Chiang Mai Must Eats
Chiang Mai is absolutely loaded with restaurants, bars, street food; you name it, they got it. However, deciphering the good from the mediocre can be a huge task without some inside intel. In this post I want to highlight three ridiculously good, and fairly priced restaurants that are must eats when visiting Chiang Mai.
A Few of Our Favorite Chiang Mai Restaurants
Aroon Rai: Best Curry in Town
Aroon Rai, located right on the moat, took it upon themselves to claim the best curry in town. This is a bold statement considering the hundreds, if not thousands, of other curry-serving restaurants in Chiang Mai. Fortunately for Aroon Rai, their Khao Soi is damn good. This past trip to Chiang Mai is my fourth time visiting, and I had yet to try Khao Soi. For those who are much like myself, oblivious to Khao Soi in Chiang Mai, this is an egg noodle, gravy curry dish. Although that is the best description I can give, albeit not an appetizing description, the traditional Northern Thailand dish is delicious. In addition to Khao Soi, we tried the Tom Kha soup, which is one of my favorites from eating Thai food back in the States as well as Chiang Mai Sausage and a curried pork. Everything we ate at Aroon Rai was fantastic, aside from the service. It seemed to me, everyone working at this restaurant was extremely grumpy and soup-nazilike. I suppose if you serve up delicious food one can get away with the attitude. Map at bottom of post.
Blue Diamond Breakfast Club
The Blue Diamond Breakfast Club, or as I have shortened to The B.D. has to be my favorite in Chiang Mai. I experienced the B.D. on my first trip to Chiang Mai, and I have been coming back ever since. The B.D. is most popular for serving up breakfast food that is vegetarian, organic, anti oxidizing, and any other trendy term you can think of. Don’t let the overwhelming number of traditional backpackers scare you off from this place, the backpackers clearly have it right with this restaurant. Everything on the menu is worth a try, although I am almost exclusively a Super Omelet orderer. This is worth a try at lunch as well. I have only tried the chicken fried rice during lunch, and the potion was HUGE. This place can be a little tricky locating, so I have done my best to map it out for everyone below (bottom of post). Nonetheless, the Blue Diamond is another restaurant to check out while visiting Chiang Mai.
Steak of the Day in Mae Rim
Steak of the Day is actually in Mae Rim. Do not let the 8 kilometer drive from Chiang Mai city center scare you off. The drive is a nice change up from the regular moat road mayhem. The head chef Ray worked at the Four Seasons as the executive chef for 19 years, and his cooking shows it. The location/setting, to me, seems a bit odd considering the caliber of food being served up. Again, because of its quirky location, I have done my best to include an accurate map below, as I was unable to find one online prior to posting this. In fact, when I while I was eating lunch here, I was discussing with another local patron, and expressed my concern for Ray needing a website. The woman I was speaking with strongly disagreed… Reason being, this particular day was the first day she can remember eating at Steak of the Day without the restaurant being completely slammed. Needless to say, the locals know this place is excellent, and the prices are extremely fair.
Directions to Steak of the Day, Blue Diamond, Aroon Rai
About the Author Charlie and Brittany
We are Brittany and Charlie - we traded the 9 to 5 and the so-called "American dream" to live our own dream and see the world. We sold all of our belongings and left the US in August 2013. For 5 years, we lived primarily in Thailand and built our online business and location independent lifestyle while we traveled to over 30 countries. We’ve had house sitting gigs on 3 different continents and we’ve even appeared on HGTV’s House Hunters International.
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