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.

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

Tea Garden by Anotai

This little bakery is just adorable. It's located in the garden of the owner's Thai teak house on the Mae Rim tourist route - you know, the one with Mae Sa Elephant Camp, Tiger Kingdom, Bungee Jumping, ATV, Monkey School, Snake Farm..etc. etc....and after tasting their scones, I wonder if I have perhaps found some of the best scones in Chiang Mai???

Good scones are hard to find here. Someone told me that it has to do with the flour. Thai flour seem to be different from "Western" flour. Often scones I found in Chiang Mai are too tough, don't rise enough and ended up looking like biscuits. Tea Garden's scones are great. Light, crumbly, melt in your mouth buttery goodness. The scones were even served with cream and jam!

What else can we find at Tea Garden? They also have delicious looking home made cakes, tea and coffee. No other food at the moment, but the owner is contemplating serving meals in the future.

If you're up in Mae Rim or Mae Sa area, do drop by Tea Garden, relax in the lovely garden, and tell us what you think! You can find the bakery on the left side of the main road up the mountain (Route 1096), just pass the turn off to Sukontara Resort.

Tea Garden by Anotai (Bakery, Tea & Coffee)

Open Daily 10:00am-6:30pm

Closed on Wednesdays

Fujian, Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi

If you're looking for a classy Chinese Restaurant in Chiang Mai, it's hard to go past Fujian, a Cantonese style restaurant located in the shopping arcade of one of Chiang Mai's most spectacular resorts, Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi.

This charming restaurant is modeled after a 1930s Shanghai style mansion, and has a great ambience. You almost feel like you're transported back in time to a bygone era.

The waiting staff are very professional and friendly, and the food is always high quality.

Here was our complimentary entree - Deep fried prawn dumplings. Very nicely presented on a bed of julienned scallions.

...And since there were only 3 of us on the last visit, our waiter suggested we have Roasted Duck, served Peking Duck style - roasted duck, served with pancakes, cucumber, shallots, and hoisin sauce. The duck was lean, but still tender and tasted gamey. It was really delicious Peking Duck style, and we didn't feel too guilty eating it, with hardly any fat under the duck skin. The only thing is that the duck pieces were a bit too big for the pancakes, and it was quite hard to wrap the duck and the vegies and then eat them all gracefully!

Deep Fried Spicy Pork Ribs - they only word I have for this is "YUM!", but I must also say, the not so guilty feeling from the roasted duck quickly went away when we had this very tasty, but fatty pork ribs! Oh well, I can go back to my diet (or not!) another day. Anyway, the pork is served with a lovely yellow and red capsicum salsa.

Vegetarian Stir-Fried Rice Noodles - very nice, milder tasting noodles, and went well with the Shanghai sauce provided on the table.

And last, but not least, Baby Bok Choys in Scallop Sauce - very nice, and a good change from the usual oyster sauce and the garlic sauce.

And the price? It ended up around 1900 baht, including a discount from our Dine In Style Card - a hotel membership card that entitles us to discounts at F&B outlets in the hotel.

A scrumptious Dim Sum Buffet is also available for 600 baht/person.

Fujian Restaurant

Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Hotel

Chiang Mai - San Kampaeng Rd

Lunch: 11:30am-2:30pm

Dinner: 6:30pm-10:30opm

Tel: 053 888 888 ext. 8548

G&M German Sausage

Legend has it that there is a wonderful German Pork Leg place in Doi Saket, Chiang Mai. It's also very hard to find, and I haven't been able to find directions anywhere. This even made us more determined to find this place! So, where is a better place to farewell our French friend from Chiang Mai than going to a German Restaurant?

Off we went - a motorcade of three cars following each other through Thai country villages, lush green rice fields and mountain backdrops. What a journey! After stopping a couple of times for directions, we finally came to a packed car park. Guess we've found the place!

Arriving at nearly noon, there doesn't see to be any tables left for us. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. 170 baht lunch buffet every Sundays would attract a lot of people. Most of the people I see are locals, and a few farangs (Westerners), no doubt local ones.

G&M German Sausage is a sprawling restaurant, and it was rather chaotic with so many patrons and not a lot of staff. It started as a small 3 table restaurant, and I guess as their reputation grew and more and more customers came, they added extra rooms as required. The ambience is more of a (very) local Thai style, also a little grubby and greasy. The rooms and curtains seemed to be quite old, and in need of a good refit. Not at all what I would imagine a German Restaurant would look like. In addition, I think a combination of a very busy period and not a lot of staff made us feel we had to fend for ourselves a bit. I must give the thumbs up to the staff though - they were lovely and did their best to help us.

We all had a pretty good time. After we got our food and settle in, we started to enjoy the various types of sausages made at the restaurant. (There is also a sausage factory on the premises.) My favourite is the spicy sausage, and this reminds me of Northern Thailand's Sai-Ua. G&M's spicy sausage is quite a lot milder than your typical Sai-Ua, but still very yummy.

After a bit of reminding, the staff eventually brought us what we came to the restaurant for - the pork legs. It turned out that these German pork legs were actually deep fried ham...well, that what it looked (and tasted) like to me anyway. Very interesting. Anyway, it was very tasty, especially the crispy outer parts, and even came with a Thai style chilli dip! ...Well, we ARE in Thailand and most of the customers are Thai...

The buffet spread itself wasn't bad - sausages, potato salad, Thai Vermicelli Salad, bread. We even had dessert! You can order Wall's Ice-cream from the staff. Try the lime ice-cream - very tangy and refreshing after the heavy meal.

The best part I guess was the price - only 170 bath per person. I think the experience would have been better if we came earlier - may be about 10am or 2-3pm, when there wouldn't be as many people. Would be quieter on the weekdays too.

G&M German Sausage Restaurant

269 M 4 Muangton, Doi Saket

Tel: 053 840531

Sunday Brunch Buffet - 170 baht/person

And the directions? It's quite complicated! It's off Borsang-Doi Saket Road. I suggest you call for directions! It's part of the adventure!

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

Pasta Cafe

There are endless numbers of restaurants on Nimanhaemin Rd and the lanes that run off it to choose from. Pasta Cafe is another popular restaurant. Great atmosphere, great pasta and salad dishes, reasonable prices. To top it off, the owner and chef, a local girl trained at Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok, so expect the standards to be up to scratch.

The restaurant itself is set in a large house with an extensive lawn. As well as air-conditioned indoor dining, there is also a nice outdoor (covered) dining area. It was a Friday night, and as we're in the middle of the wet season, we chose to sit indoors. Just as well we made a booking, because Pasta Cafe was packed that night.

And the food? As expected, everything was of high quality.

I had Spaghetti Puttanesca, which contained a sauce made from tomatoes, anchovy, black olives, and a bit of chilli, giving the pasta a bit of a bite. It was lovely.


Squid Ink Fettuchini with Cream Sauce. This actually didn't look too appetising to me, but it also contained prawns, spinach and shrimp roe. It turned out to be fantastic, according to our fellow dining companion. I must try it next time!

Linguini Pink Sauce with Smoked Salmon, Cream and Tomatoes. I didn't try this one either, but I was told it was very nice. Being Asian, I'm always weary of cream sauces. They are always great in the beginning, but I usually end up feeling sick if I have too much cream! This one apparently was not as creamy as it looked, and went down really well.

The vegetarian amongst us ordered the Vegie Lasagne - lots of stewed vegies, and lots of cheese!

We also ordered a Ceasar Salad to share. This is one of the dishes the waiter recommended to us. It was nice and fresh, and the sauce very creamy. It was very nice, but I didn't think it was THAT fantastic.


We enjoyed the Rocket Salad a lot more though. Fresh, light and tangy (from the Balsamic Vinegar Dressing) with the earthy, rich, peppery taste of the rockets. Yum!

The total bill turned out to be 1110 baht for 5 people. Really good value! Pasta Cafe turned out to be not a bad place for good pasta at reasonable prices!

Pasta Cafe

21 Soi 5 Nimanhaeminda Rd

Suthep, Muang, Chiang Mai

Tel: 053 357 310

11am-2:30pm; 5:30pm-10pm

Closed Monday