurant seem to be quiet (which is nice for me!).

The menu, as I mentioned, had a large variety of papaya salads to choose from. We opted for the Tum Thai. I know, I know, I shouldn't be ordering Thai food in a Laos restaurant, but "Tum Thai" is my favourite variety of som tum. Tum Lao (I don't know if this is really the Lao version, or if Thai people just calls it that!) also contains fermented fish, which does give the papaya salad a particular flavour. I can eat it, but it's just not something I truly enjoy.. but that's just me. :P

The papaya salad at Tum Sap Pun Nua at 65 baht, is not the cheapest of somtums, but it was well made and well flavoured. I noticed that it is not as sweet as "Tum Thai" from Thai som tum places where I normally would have to ask for "not sweet", and it also had the perfect amount of spiciness for me (where in other places, it would have been too hot. I would normally ask for 2 chillis).

Pho Vientian (beef). I really enjoyed the broth. I thought the soup was lovely and also it is served with various condiments, including some shrimp paste, lime and chilli on the side. The broth is already great without anything else added, but I did add the shrimp paste and lime to see what it would taste like (lovely too - with a richer, earthier flavour). The serving was quite big and there was a lot of noodles. I wouldn't have minded less noodles and more soup! The beef was a bit tough. 85 baht. You can choose between pork (75 baht), chicken (75 baht) , beef (85 baht) or fish (95 baht).

Ua Trakai Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang Herbed Sausage. 85 baht. This is Tum Sap Pun Nua's version of the much loved Chiang Mai Sausages (Sai ua). In this version, pork is mixed with various herbs and lemongrass and the "sausage" is placed in a "nest" of lemongrass and deep fried. Lovely and fragrant. The sausages were a little rich if eaten by themselves, but goes well with the ginger (served on the side).

Tum Sap Pun Nua also serves a variety of other dishes that I'd love to try. Their fried fish is also excellent.

All in all, I always enjoy dining at this restaurant. The atmosphere is lovely, air-conditioning cool (very important especially in this very hot weather), friendly staff and excellent food. I think the food here is also quite good value. Our dinner for 2 set us back around 230 baht and we were really full!


Tum Sap Pun Nua ตําแซ่บ พันนัว
V Community, 1st Ring Road, next to Payap University
Tel: 089 758 4408, 053 126075
Opens: 10am - 10pm daily
GPS location: 18.798926,99.032916

Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng (ลำดีตี้ขัวแดง)

I was first taken to this restaurant, whose names literally means "Delicious at the Red Bridge", by a Chinese customer who lives in Chiang Mai. I have driven past V Community next to Payap University so many times without even realising that there's a restaurant there.  I've seen their signature red bridge in many social networking sites, but never thought of going myself.

So there I was, with a Chinese family who spoke very little English and Thai, and me with my broken mandarin. Somehow we managed to communicate, did business together and ended up together at this restaurant.

Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng has a large indoor and outdoor sections. BTW, a big thank you to Zalora for the bag! I love it!

I was taken straight away by the large and very reasonably priced menu. Their favourite is the Deep Fried Tilapia with Herbs, and wow, it was good. They told me that you can get an even better one in Lamphun! These Chinese people do get around! LOL.

Since then, I've been back many times with my family and also have brought visitors here and everyone enjoyed the food here very much.

The real test though was my last visit when I brought a local Chiang Mai friend who just came home from a stint overseas and a Thai friend from Lamphun. I wanted to know how authentic a Northen Thai restaurant Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng is and I'm glad to say my friends gave their thumbs up.

The spread.. The food even came out all around the same time!

Pla Tubtim Tod Samunpri (Deep-fried Tilapia with Herbs). 200 baht. This is the fried fish that I was talking about earlier. It's not exactly Northern food, but it's good!  The fish meat is cut up into cubes, deep fried then reassembled on the fish and the the herbal sauce is poured over the whole thing. The cubed fillets were very nicely fried, slightly crunchy on the outside and soft and pillowy on the inside. Just the right amount of sauce is absorbed into the thin flour batter, leaving it full of flavour, yet still crunchy. Perfect. The price is great too - normally you'd expect to pay 300 baht for something like this at other restaurants.

Deep-Fried Tilapia with Herbs

Fried Chiangda and Tomato with Egg. 60 baht. Chiangda (Gymnema, a herb with blood sugar lowering properties) is stir-fried with eggs and tomatoes. This is a dish with more subtle, slightly salty flavour and makes a great (and healthy) combination with other dishes, especially spicy ones.

Fried Chiang Da and Tomato with Egg

Naem Peek Gai Khua Daeng. Northern style cured chicken wings. 80 baht. "Naem" dishes have been fermented to give a sour flavour. I normally quite enjoy naem pork. The chicken wings are pretty good, but I found it a little too sour. Served with roasted peanuts, ginger and chilli.

Naem Chicken Wings

Gai Muang Neung. Steamed chicken with herbs. 90 baht. It was delicious and full of flavour. The "soup" was fantastic too. In this dish, the chicken pieces are steamed with various herbs (such as tumeric, garlic and lemongrass). Yum!

Steamed Chicken With Herbs

Nam Prik Ong. 50baht. This is a classic northern Thai pork, tomato and chilli dip. Actually, there are many different chilli dips you can try at Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng. This is my Lamphun friend's favourite Northern Dish and he said Lumdee's Nam Prik Ong has all the right flavours. The chilli dips are served with steamed vegetables (or sometime fresh herbs and veggies depending on the restaurant). Lovely and not too spicy with the veggies and steamed rice or sticky rice.

Nam Prik Ong

Lamdee Ti Kua Daeng also serves many northern soup dishes. I've been told that all the soups are made fresh to each order. Most of the dishes are not all that spicy either. There are also more adventurous dishes to try like the soup with ant eggs!

The service is friendly, efficient and quick. The food is great, and quite inexpensive.

Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng
V Community
345 Moo 3
T. Sanphranet, A Sansai, Chiang Mai
Tel: 086 688 3688
GPS Location: 18.799160, 99.033259
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lumdeetekhuadang/?fref=ts

How To Order Noodles In A Thai Noodle Shop

Have you ever been to noodles shops in Thailand and getting something the vendor thinks you want or wants to give you instead of really getting what you want?

Often, non-Thai speakers have trouble communicating with the vendor, so you end up getting what the vendor thinks you want, or just the "standard" dish, which is probably fine.

However, if you'd like to take control of what you're ordering and actually order what you want to eat rather than leaving it up to the mercy of the vendor, this guide is for you!

The Steps

1. Choose your noodles

Here are the more common noodles (kway tiew ก๋วยเตี๋ยว) you can get in a noodle shop:

1. "Sen Yai" เส้นใหญ่  -  Soft, wide, flat rice noodles
2. "Sen Lek"  เส้นเล็ก-  Thin, flat rice noodles
3. "Ba Mee" บะหมี่ - Yellow egg noodles
4. "Sen Mee" เส้นหมี่ or "Mee Khao" - thin rice noodles, also known as "bee hoon" & vermicelli.
5. "Woon sen" วุ้นเส้น - Clear glass noodles. These are made from mung beans.
6. There is also another type of noodle soup  you can get, that is getting a noodle soup without noodles! This variation is called "Gao Lao" เกาเหลา 

2. Decide how you want your soup

1. "Haeng" แห้ง, literally, "dry" - The noodles / extra bits are cooked in the stock, but served without the soup. 
2. "Nam" น้ำ, literally, "water" - with soup
3. "Yentafo" เย็นตาโฟ   these are the pink noodle soup. The pink in the soup comes from fermented soy beans. It's generally served with "sen yai" (soft wide noodles) with morning glory and a cube of coagulated pig's blood. You can always take out the blood if you don't want to eat it (or ask for "mai sai leud" - no blood). 

   

   Yentafo

4. "Tom Yum" ต้มยำ  - The soup is pre-seasoned with lime juice, chilli powder, fish sauce and crushed peanuts, so tom yum noodles are usually quite spicy and sometimes quite sweet. I usually ask for "mai wan" (not sweet). You can also ask for "mai ped" (not spicy). This is usually available for noodles with pork or fish (not beef).

Ba Mee Tom Yum See Khrong Moo (Egg noodles, tom yum soup, pork ribs)

For example, I mostly order "sen lek nam" (thin noodles with soup).

However, when I have BBQ pork / cha siew and wontons, I always get "ba mee haeng" - yellow egg noodles without soup.

3. Choose your meat

Generally each noodle shop with have their own specialty. For example, a shop might only sell beef (and beef innards) noodles, some shop have fish balls and fish dumplings, other shops have BBQ pork/cha siew and wontons. 

Beef Noodles:

Generally, beef noodles contain beef, various beef internal organs (heart, stomach, liver, etc) and beef balls (look chin neur). If you just ask for beef noodles, you'll get everything (or whatever the vendor wants to give you). If you don't want certain bits, you'll need to be more specific! 

Kuaytiew Neur ก๋วยเตี๋ยวเนื้อ / Kuaytiew Neur Ruam ก๋วยเตี๋ยวเนื้อรวม = the works! ie. beef + internal organs + beef balls

Neur sod เนื้อสด= raw beef (quickly dipped in boiling water before serving, so you're not actually eating raw beef)

Neur toon เนื้อตุ๋น  = stewed, melt in the mouth beef

Look chin (neur) ลูกชิ้น (เนื้อ) เครื่องใน= beef balls

Kreung Nai เครื่องใน = internal organs / entrails

Example:

Sen Mee Nam Neur Sod  = Vermicelli noodles, soup, "raw" beef only

Sen Lek Haeng Look Chin = Thin noodles, dry, beef balls only

If you want to leave out something:

"Mai Sai" ไม่ใส่ / "Mai" ไม่ / "Mai Ao" ไม่เอา = Don't put in... / Don't want

Example:

Baa Mee Haeng (Neur) Mai Sai Kreung Nai = Dry beef noodles without entrails. 

Pork Noodles:

Moo sub หมูสับ = Minced Pork

Kreung Nai เครื่องใน= internal organs / entrail

Moo toon หมูตุ๋น - stewed pork

Look chin (moo) ลูกชิ้น (หมู) = pork balls

See krong (moo) ซี่โครง (หมู) = pork ribs

Example: 

Sen Lek Tom Yum See Krong Moo = Tom yum thin noodles with pork ribs. 

(One of my favourites!)

Note: Depending on the shop, not everything may be available.

Fish Ball Noodles:

Look Chin Pla ลูกชิ้น ปลา= fish balls (which may come in various shapes and flavours, and may not necessarily look like a ball)

Kiew Pla เกี๊ยว ปลา = fish wonton / dumplings

Example:
Sen Yai Yentafo. This will give you wide noodles, yentafo style with all the varieties of fish balls and wontons (if the shop sells them). 

BBQ Pork:

You'll see Chinese BBQ Pork/cha siew hung up in the cabinet in front of BBQ pork noodle shops. Sometimes these shops will have pork wontons as well. 

Kiew (Moo) เกี๊ยว (หมู)  = Pork wonton

Moo Daeng หมูแดง ="Red" pork / BBQ pork / cha siew

My favourite is the Ba Mee Haeng Moo Daeng = Egg Noodles (Dry) with BBQ Pork. 

If you want pork wonton and BBQ Pork: Ba Mee Nam Kiew Moo Daeng = Egg noodle soup with wonton and BBQ pork. 

Sounds complicated? Here's a summary.

You can save the picture on your phone and take it with you to noodle shops to try it out!

Good luck and enjoy!

PS. I forgot to mention that you can order the noodles in the regular size or large size.

Regular size = tammada  ธรรมดา
Large = Piset  (literally, special)  พิเศษ

 

The Dining Room @137 Pillars House

What a gorgeous hotel! 137 Pillars House is an amazing property in Wat Gate area of Chiang Mai. There's an old wooden house there with 137 pillars, hence the name. This property originally belonged to East Borneo Company, and around, 1880 the house used to be the residence of the company's superintendents in Chiang Mai, Louis Leonowens, who also happened to be Anna Leonowens' son. The house was extensively renovated after the current owner bought the property in 2002 and the house became the centre piece of a new luxury hotel.

137 Pillars House's two restaurants are located in this historical setting. Palette Restaurant offers a formal dining option and seats up to 20 guests. I went with some friends to have lunch at The Dining Room, which is simply gorgeous and oozes romantic old world charm.

Perusing the lunch menu, I notice that the prices were actually quite affordable and comparable to other good restaurants and hotels. The Dining Room offers a variety of Western,Thai and various vegetarian dishes. For example, the Prawn and Avocado Salad (Prawns, parma ham, avocado, mango and mixed green salad on ginger-soy vinaigrette) - 360 baht. Other western dishes include burgers and pizzas. There is a bigger selection of Thai dishes and we opted for a few of Thai dishes to share.

Pla Thord Nam Ma Kam (crispy snapper fillet basted with tamarind sauce and pandan leaf). This was lovely, and I thought was quite good value at 230 baht. The fish fillet was nicely fried - crispy but not oily, and served with (surprisingly) toasted pitta bread and just the right amount of tamarind sauce (ie the fish was not smothered in the sauce), which accented the natural taste of the snapper rather than over powering it.

The Green Curry Chicken with Prawns - 230 baht, was also great. Yes, it's a pretty standard Thai dish, but The Dining Room makes a pretty mean rendition. It was smooth, creamy and rich, well balanced with all the right flavours but not particularly spicy. Perfect. Tip: Try the curry with the pita bread from the snapper in tamarind sauce.

Last but not least, the Pad Thai with Prawns. 480 baht - I know, quite expensive for a pad thai, but we were curious. The Dining Room's pad thai served wrapped in an omelette, some crab meat, and 3 river prawns. There was even some green mango, which was a little unusual but it did give a nice tangy accent to the dish.

Conclusion
I must say I enjoyed having lunch at The Dining Room very much. The atmosphere and set up is so lovely and peaceful that I felt like I was transported to another world. Although the food did take quite some time to come out, all the dishes were served at the same time. The food was lovely and I thought quite good value considering where we were. The staff was very friendly and attentive.

Beautiful grounds

The Dining Room
137 Pillars House
2 Soi 1 Nawatgate Road
Wat Gate, Muang, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 247788
Opens: breakfast, lunch & dinner

Woo - Cafe, Art Gallery & Lifestyle Shop

Woo Cafe.. Here's a rather cool, trendy and very popular cafe on the riverside strip of shops, bars, cafes and restaurants. It's a great place to chill out and chat with friends over lunch or coffee (or dinner).

The cafe was already filled up by the time I arrived at 12pm, and my friends and I managed to get a communal table on the terrace.

The ambience, I would say, is comfortable & chic, somewhere you could spend the whole morning or afternoon just hanging out and chatting.

After lunch, we were able to move to the cool air-conditioned room.

I agonised over the menu a bit as I was hoping for something a bit unusual. There are the regular Thai food options, salads and various Western dishes (pasta and sandwiches).

On this occasion, may be I was going through a fussy mood, nothing really stood out (don't you hate that?)... but then, I saw Khao Yum on the menu.

Khao Yum (rice salad) is a southern Thailand dish which consists of rice (as you would imagine!), various finely chopped vegetables, herbs and spices and tamarind dressing.

When it came out, I must say it looked very pretty. Each ingredient came separately, delicately chopped in little bowls.There were two coloured rice (the blue butterfly pea rice, and pink rice), raw mango, puffed rice, kaffir lime, shredded dried shrimps, etc, etc.

Khao Yum - Before

So it was up to us to mix everything together, then add the dressing! And I must say, it was lovely and colourful! The rice salad was very light, full of flavour of the different herbs, and the sweetish and sourish tamarind based dressing. I really enjoyed every bite. Around 195-200 baht.

Khao Yum - After!

One friend ordered the Salmon Sandwich, which looked and tasted great, and comes with a bowl of nicely fried french fries. 

And another friend ordered the Tom Yum Fried Rice (which she said she had before, and it was very good). Unfortunately, Woo was out of it this time, and a pasta was ordered instead. It looked really good, and would have been good, but I think the chef forgot to add salt as there wasn't much taste to the pasta.

Overall, I really enjoyed Woo Cafe. I love the chic yet down to earth atmosphere. The cafe has a very welcoming ambience and you feel like you can just sit back and relax and have a meal or coffee and chat with friends without feeling rushed. The staff is very friendly and welcoming and the food is also pretty good. I'd love to come back to try other dishes, as well as their coffees and desserts.

Woo is on the pricey side (for a cafe), with most of the dishes being around the 180-200 baht mark.

There is some parking in front of the cafe.

The lifestyle shop part is also very nice, and has some beautiful home decorating and jewellery items for sale.

Woo - Cafe, Art Gallery & Lifestyle Shop
80 Charoenraj Rd,
T. Wat Ket, A. Muang, Chiang Mai 50000
Tel: 052003717
Opens: 10am-10pm