So far, even as a budget traveller who eats in most often to save money, I have felt comfortable dining out more than a few times. In general, I have found the food here to be more expensive than in Vietnam. But I have searched for budget friendly places and managed to find some. Here are the best & worst Thai foods I have tried in Chiang Mai. All prices are in Thai baht and CAD.

The Best & Worst Thai Foods I Have Tried
Khao Soi with chrysanthemum tea

Coffee & Tea

I arrived searching for places in the Old City, to sit and enjoy a mid-morning cup of coffee just like I had become accustomed to in Vietnam. I couldn’t find anything similar. Everything is geared for tourists with prices that reflected that. I did enjoy a good matcha latte at Bloomin’ Moon (55 bt or $2.10), and a terrible americano at Nes Café (50 bt or $1.90).

Eventually I found real Thai coffee & tea. Inside the Old City is a stand called Miracle Coffee where I enjoyed a beautiful ‘Blue Mountain’ coffee (25 bt or $0.95 cents).

Walking further afield, into China town in fact, I was able to find a coffee stand on the top floor of Warorot Market. Here at Goteim, I had authentic Thai coffee & tea, thick, flavourful and with a dollop of condensed milk at the bottom of the glass. Paired with a slice of pandan custard toast, and I was in heaven!

Brekkie

While not Thai food, hands down the most expensive meal I had was the ‘Honey Bacon Sous Vide Eggs Benedict Waffle’ at Me & Bacon. At 260 bt or $10 and 70 bt or $2.65 for the coffee, this one rose to the occasion. Beautiful soft gooey eggs with sweet chewy thick bacon, paired with crispy waffle? Oh my.

Me & Bacon
Yummers!

The vibe is cool. Loved everything about this place and ate here on a recommendation from a fellow IG travel friend @leon.gregori213 He and his beautiful partner Jenn, have travel blogs worth the visit for sure.

Fish

I did. I tried a piece of fish. Usually, I stay away from fish cause it’s a bit risky for me. I’m not keen if it tastes fishy but I was seeing these big fried fishies everywhere and thought what the heck?

Super hungry, I stopped into this local place in old town, on my walk-about-towns. Zero English was spoken, so I pointed to the fish that was on the front table, then hand mimed a plate of rice. It was terrible. 😣😥 Just ick. Cost 50bt or $1.90

Pad Thai

The only Thai food I regularly have in Canada is Pad Thai. I love it, well the Canadian version anyways. Those soft and sweet rice noodles with chicken and peanuts, oh man, I could eat that every day. 😁 When I passed a place in Old Town and saw pad Thai on the menu, I was sold.

And guess what??? It tasted EXACTLY like it does back home. 😂🤣 It was uncanny and would have been perfect if it had had the peanuts on top. Cost 50 bt or $1.90

Basil Chicken & Rice

A traditional Thai dish, usually eaten for breakfast. I had to try this and did so three times. Once was at a restaurant called Mae Pa Sri in Old Town, and it was pretty good, I must say. Cost 60 bt or $2.25

The other two times were from a street cart vendor close to my home. These were delicious, spicy and I devoured them. After the first meal, my tummy was unsettled and evacuation occurred about 8 hours later, but the second one went down just fine. Cost 30 bt or $1.15.

Khao Soi Chicken

Another local dish in Chiang Mai is Khao Soi. It’s a noodle dish with both soft and crispy noodles. Eating at a tourist catering place, but with lots of local people inside, I enjoyed this dish. It was on the spicy side for me, definitely. The noodles were quite thick and tough. The chicken was a complete leg. Cost 70 bt or $2.65. Would I get it again? Prolly not, too spicy.

Ramen

My first-time trying ramen EVER!! I was in a mall, yes, I know, 😶 but I needed a break after the immigration office ordeal. I ordered the special at Oishi Ramen, which included a big bowl of noodles, gyoza and sweet iced tea.

It was so good! The noodles were thicker than I had expected, but the broth was lovely. The gyoza were the usual but that iced green tea? Killer! Loved it soo much. Cost 129 bt or $4.85 for the meal.

Well, that is the restaurant food I had, well all that I can remember at this point. I did eat a lot of snack type foods and street foods, mostly from markets that I can write about in another post. So far, the food here in Thailand has been pretty great. I have had some misses at the markets, but all in all, I would say, we are on the positive side of trying new foods and liking them. 😁

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