Saigon Oi! (originally Pho Saigon)

Saigon Oi! is my current favourite restaurant to go for lunch. In fact, I eat there at least 2-3 times per week. It's not just that this homey Vietnamese restaurant is only 2 doors down from my office (lazy me!), and air-conditioned, the main reason I go there is for their great clean, tasty and reasonably priced food. It's the sort of food you can enjoy everyday without feeling guilty!

Here are some of my favourites from Saigon Oi!

Sugar cane prawns with "Kanom Jean" (a kind of rice noodles). You can see the chilli, peanuts, etc on top. There is also the Vietnamese dipping sauce underneath. Mix it all up with your chopsticks and eat! A very light and refreshing dish. Some might find the sauce too sweet though. You can also have your "kanom jean" with other toppings eg. grilled pork marinated with lemongrass, beef, spring rolls, etc.

Vegetarian Fresh Spring Rolls - this is also rather gorgeous, and surprisingly filling due to the omelette and tofu. The sauce is thick and very yummy! I can just eat the sauce alone! They also have very good Fresh Spring Rolls with Prawns.

Deep fried Spring Rolls - This might be the only deep fried dish on the menu, and one of my favourite spring rolls in Chiang Mai! Very tasty, and deep fried so nicely - very crispy on the outside, and the pork filling so soft. Goes very well with the Vietnamese dipping sauce.

"Lad Na" - Rice noodles with eggs and Maggi sauce gravy, well, I think they use Maggi! Quite different from Thai style Lad Nas & very tasty and fragrant.

The Verdict:

A great place to go for simple, tasty and healthy Vietnamese food. The staff is lovely too, but they suffer a bit from staff shortage, so service can sometimes be a quite slow if there are a few customers.

The Rating:

The food: 7/10

The ambience: 6/10 (Nice clean restaurant, nothing fancy. You go there to eat.)

Value for money: 7/10 (Dishes are from 45 baht-around 75 baht for beef / prawn dishes)

Saigon Oi!

Shop 206/27 Meechok Plaza

Chiang Mai

Tel: 0815308224

Website

Baan Khun Mor (Vegetarian Cafe)

Have I mentioned that Chiang Mai must be the Vegetarian food capital of Thailand? I have no figures to substantiate this, but there are really a lot vegetarian restaurants here. Most of them are cheap, local cafe style restaurants.

We literally came across Baan Khun Mor by accident. I was taking a couple of friends to Wat Suan Dok, an interesting temple on Suthep Road (behind Chiang Mai University). There is a strip of vegetarian restaurants near the temple...and well, we happened to find parking in front of Baan Khun Mor.

What attracted us to the cafe is that it looks quite modern and clean. The waitress is ready to welcome us in front with a big smile. As we approach the shop, we realise that the waitress might be blind in one eye (we didn't ask her!). This is quite surprising, since most blind people I've seen tend to end up busking at markets. Kudos to the cafe owner for giving the lady an opportunity.

Anyway, let's talk about food! The menu is quite large, and contains a lot of yummy sounding dishes, and the usual Thai dishes including Kho Soi, Pad Thai, etc. The waitress wholeheartedly recommends the Pad Thai, so how can we resist? And yes, the Pad Thai is good.

Other choices are: Golden Needle Mushroom Omelette (very tasty); Yum Moo Yor ("Moo Yor" salad) . Moo Yor is a kind of Thai pork loaf. Vegetarian Moo Yor is quite pleasant, and actually tastes remarkably like the real thing, except for a more rubbery texture. The salad itself is quite lovely, and the flavours quite mild (for a Thai salad), and quite gentle on our tongues and stomach! (Note: We asked for "mai ped" - not spicy)

The Verdict:

Overall, a nice and satisfying meal. Nice clean restaurant / cafe. Friendly service. Good place to go if you're in the area.

The Rating:

The food: 7/10

The ambience: 7/10

Value for money: 7/10

Sorry, I forgot to get their details! ..But as I mentioned before, it's located on Suthep Rd in a strip of shops just up (going away from the old town) from Wat Suan Dok, opposite Chiang Mai University.

"Windmill Restaurant" or in Thai, "Ban Gunghun"

Am I in Holland? No…still in Chiang Mai. Welcome to one of the latest addition to the zillions restaurants in Chiang Mai - Ban Gung Hun (Ban = house; Gung Hun = Windmill). What a great concept - a variation to the ever popular outdoor restaurants by the lake so prevalent in Chiang Mai.

The food is good - just what you would expect from good Thai restaurants. People go there not to only enjoy the food, and also to see the Dutch style windmill - the trademark of the restaurant, and cute buildings.

"Windmill" Restaurant also have some interesting things on their menu. Incidentally, they serve both Western food (various sandwiches, pastas, etc) & Thai food (regular Thai favorites plus a few other "different" dishes. Generally, I wouldn't try Western food at these kind of restaurants (and I wouldn't recommend it either!) - not that I think they will be bad, but I have often been disappointed with "Thai style" Western food. Stick to Thai food, I'd say.

We order the specials of the day and take some recommendations from our lovely & friendly young waitress. (Not sure how the other waiters are though, but ours is very good & ready to help).

"Sai Bua Tom Krathi" - Lotus stem soup/curry with coconut milk. Apparently this is quite a famous and rather hard to find dish - so we have to try it! It turns out to be quite…interesting, but not unpleasant. I wouldn't recommend it to "farangs"/westerners though - unless you've been in Thailand for a while and you are a bit adventurous. It contains lotus stem & coconut milk, plus mackerel fish ("Pla Too"). The taste of the soup is kind of like a coconut milk + "Nam Prick Pla Too" (mackerel with shrimp paste chilli dip). LOL..hope this makes sense!

"Phra San Plang Chom"…er…what? First let me explain the name as it was explained to me. "Phra San Plang Chom" is apparently a figure in Thai legend. He is a person made from gold, but he goes into disguise and put on a mask that makes him look ugly. Fascinating, isn't it? So what is this dish? It's a sausage wrapped in patty made from prawns and the whole thing is deep fried. Served with plum sauce. It wasn't bad, actually. Just like deep fried prawn cakes + sausage. : D

"Yum" apple with prawns. "Yum" is the Thai style salad. This apple salad was really very good. Green apples are used, along with cashew nuts, capsicum, shallots, and topped with fresh mint. Very refreshing and flavourful - a perfect balance of the Thai flavors - sweet, sour, salty & spicy.

Last but not least, "Hor Mok Talay" , or seafood "hor mock" - a kind of dry seafood curry served in a coconut. Quite a common Thai dish, but not everyone does it well. "Windmill" Restaurant's "Hor mok" is very good, and the coconut was full of seafood - prawns, calimari, etc. They certainly didn't skimp on the ingredients. Good texture and tastes great.

The Verdict:

Lovely restaurant, good Thai food, pretty good service, a bit of a "different" ambience. Ladies should be aware that the restaurant is not stilettos or high heels friendly. It's quite hard to walk through the rocks in the car park in heels, and one of my heels got caught between the planks of wood on the bridge (in the 2nd photo)!

There are also lots of mosquitos outside in the early evening.

The bill came to 660 baht / 3 people, including a jug of beer.

The Rating:

The food: 6.5-7/10

The ambience: 6.5-7/10

Value for money: 7/10

Ban Gung Hun

433 M 4, T. Mae Hia, A. Muang, Chiang Mai

(On the 1st / Middle Ring Road, opposite Land & House Siwalee, between the Big C intersection & Canal Road)

Look out for the windmill! (1st photo)

Tel: 053 274800

Beccofino Italian Trattoria Chiang Mai

There are plenty of good Italian restaurants in Chiang Mai. Beccofino Italian Trattoria is no exception. Lovely food, beautiful restaurant, relaxing ambience, easily accessible location off the trendy Nimanhaemin Road - what else can you ask for?

Actually this restaurant was first suggested to me by a reader a while ago. I have been meaning go there for a while, and finally got a chance this lunch time when we aimlessly drove around Nimanhaemin looking for somewhere to eat...and there we have it - Beccofino.

First impression? Beccofino is a beautiful restaurant, and has a small terrace for outdoors dining in front. Unfortunately, at the time of arrival, there is a mild odour from the drain in front of the restaurant (quite common in Thailand), so we decided to eat inside. (Hopefully they will fix this problem soon.)

The service is professional and efficient enough, but I find there is a lacking in warmth that I have come to expect in restaurants in Thailand, particularly in restaurants of this calibre. Considering the great food and lovely ambience, having friendly and smiling staff will make the experience even better.

The food is great.

My choice - Baby penne with eggplant, fresh tomatoes, ricotta cheese and basil. All I can say is that it's delicious, simple & tasty. 250 baht.

The homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach, served with mushroom and cream sauce is lovely as well. Fluffy pillows of ravioli, and the sauce is creamy but light.

Fettucini with Rock Lobster, fresh tomato & white wine sauce. This is also very good with the lobster being very juicy and firm. 380 baht.

The Chef's Special Pizza with Cherry tomatoes, rocket salad & parmesan cheese is nothing to write home about. It looks great, but the pizza is more a like a salad on bread. As a salad, it's pretty good though - nice and fresh, especially with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil supplied on the table! 290 baht.

The verdict:

Good restaurant, good food, lovely decor. The service is professional and efficient, but would be better if the staff is friendlier and smiles more. Will go back again.

The total price came to 2539 baht for 6 people and 1 child.

The rating:

The food: 7/10

The ambience: 6.5 /10 (I would have given it 7.5 if the staff smiles more!)

Value for money: 6.5/10

Beccofino Italian Trattoria, Chiang Mai

20/2 Soi 7, Nimanhaemin Rd

Suthep, Muang, Chiang Mai

Tel: 053 226 590-2

Website

Mon Cham

Mon Cham isn't really the name of the restaurant. Actually, I don't know what the name of the restaurant is. Mon Cham the the name of a place and is a part of the Nong Hoi Royal Project. It's located at the peak of the mountain above Mae Sa Valley. People go there to camp, take a stroll in the lovely garden, pick strawberries, and eat at the bamboo restaurant while drinking in the vista of the mountains and valleys below.

You can eat in the open air restaurant:

Or sit in one of these huts:

...and enjoy the view...and your meal:

The restaurant serves simple but tasty dishes. Great value too - the dishes start from 60 baht.

The deep fried chicken wings are great - simple but perfectly seasoned - just eat it as it is. No sauce required.

The herbed omelet is lovely too, served with chilli sauce. The omelet itself has a nice subtle flavour. If you feel you need sauce, just put a little so as not to overwhelm the dish.

The tom yum is also very tasty, but has too much oil for my liking.

Probably the most interesting dish is the Tempura style deep fried egg plants topped with stir-fried vegies, mushroom, pork, basil and chilli. A kind of "pad krapraw" topping to the eggplants. The eggplants are not oily at all - we think that they must have been grilled before being battered and deep-fried. This is my favourite dish. The mini mushrooms and vegies are super fresh and tasty, although the diced carrots and peas are probably the frozen variety - understandable, I guess since we are in "winter" in Thailand, and it's pretty cold on top of the mountain!

May be it's a combination of the yummy food and cold weather, we ended up re-ordering most of the dishes.

I'd highly recommend you visit Mon Cham if you get a chance. It's a really lovely place with great views and great food!

Tel: 081 806 3993

Directions: Mon Cham is about 50-60min drive from Chiang Mai city. Head towards Mae Rim, and turn left at Mae Sa Valley Road (the one with Tiger Kingdom, Mae Sa Elephant Camp, etc). Keep driving till you reach Pong Yaeng Ang Doi resturant (on the left), keep driving for another kilometer till you reach the sign (on your right) for Nong Hoi Royal Project. Keep driving up the steep windy road for about 9km. You'll go through a small village, and Mon Cham is right on top of the mountain. There are plenty of signs so don't worry about getting lost.

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!

"Khao Tom 1 baht"

After over indulging over the past few weeks over the Christmas and New Year period, Khao Tom (aka rice porridge) is the perfect anti-dote. Khao Tom is very light, it's a good choice to give our stomachs a break! It's very easy, of course, to make at home, but feeling lazy, we headed for "Khao Tom One Baht" restaurant near the office. "Khao Tom One Baht"? Yes, each bowl of these plain rice porridge soups costs only 1 baht!

The catch of course, was the dishes that we can order with the Khao Tom. These range from 60 baht for the simple stir-fried veggies to 120 baht or so for fish dishes. Not the cheapest, considering the small portions - but this allows us to try a variety of dishes, and eat "light" for those who wish to. Steamed rice is also available if you feel the rice porridge won't be filling enough.

The food is tasty, and there are a few interesting dishes such as Thousand year eggs stir-fried with basil leaves, a variation of the "Pad Krapraw". I had this before at a restaurant in Chiang Rai, and it was superb. At the restaurant, though, the thousand year eggs are OK, may be a little too soggy, and nothing to write home about.

These "Khao Tom" restaurants are usually open for dinner till late. This particular one is open till 4am!

The total price for 6 of us worked out to be about 410 baht. We had a lot of cheaper vegie dishes though.

You'll be able to find "Khao Tom 1 baht" restaurants almost everywhere in Chiang Mai. Check it out if you'd like to try something a bit different!

Here's an approximate location!

View Chiang Mai Eating Guide in a larger map