Khun Mor Cuisine @ Nimman Soi 17

There are a never ending list of restaurants to choose from in Nimman area. Many come and go, and many have also stuck around. Khun Mor Cuisine has been around for a while, having opened its doors on Nimman Soi 17 about 16 years ago.

"Khun Mor" is what Thai people call a doctor. Khun Mor first started with a humble boat noodle shop in Mae Taeng, and later opened her shop in Nimman in 1999.

The menu is quite extensive with most of the dishes being traditional Thai and Northern Thai dishes. If you're travelling through and would like to try new dishes other than the good old pad thai and green curry chicken, Khun Mor Cuisine is a good place to be adventurous and try a few new dishes!

Having said that, the pad thai here is great! The "Pad Thai Jun Goong Sod" (sorry, not photos... no idea how I missed taking the photo of this one!) is very well done, the texture and taste was just right. There were also 3 huge prawns on top. 129 baht.

I also like Khun Mor's home made sai ua, a northern Thailand specialty - herbed pork sausages. It was quite herby, and I noticed also that the sausage didn't have a lot of fat (compared to other sai uas that I've eaten). The unusual thing to me is that sai uas are not usually served with condiments on the side - garlic, ginger, chilli, etc. I did try a piece of the sausage with some condiments, but I prefer to just eat the sai ua by itself as I found the ginger and garlic pieces tend to overcome the flavour of the sai ua. 89 baht.

"Krathong thong" - Minched chicken and sweet corn in crispy golden cups. These are quite lovely. The filling has a vibrant curry flavour, and compliments well with the crispy cups. Good appetiser!  69 baht.

"Kaeng Kae Gai" - spicy tradintional herbal soup with mixed vegetables and chicken. This soup is really lovely, fragrant and smooth. A warning though.. The soup contains shrimp paste and fermented fish, an acquired taste, and may not be everyone's cup of tea! Other herbs used in this soup include chilli, lemongrass, garlic and shallots. It went beautifully with the rice, and I must say Khun Mor's Cuisine's rice was beautiful and really fragrant. There was something about the fragrance of the rice and the soup that was just wow when eaten together! Highly recommended, if you dare! 119 baht.

Khun Mor Cuisine is quite large restaurant and is decorated in Lanna style. Most of the seating is in the open air section. There's also some seating in a small garden and an air-conditioned room (5 baht extra per person to use the air-cond room).

There seem be be a mixed review of this restaurant, especially on Trip Advisor. There were a few comments regarding the service that reviewers were not happy about. When I was there, I thought the service was fine. We were in the air-conditioned room and there was a waiter hanging around outside, so it wasn't difficult to get his attention.

And one of the things I really like about Khun Mor Cuisine is the parking! Coming to Nimman to eat is usually not one of my top priorities because of 1) the traffic and 2) the parking situation (or lack of!). This restaurant has its own parking lot across the soi, and a few spots in front of the restaurant too, which is really helpful!

Khun Mor Cuisine
10/1 Nimmanhaemin Rd Soi 17
T Suthep, A Muang, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 226 379
Opens: 7:30am-10pm

Rock Me Burger & Bar

After seeing some social network feeds of incredible looking burgers with knives through them, I thought to myself, I must go check this Rock Me Burger & Bar out!

Burgers are not something I have very often, I guess because we are in Chiang Mai, and good burgers have been hard to come by. I've noticed though, that there has been some good burger joints popping up around town such as Beast Burger, a food truck in Nimman area which I'd love to try!

Anyway, let's get back to Rock Me Burger!

Rock Me Burger's menu is quite interesting with various signature burgers with awesome names like "Rocking on Heaven" which has 150g of ground beef or pork (yes, pork is also available who those who doesn't eat beef), homemade bun, cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs, lettuce, tomato, bacon, mayonnaise. There's also "Rocking in Hell", which has fried eggs and hot basil sauce. There are also other dishes like Crisp Chicken Sandwich with Lemon Sauce and Traditional Fish and Chips on Bun.

They also serve "old fashion" milk shakes, fruit shakes, and various cocktails and mocktails.

I opted for the beef Rock Aloha - a regular burger with grilled pineapple and BBQ sauce. 180 baht. There was a choice of how the beef patty was cooked - rare, medium or well done.

The burger was quite spectacularly presented, as described earlier with a knife going through it, which I guess would be necessary to keep the burgers together! There was also no way I could grab the burger with my hands and look lady like at the same time, as the burger was way too tall, so the knife did come in handy... to eat the burger with knife and fork!

It tasted great, and I enjoyed the sweet and tanginess of the pineapple, and the sweetish BBQ sauce. The beef was of good quality, and didn't have a lot of fat. The tomato based sauce used on the homemade bun was lovely. The burger was served with a nicely fried & crispy onion ring, and some some fries - I really enjoyed the fries / potato wedges, especially when dipped into the sauce oozing out of the burger. Actually, I was very impressed with the fries and though a few more on the "plate" wouldn't go astray!

My friend  went for the Classic NYC Street Hot Dog (130 baht). This is made from a homemade sausage, chopped onion, bun and mustard. It looked very good, and she said it tasted very good too.

Rock Me Burger has a bar outside the actual restaurant, so you have an option to eat there and watch the burgers being prepared, or you can go inside in the large air-conditioned room. The decor is quite simple but does give a vintage kind of feel.

The restaurant is situated on the tourist area of Loi Kroh Rd, at Raming Lodge Hotel, and is next to the popular Chez Marco. There is a parking lot in a little lane just past the restaurant on the right hand side (about 40 baht).

Rock Me Burger & Bar
Raming Lodge Hotel
17-19 Loi Kroh Rd
T Changklan A Muang
Chiang Mai
Tel: 089 8528801
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rockmeburger
Opens: 11:30am - 12am daily

The Dukes (Promenada Branch)

The Duke's doesn't really need an introduction. This popular American restaurant has been around since 2005, and has 3 branches around Chiang Mai. I've visited The Dukes a few times, mainly going to the one at Promenada.

The Duke's at Promenada is a huge, bright and airy restaurant. I must say the staff there is lovely and well trained. I remember one time a friend and I went in starving at around 8:40pm. The restaurant closes at 9pm and would have been perfectly understandable if the staff said the kitchen has closed, yet, we were warmly welcomed and given full attention.

And the food? I must say everything I've had have been of excellent quality and delicious. The only thing would be that it's probably not all that good for your health to eat there all the time....but we all need a treat sometimes! The food is quite rich and the servings very big - particularly the humungous pizzas (Chicago style, according to their website)!

Last time I went with a friend, we ordered the Combo Set C (695 baht excluding VAT). Our eyes proved to be bigger than our stomachs! I think the food would have been enough for 3 people...but that's ok, we can always take a few things home to eat later.

The ribs were delicious, covered in a sticky sauce that's finger lickin' good! It's served with a homemade white bean sauce, fries, and beautiful and crunchy young broccoli in butter (?). I couldn't stop eating the broccoli!

Sausage with Macaroni and Cheese. This really destroyed my short lived dairy free diet...but it was too good to resist! Very good sausages (quite herby and salty) on top of a bed of steaming hot gooey and cheesy macaroni.

Corn bread and Coleslaw - actually, I think this probably comes with the ribs. This is the first time I've had corn bread and think it's lovely - quite a crumbly texture, but also quite soft.

The Greek Salad was a good compliment to the Combo Set. The veggies were fresh and crispy and went well with the generous amount fetta cheese.

The Duke's tagline is "created by a man who loves to eat...and eat...and eat". The food is certainly great! There is also a big variety of dishes to choose from.

The Duke's
Promenada
Tel: 053 142 751
Opens daily 11am-9pm
http://wherestheduke.com
Location

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant @Meechok Plaza

Sometimes one just feel like eating something else other than noodles or pad kraprao for lunch. Fortunately, at Meechok Plaza, there are many choices... Italian, salad restaurant, a couple of Vietnamese restaurants, Korean, and two Japanese restaurants, etc... (You'll never go hungry at Meechok!)

Both of the Japanese restaurants are very good, and I really enjoy Wasabi, a cosy place that serves simple, hearty Japanese meals.

The restaurant is very clean, spacious and cheerfully decorated with a large cherry blossom (or may be plum) tree in the middle!

The menu is quite large, offering the usual Japanese fare of various types of sushi and sashimi, udons, tempura, rice dishes with various toppings...

My all time favourite here is the potato salad (which I happen to order almost every time I go there). I love the chewy-soft texture of the potatoes and subtly flavoured creamy mayonnaise. Once I start, I can't stop!  90 baht.

If you're looking for something a little different, you can try the Enoki Tempura- very nice and crunchy batter, served with tempura sauce. It certainly did satisfy my craving for fried food!  159baht.

Hiyashi Chuka is another dish that I really like here. This is a cold noodle dish with various toppings and a lovely and refreshing soy sauce with sesame oil. The sauce is deeply flavoured with slightly sweet, tangy and salty tastes. Simply toss the whole thing to mix together and eat. Perfect for a hot day! 139 baht. 

There are many other very good dishes here too, including: gyoza (plump steaming hot dumplings.. love the sauce!), takoyaki, salmon sashimi, etc

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant 

206/14 Meechok Plaza
T Faham, A Muang, Chiang Mai 50000
Tel: 0811687577
Opens: 11am-9:30pm
Closed on Tuesdays

Samsen Villa - Restaurant by the Ping River

Happy New Year to all my dear readers! Hope this year will be filled with happiness and of course, delicious food!

First meal out of 2015? It was a New Year Day dinner with family. We wanted to try Samsen Villa, a restaurant by the Ping River that has been around for a long time.

The ambience is simply lovely. Arriving at dusk on a cool "winter's" evening, we got a table by the river side. Samsen Villa was quickly filling up with local diners as well as tourists. There's a large outdoor alfresco dining section, as well as indoor air-conditioned room.

The menu is extensive with a lot of Thai and Western dishes.

The waiter recommended the Royal Thai Style Pork Satay, which I thought was excellent. What is the difference between the "royal" satay and "regular" satay? According to the menu, the satay is made using an "ancient royal recipe" from 1978 (which I suppose isn't really that old!). In any case, the satay was well marinated and fragrant with lemongrass and coconut. The flavour was lovely too - rich and rounded. 120 bath (regular size - 7 satays).

Having ordered a "royal" dish, we went on to order another recommended dish - the Royal Thai Crispy Fried Rice Noodle with Signature Sauce - in Thai - Mee Grob. Mee Grob is usually served as a snack or appetiser, and has a sweet, sour and crunchy flavour with a hint of citrus, and is topped with garlic and bean sprouts . Samsen Villa's Royal Mee Grob was pleasant, but a little disappointing  (after the excellent Royal Satays) as I found the noodles a bit too dry. I like my mee grobs slightly sticky and a bit gooey from the sauce. 120 baht.

A Thai meal isn't complete with out a spicy salad, or "yum". This time we ordered "Yum Tuo Pu", or in English - Spicy Salad of Angle Beans with Pork and Prawns. "Yum Tuo Pu" is a lovely, light and refreshing salad made from angle beans (also called wing beans), fried onion and garlic, roasted chilli paste, coconut milk, palm sugar, lime and fish sauce. 140 baht.

The Steamed Whole Sneakhead Fish with Sauce was quite good. The sneakhead is steamed with various herbs and vegetables, and served in a hot "plate" with soup. The fish was nice and fresh. I thought the soup was a bit on the sweet side though. 280 baht.

.. And by the way, for your information, what Samsen Villa is famous for is actually their "jelly" beer. Ice cold beer served in frozen mugs, which I also enjoyed.

The Verdict

I really enjoyed the food and ambience at Samsen Villa. I thought most of the dishes tried that evening were quite good, and also quite good value considering the location and quality. The service was fine.

I didn't try the Western dishes. They do have steaks, ribs and lamb.

I'd love to come back to try other Thai dishes though. Somehow, I don't really feel like eating Western dishes here - may be because the Thai menu has such a variety and so many other dishes that I'd like to try, and that there are many excellent Western restaurants in Chiang Mai.

Interestingly, there are quite a lot of negative reviews about Samsen Villa, especially on Trip Advisor. Fortunately I had a pretty good experience. If you've been there, please let us know what you think!

Samsen Villa
201 Rimping Condominium
Charoen-raj Rd
T. Watgate, A. Muang
Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 306 588
Opens: 11am-11pm
Website: http://www.samsenvilla.com

Baan Mon Muan

We're so lucky in Chiang Mai. Going to the mountains and back to nature is just about 30-40min away from the city. Mae Rim is one of those places perfect for a day trip.

Being on one of the main tourist routes in Chiang Mai, there are lots of attractions to visit.... And if you want to avoid tourist attractions like a plague, let me tell you that there are also lots of lovely eateries and cafes that the average tour bus to the elephant camp and orchid farm may not take you.

So it was a sunny "winter's" day in Chiang Mai with lovely clear blue sky. What else is there to do but head for Mae Rim. I started to unwind as soon as I drove up the mountain road, up past the resorts, past the elephant camp and took the turn to Mon Cham and Baan Mon Muan, driving further and further up the steep windy road.

Reaching perhaps about 2/3rd of the way to the peak, there's a Muay Thai camp on the left, and on the right, a road to the Royal Project and Baan Mon Muan, a small mountain top resort with a restaurant with breathtaking view!

The food is is lovely too. The menu is quite extensive, offering simple home style dishes.

The restaurant opens at 7:30am, serving a buffet breakfast (400 baht per person).

Speaking to the waitress, vegetable dishes are highly recommended as salad veggies are grown on the premises, other veggies are obtained from the nearby Royal Project or local farmers, so they are super fresh! The restaurant also try to use as much organic vegetables as possible.

Not feeling like a salad, we went for the Stir-fried Three Kinds of Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce (shiitake, eringii and black jelly).  I must say it was lovely. The mushrooms were very fresh and crunchy. The serving was quite large too. 150 baht

Now for some meat - Fried Pork with Garlic and Pepper. Very tasty with plenty of fried garlic to add to the fragrance and the crunch; perfectly cooked pork - tender yet still with the right amount of chewiness, and well seasoned with oyster sauce and lots of pepper! 150 baht

And now for Tom Kha Gai, which is one of my favourite Thai soups. It's a bit like tom yum soup with coconut milk. The flavour here sour and spicy, with a bit of creaminess from the coconut milk. Baan Mon Muan's tom kha gai is refreshing, tangy and spicy, and also interestingly comes with a bit of a crunch from the broccoli. 150 baht.

The three dishes were more than enough for two extremely hungry girls! It was a busy Sunday of a long weekend, so the restaurant was packed. We had to wait quite a while for our meal. It was worth it though, and I'll definitely go back when I get a chance, perhaps with a few more people so I can try a few other dishes offered here. Any takers? ; D

They do have tables on the balconies with superb view of the surrounding mountains. You do need to book ahead if you'd like one of those tables.

Located in the upper terrace, these might be the best tables in the restaurant! 

As an alternative place to eat in the area, you could try Mon Cham: http://cm-eat.blogspot.com/2011/01/mon-cham.html
Actually, if you're going up that way, most likely, your destination would be Mon Cham anyway. They also serve good food, but the ambience is a bit different!

Baan Mon Muan
175 Moo 2,
T. Pongyaeng, A. Mae Rim, Chiang Mai
Tel: 083 318 6444, 083 318 6555
GPS Location: +18° 55' 23.63", +98° 49' 16.66"
Website: http://www.baanmonmuan.com

Le Spice - Indian, Thai and International Cuisine

Chiang Mai isn't one of those places renowned for Indian cuisine. There are only a handful of Indian restaurants here, and if you ask locals or expats, Le Spice is possibly the restaurant that people will think of.

The restaurant is located in the Night Bazaar, making it very accessible to tourists, so would be a good choice if you're travelling in Chiang Mai and looking for something different.

I've been to Le Spice several times, and I find the food and service here fairly consistent. The restaurant has a lovely ambience with a warm and welcoming decor, good food, and friendly staff.

The food at Le Spice, seems to me to be on the mild side, which is kind of ironic, considering the name...but that's not a bad thing because I found that subtle flavours of the milder dishes quite enjoyable and easier on the stomach!

Dips / sauces are served at the start of the meal. My favourite here is the mint sauce - very cooling and refreshing and at the same time, slightly spicy. The other sauces were very nice too. We ordered some papadams which were crispy, slightly salty and warm, which went very nicely with the sauces.

Here are some other dishes my little party had:

Tandori Mixed Grill - grilled chicken, mutton, fish and prawns served with onion ring. The meats came sizzing hot not the hot plate (which, incidentally, we expected it to be a little larger!). Anyway, I really enjoyed the fish and prawns which were well spiced, and nice and juicy. The mutton "rolls" were pretty good too. The chicken, I thought, was well seasoned, but a bit dry, but went down well with the mint sauce. 300 baht.

Malai Theenga Curry - "delicately cooked fresh prawns in creamy sauce". I don't know much about Indian food, and so won't go into much details here except that this was my favourite dish for the night. The curry is very mild and delicate. Eat it slowly to enjoy the complexity of flavours. A really lovely dish! 150 baht 

Samosas - fried pastry with potato and peas filling. The filling is lovely with a great curry flavour and was steaming hot when the samosas were broken open. 30 baht

 

After all the mild dishes, we thought we would like to try something spicy! The waitress advised us to get vindaloo curry, which was definitely fiery. I found the curry to be a little disappointing though, as the flavours did not seem to be as "developed" (I don't know if that's the correct term for it!!), and I could only feel the heat of the curry. May be it would have tasted better the next day!

Overall though, it was an enjoyable and satisfying meal, and a nice change from the usual (but very good) offerings of Thai, Italian, Japanese and Korean food. The setting was lovely too, and the service pretty good.

Don't forget to check out their set meals at the back of the menu - very good selection and great value too!

Le Spice
31 Charoen Prathet Rd Soi 6
Night Bazaar Area (in the soi just after Kalare building)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeSpice.ChiangMai
Tel: 053 234 983
Opens daily
11am-11pm