Talom Culture Cuisine (Northern Thai & Thai food)

I drove past this very good restaurant in a garden setting many times and never thought of stopping by. It's relatively new and a little bit unknown, I think, as I never see a lot of people there when I go. I've visited few times already, and I find the food great, prices reasonable...and grandma loves it too!

Talom does Northern Thai food and Thai food. As Northern Thai food isn't our specialty, we relied on our excellent and knowledgable waiter a lot...and all the dishes he suggested were great!

Spicy Roasted Fish Dip (Nam Prik Pla Jee) - This is a bit like the green chilli dip (Nam prik noom) mixed with mashed up grilled fish. Lovely, a touch spicy and and served with steamed vegetables. 65 baht.

Deep fried Pla Nin with Garlic  (Pla nin = a type of fish) - this was fantastic. The fish was very nicely done, and the meat was lovely and soft. Very, very nice! 190 baht.

Gaeng Pak Wan with Dried Fish & Vermicelli - "Pak wan" is a local vegetable. This soup is for the adventurous only! The flavour is quite good, but I think it contains "Pla ra" or fermented fish, which I'd say is an acquired taste.  A lot of westerners may not like this one. 85 baht.

Pak Chiang Da Stir-fried with Egg. "Pak Chiang Da" is a type of local vegetable. Very nice when stir-fried with egg- slightly bitter and salty flavour. 75 baht.

All in all a very nice and enjoyable meal. There are heaps of other dishes on the menu, so if these dishes don't appeal to you, then there are lots more to choose from!

I've been to Talom a few times, and the food has been very good and consistent, and the price very reasonable.

The bill for 6 people came to 985 baht (only about 160 baht each)!

Open air area 

Indoor dining ...and lots of wines to choose from too!

Talom Culture Cuisine
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Talom-chiangmai/490487534373167
413 Moo 6, Sanphiseur, Chiang Mai
Opens: 5-11pm except Mondays.
Next to Nakorn Payap International School



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Casa Diverso (Mediterranean and Thai Food)

I was kindly invited by Khun Oh, the ex-manager of Oyori The Grill to come and try out his recently opened Mediterranean and Thai restaurant in Chiang Mai's Old City. Khun Oh and his partner, Chef Lek have a lot of experience in the hospitality industry, having worked in Pattaya, Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Their  dream is to open their own restaurant one day, and Casa Diverso is that dream coming true!

The Casa Diverso is in a lovely spot, just around the corner from The Rim Hotel. There's a large outdoor dining area in the garden, and also a rather stylishly decorated indoors area, giving the restaurant a classy, but still relaxed and warm feel.

I was quite surprised by the menu offering both a large selection of European food and Thai food as I was expecting only European food. My friends and I all opted for European food, but I would think the Thai food would be good as well. I hope I'll have the opportunity to go back soon to try the Thai food and other items on the menu!

Some very nice bread with herbed and garlic butter was served.

A green salad was ordered as an entree....and it was... green!...comprised of various types of nice and crispy lettuce with balsamic dressing.

Bruschetta Mozzarella Cheese was highly recommended by Khun Oh. It was lovely with chunky pieces of tomato, mozzarella cheese, and pesto sauce. The bruschetta was quite large and a little hard to eat gracefully without using the knife and fork. 120 baht. 

For my main course, I chose the Grilled Pork Tenderloin (very, very juicy and tender!), which was topped with a blueberry gravy sauce. The gravy was cooked a couple of days in the traditional way, and the blueberry gave the sauce a slightly sweet tang. The potato wedges were great too! 320 baht.

I didn't try this one, but my friend reported that the slow cooked salmon was very good, served with horseradish sauce, as well as pesto sauce on the side. 340 baht.

I just had a little taste of the Spaghetti Alle Vongole - a very simple pasta with clams, oil, garlic and parsley. It was lovely and fragrant, and quite spicy! Very good as well. I wouldn't mind going back to have this all to myself next time!

For dessert, we shared a rather large Creme Brulee (120 baht) which was spectacularly "torched" in front of us by Khun Oh. It was nice, creamy and smooth, but unfortunately, quite sweet. I mentioned this to Khun Oh, and he was really happy to receive the feedback. He seems very dedicated to providing good service and making customers happy. :-)

We all had a very enjoyable time, and we all thought the food at Casa Diverso was great, and the prices very reasonable. Definitely a place we can go back to, and I'm happy we have another quality addition to the Chiang Mai eating scene!

Casa Diverso
184/1 Rachamankha Rd
Phrasing, Chiang Mai.
(Old City)
Opens daily: 11am-11pm
Tel: 084 174 0699




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Mira Terrace @ Ratilanna Riverside Spa and Resort

I generally don't really go to hotels for Thai food mainly because I assume (wrongly!) that Thai food at hotels are somehow modified to suit foreigners' tastes. A Thai friend, though, mentioned that he always goes to hotels for Thai food as he find the taste authentic and they use "real" ingredients. This is certainly the case for Mira Terrace. The Thai food there is excellent, and top quality.

Mira Terrace is a very lovely restaurant in a very lovely resort. The restaurant has a deck overlooking the Ping River, or you can choose to dine in air-conditioned comfort, and still with a view of the river.

Here we have Spicy Banana Blossom Salad with Grilled Prawns Skewer. It was very good - very nice peanut sauce, but also tangy and spicy at the same time. Nicely done!

Pan Seared Grouper fish with Chilli Sauce - also very good, covered with sweetish chilli sauce and crispy fried basil leaves.

Grilled Smoke Duck Breast with Tamarind Sauce - the duck breast was excellent - smokey and melt in your mouth tenderness. The sauce was like a tamarind syrup - use only a little bit as it is very strongly flavoured and quite overwhelming.

Green curry chicken - Mira Terrace makes an excellent green curry chicken. Beautifully smooth and rich curry. You could really taste the quality of the coconut milk. Loved it!

From the dishes I had, I would say my favourites are the duck and the green curry. There is something else on the menu that I would really love to try - Hung Ley Lamb - Northern braised lamb curry with ginger, gingko nut and cashew nuts served with crushed roti. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?  Unfortunately most of the people I was with didn't eat lamb. Next time!

Mira Terrace also serves a number of international and fusion dishes.

The bill came to about 1800 baht for 5 people. Quite good value, I think for the quality and ambience, not to mention very good service.

The only downside was that the food came out very slowly. Perhaps the chef was making everything fresh. We were given a plate of very nice bread to have while waiting though.

Mira Terrace
Ratilanna Riverside Spa & Resort
33 Changklan Rd, Muang, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 999 333
Opens daily:
Breakfast: 6am-10:30am
All day menu: 11am-11pm
http://www.ratilannachiangmai.com/dining_mira.php

Alfresco dining on the terrace

Cafe Mini

Mini is certainly the theme of this funky little cafe on Nimmanhaemin Rd - "Cafe Mini". The entrees, and some other dishes, the tables (which are kind of small), but thank goodness the chairs (and mains) are more regular sized!

Although rather small in size, the food at Cafe Mini is very good - beautifully presented, and more importantly, very good quality and tastes great.

The first dish to arrive was the Bruschetta - fresh vine ripened tomato salsa on garlic crouton with parmesan and extra virgin olive oil. The "crouton" was nice and crispy and the tomato salsa lovely and refreshing. 79 baht.

Fish and Chips - another appetizer dish (which means..mini sized), and the presentation totally unexpected! I've never had fish and chips this way before, and it was very good. The chips were nicely fried, and the fish sticks were nice and crispy. Don't worry about the cutleries - just use your hands! Served with tartar sauce and malt vinegar, and tomato ketchup. 99 baht. 

The mains, I was told by the waitress, are "regular" size. It's certainly is a more substantial portion. Here is the House Style Baby Ribs - slow cooked pork spareribs with barbecue sauce, sweet corn and french fries, and as you can see, a side serving of lovely vegies. The ribs were lovely -  tender and  succulent. The sauce was on the sweet side, but nicely flavoured and tasted great. 249 baht. 

The menu also boasted lots of other interesting sounding dishes that I'd love to try...eg. Duck breast - Roasted duck breast served with basil, potatoes, vegetables and cherry orange sauce. The Salmon Steak with saffron lemon cream sauce also sounded pretty good. I guess I'll just have to go back and try other dishes!

I really enjoyed having dinner at Cafe Mini. The servings are quite small, but it is a bit of an experience dining here - funky ambience, friendly staff, good food. 

Cafe Mini
12/2, Soi 9 Nimmanhaemin Rd, Chiang Mai
(Opposite Monkey Club)
Tel: 053 212 468, 088 411 4668



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Tengoku De Cuisine (Japanese)

Tengoku De Cuisine

Tengoku is a lovely Japanese restaurant in a quiet soi opposite Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi. The restaurant is indeed delightful and oozes authenticity, yet very warm at welcoming at the same time. The wonderful distinctive aroma of Japanese food permeates the restaurant promises a fantastic meal ahead.

We were ushered onto the second floor and given the menu. It was hard to miss that Tengoku won Thailand Tattler's Best Restaurant award for its "exceptional cuisine and service" in 2012 seeing that the certificate was pretty much the cover of the menus! Another promise of an unforgettable meal...perhaps...we shall see!

This was my second visit to the restaurant. The first visit left me with a very favourable impression due to a combination of the lovely ambience, good service, and good company. I was in a rather good mood especially after tasting the miso soup and fresh wasabi!

The second visit was more about tasting the food again - was it as good as it seemed? There is no doubt about the quality of the food at Tengoku. However, I did have very high expectations and you'd expect everything to be top notch, considering the location (opposite Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi), the Thailand Tattler's certificate, and especially the price - not cheap, at least for Chiang Mai!

What I loved:

Fresh wasabi - very interesting and I haven't seen anything like it before. Fresh wasabi (plant, root and skin) chopped up and marinated in soy sauce and salt. I find it not as pungent as the usual wasabi served in regular Japanese restaurants that I've been to. Very nice with sashimi (and various other dishes as well). 50 baht.

Fresh wasabi

Salmon Sashimi - Thick chunky pieces of salmon sprinkled with salmon roe that pops in your mouth as you eat. Nice and fresh.

Salmon Sashimi

3 Kinds of Seaweed Salad - I thought this was rather interesting and haven't seen it anywhere else. There are 3 kind of fresh seaweed served with lettuce and on a big bowl of ice. Very fresh, and nicely presented. The best bit is the miso dressing (great on rice too!).

3 kinds of Seaweed Salad

Eggplant with Miso Sauce - I must really like miso sauce as I really enjoyed this dish as well.You can also get the same at Naruto Japanese Restaurant at Meechok Plaza. The soft melt in your mouth eggplant goes really well with the intense flavour of the miso. Yum!

Eggplant with Miso Sauce

What I think could be better:

Tempura Ramen - The ramen and the soup was very good. The soup had a nice intensity of flavour. The tempura, though, was a little disappointing as the batter was softish (not crispy at all), and luke warm.

Tempura Ramen

Rice - The rice (both times I visited) was on the soggy side, at least more so than rice from other Japanese restaurants.

The Verdict

Beautiful restaurant and ambience. Great food, but I don't find the food (at least the dishes we ordered) a lot better than other good Japanese restaurants around in Chiang Mai. There are some interesting dishes that I don't see a lot elsewhere though, and they would be worth a try eg. Beef Takai (Raw beef), if you're into it.

You'll be able to find some recommended dishes from Tengoku here (in Thai).

The price worked out to be about 500 baht/person for what we ordered. They do have a buffet for 800 baht/person as well.

The service is fine - friendly and pretty efficient.

Reservations are a good idea as both times I went, the restaurant was pretty full!

Have you been to Tenguku De Cuisine? What do you think?

Tengoku De Cuisine
55/8 Soi Wat Buak Krok Luang
Opposite Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi
T. Tasala A. Muang Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 851 133, 081 885 5959

Jagajee Tapas Bar

A great dining experience for me is not just enjoying delicious food, it's also the company and great ambience. So it was, a girls' night out at a funky little Tapas Bar on Nimmanhaemin Road, Jagajee….and we all had a great time! 

The Food

"Jagajee" actually means tickling. A board in the bar says, "We are a simple, but true eatery, trying to tickle your taste buds with tapas from fresh seasonal and locally grown products with minimal seasoning to taste the nature of our tapas."

That's actually a pretty good summary of the food - simple, unpretentious, and yummy! Eating at Jagajee is like eating a home cooked meal rather than having something at a fancy restaurant.  There are quite a large variety of small dishes to choose from at the bar, and the friendly waiter (perhaps I should say the tapas bartender?) enthusiastically recommends the Cashew Nut Sweet Pepper Puree  which, as I read here is also the owner chef's favourite. Can't go wrong! ...and yes, it makes a lovely spread on bread - creamy, nutty and slightly sweet. It also goes rather well with the Balkan sausage (at least I think that's what we had!). 

My favourite for the night though, is the eggplants -  a simple dish with rich smoky aroma. Very nice! The german cabbage salad is nice and refreshing - slightly sour, and makes a nice contrast to the other dishes. 

We also ordered some "high end fries" from Barfry next door. These are simply french fries served with various interesting dips. 70 baht each. 

You can see the Jagajee's monthly menu here. Dishes are only 50 baht each - very good value! 

The Bar

Eventhough the food is simple, Jagajee is quite a funky place! The eatery is set up like a bar with only about 15 or so seats and there are no tables as such. It was a bit hard for us 4 chinwagging girls to talk together, but we managed. : D  I think it would be ideal for groups of 2-3 people. 

The bar set up is quite interesting, and it's also nice to be able to chat with other patrons, and also with the wait-staff as they work. 

The Service

The service is fine. Very nice and friendly staff. 


Jagajee is definitely a place I'd recommend you check out. I'll certainly go back to try other dishes!  

Jagajee Tapas Restaurant / Bar
1/1 Nimmanhaemin Road Soi 15
(Jagajee is actually located on the main road, near the corner of Soi 15)
Diagonally opposite Kasikorn Bank
Tel: 081-033 1080

My Vietnamese Restaurant, Meechok Plaza

Lucky me having an office at Meechok Plaza, Chiang Mai. There are now all these great restaurants, I probably won't have to go anywhere else! Here's the latest addition - My Vietnamese Restaurant. This is the second Vietnamese restaurant at Meechok Plaza, and the third one in the area.

My Vietnamese Restaurant is the most "professional" of the three. Pho Saigon (the first Vietnamese Restaurant at Meechok Plaza) is great, and is more family runned, the food is also homemade style, so is Hanoi Nam Neung Restaurant. My Vietnamese actually has a manager running the place, and since opening last week, she has been going around and checking with customers to make sure the food is OK....Oh, I know because I've been there 3 times already!

Here are some of the dishes we tried last time we went:

Nam Neung - you cut up the "sausages" and wrap it in the rice paper together with the vegies and a dallop of the sauce to make little spring rolls. It's one of those great hands-on communal dishes. Delicious! 80 baht.

Sa Bud Nga - Crispy flour sheet filled with minced pork and various other ingredients. I haven't had anything like this before, and it was surprisingly lovely. The "crispy flour sheet" is nice and delicate, and filled with soft wide noodles and tasty stir-fried minced pork. 70 baht.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls - These are great too. I've never seen spring roll skin like this before. It kind of puff up when fried, and very crunchy. 60 baht.

Vietnamese Crispy Pancake - another nice dish. The pancake is light and crispy. The filling is not overly tasty, but sometimes it's nice to have some dishes more delicately flavoured. 60 baht.

The Verdict:

A very good restaurant with very nice food. I have no idea how authentic the food is, but we certainly enjoy most of the dishes we tried. They also serve a big bowl of fresh vegies and herbs (as do the other Vietnamese Restaurants in Chiang Mai). Really good value. The servings were are quite large, and the bill only comes 290 baht for 4 of us.

Now I can't wait for the new Japanese Noodle Shop to open!

The Rating:

Ambience: 6.5/10

Food: 7.5/10

Price: 8/10

My Vietnamese Restaurant

Branch 1: Opposite Chiang Mai University (Huay Kaew Road)

Branch 2: Meechok Plaza (corner of First Ring Road & Mae Jo Road)

Branch 3: Behind Carrefour Super Highway (this one is a franchise)

Contact details - coming up!

Vieng Joom On Teahouse (aka "Pink Teahouse")

Vieng Joom On is one of my favourite places to bring visitors when they come to Chiang Mai. Literally, Vieng Joom On means "pink city" ...and yes, it's a pink themed tea house / tea shop. Guys, don't worry, other than the bright pink main building, the rest of the tea house isn't totally pink! There is also a beautiful garden terrace out the back where customers can relax, sip tea, have snacks and chat with friends.

There is a huge selection of tea to choose from - various Chinese teas, masala, chai, rooibos, fruit teas, as well as Vieng Joom On's own blends. They also serve various snacks, sandwiches and desserts such as Cherry Panna Cotta, scones and High-tea set.

If you happen to like any of the teas offered and want to take some home, you'll be able to buy them from the gorgeously decorated tea shop. Warning - it's not cheap - but the packaging is so beautiful and the tea very high quality.

Highly recommended for tea lovers.

Vieng Joom On Teahouse

53 Charoenraj Rd

T. Watgate A. Muang Chiang Mai 5000

Opens daily 10:00am-7:00pm

Tel: 053 303 113

Website: www.vjoteahouse.com

Talay Mahachai (Mahachai Seafood) มหาชัยซีฟู๊ด

Chiang Mai isn't one of those cities famous for its' seafood. In fact, Chiang Mai is so far from the sea most of the seafood restaurants we have tried here have, well, been rather disappointing! Fortunately, Mahachai's seafood is decent enough to curb our seafood cravings. OK, it doesn't match Phuket's finest, but the seafood at Mahachai is fresh, and the taste, pretty good.

This is quite a popular restaurant too. We arrived around 5:30pm. The tables were already filling up, and they've already ran out of some of the popular dishes. By 6:30pm, the place was packed.

First thing we noticed about the Mahachai? As we got out of the car, we could smell the delicious food aroma. Pretty good start, isn't it? It's not a fancy restaurant - an open air kind of place with a tin roof, metal tables and plastic chairs. However, Mahachai is surprisingly clean.

Now to the drink. Normally I wouldn't mention beers, as they are pretty much the same everywhere. However, Mahachai's beer is quite special! The Leo is served ice cold. Can you see the ice-crystals in the glass?

As for the food:

Stir-fried Prawns with Black Peppers - This looks impressive enough. Huge and juicy prawns stir-fried with black pepper, shallots, lots of ginger, and a hint of curry powder. The prawns could probably be a bit fresher, but good enough. The sauce very nice on rice.

Curry Crab - Quite a nice dish. Yummy crab stir fried with curry and egg. The sauce was quite rich and creamy, but too sweet. Still, it was quite nice with rice. The fun part of eating crab, of course, is using your hands and getting into the mess.

"Po Tak" - this is a tom yum soup dish with mixed seafood. Very tasty - tangy, full of herbs and very spicy! There were heaps of bird's eye chillies!

We saw that almost every other tables around us ordered these steamed clam-things. So we ordered a plate too. You eat these with the "Seafood sauce" - a sauce consisting of lime juice, chilli, garlic, fish sauce and palm sugar. Not too sure if they are my cup of tea, but they are nice and plump, and quite crunchy too. The off-putting thing about it is that well, it's full of blood, well, cooked blood that's still oozing out when you put a fork through it. (Sorry if I've ruined your appetite!). Thais seem to love it though!

The Verdict:

Good seafood restaurant, particularly for Chiang Mai. Not much of an ambience, but good food. They're so busy the service is not great but passable. Can't complain too much though, because the food is quite good value. The price turned out to be 1250 baht (0f which the 750 baht for for the crab) for 4 people. I think we'll have prawns next time - much better value. Very clean!

The Rating:

Ambience: 5/10

Food: 7/10

Price: 7/10

Mahachai Seafood

Right next to "Baan Pimuk 3" on the Middle Ring Road, before Payap University entrance.

Look out for the bright blue sign just like the 1st photo of the menu!

Tel: 084611953, 0869204488

Opens from 11am-10pm