Chiang Mai Food Map: Where to Eat in Thailand’s Rose of the North

Chiang Mai Food in the Old Town

Starting with the weird name Blue Noodle, it’s not an injury; it’s a real noodle shop. It’s very old school and, at the same time, very modern. You order with an app and a digital menu on your smartphone, and everything works fine. There are no errors. It tasted great.

Although it’s very packed and full, they try everything to give solo customers a solo table for privacy.

Chiang Mai Gate Market

It’s a real local market hall, a food market with an amazing pork leg stall and roti.

If you go outside and cross the street, then in this area there are dozens of street-food stores and hundreds of pigeons, mosquitoes, and flies because you’re sitting on top of a canal. So I prefer Chiang Mai Gate Market under the roof, not too close to the canal, and just eat pork leg for 50 baht or roti for 55 baht. Wonderful.

Then I tried dozens of khao soi restaurants. Khao soi is the signature dish of Chiang Mai. It’s egg-noodle soup with chicken, and they taste really different.

Boat House Rooftop and Tha Phae Grill

Another surprising find was the Boat House rooftop. Why surprising? Because it’s really close to the coolest Muay Thai stadium and to the most famous gate.

You would think, because we’re in Thailand, there must be a lot of good restaurants in the area. Honestly, I tried every one and I was so disappointed. But what I learned in Germany, anyway, is that you can never go wrong with a rooftop bar.

So, Boat House upstairs, very good. They even have a stand-up comedy night when I was there. Perfect before your fight or after the fight.

Tha Phae Grill, really close to Tha Phae Gate, is another rooftop bar and restaurant with an amazing view of the Old Town and the mountains. A fantastic small menu to die for. Really, I loved it. Wonderful.

The only thing is that there is no elevator, so be careful. Don’t drink too much, because you have to go down a very long staircase. There’s the Muay Thai stadium, Tha Phae boxing, nearby, and everything.

Mu Kratha in the Old Town

As always with these boxing stadiums, there is good food. And last but not least, in the Old Town, there is PP Buffet. It sounds weird for English speakers. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s mu kratha, the Thai version of a hot pot.

You have a hot pot on your table. Pork fat comes on top. Then you have a big buffet with seafood, meat, vegetables, and everything. You just eat as much as you want, and you grill and prepare it yourself in front of you at your table.

I think the girl who served me was maybe the friendliest and best-trained waitress in all of Thailand. I never experienced such hospitality. It was so wonderful how she treated me because she saw I was the only foreigner and suspected maybe I wasn’t so experienced with the way to do it, so she explained everything.

She walked around with me and told me what this and that were. I gave her more tip than the whole experience cost me.

Cowboy Hat Lady and Crispy Pork Belly

For example, you know the cowboy-hat lady. The cowboy-hat lady was the first famous Thai street-food chef because the great Anthony Bourdain, rest in peace, the first food vlogger, made her famous.

Obviously, the only thing that separated her from the others was that she had a cowboy hat. People go to Chiang Mai to eat at the cowboy hat some pork leg. The thing is, you go there and three young workers are there, but no cowboy-hat lady. They told me she was in the gym. It’s absolutely okay.

But people go there because of the cowboy-hat lady, not because of a pork leg. Surprisingly, I only found one restaurant that I would really recommend, one of my favorites.

Maybe because I’m a huge crispy-pork-belly fan anyway, but Nang Clay oven-roasted pork is a dream come true for people who like roast pork. There are only some car dealers in the area, so there is really no reason to go there. But this changes everything.

There was well-trained staff, very old-school wooden furniture, but at the same time super-modern ordering via QR code. Again, no mistakes; everything works perfectly. But as a farang, you have to pay at the cashier.

There are not so many reasons why I would go to Chiang Mai again, but this is one. Nang Clay, or la kanat, as the people in Chiang Mai say: if something is delicious, they don’t say aroi mak mak; they say la kanat.

Anusarn Market and Big C Food Court

I discovered that very late because it’s a little bit hidden, and at the beginning it looks like a clothing and souvenir market.

But like every clothing and souvenir market in Thailand, they have to offer food. Thai people cannot go anywhere without eating. So there are plentiful cheap street-food stalls inside the market, Very good.

I also tried one restaurant. I didn’t expect too much because it had also been in the good old Anthony Bourdain Chiang Mai videos. To my big surprise, they had the best khao soi.

In Germany, I thought it was like a tourist trap, but it was perfect. Despite being so internet-famous and still delivering good food, I almost think they don’t know how famous they are.

It’s always good to have the Big C market near your hotel. Big C is a supermarket chain, and they always have a food court. It’s always like that: you go to the cashier, buy a prepaid card, and give them some money. Let’s say 100 baht or 200; it doesn’t matter, because after you’ve paid at the little stalls, you return the card, and everything that’s still on the card you get back.

So you don’t lose any money. So convenient.

Coffee One

Another place that I can really recommend in the east is Coffee One. Why do I recommend that? The most lovely owner of all time, a beautiful Thai lady, taught herself English.

How smart is that? She realized, “Oh my God, 90% of my customers speak English. Maybe it will help to speak English. Go there.”

Coffee One. One means sweet.

Rosie Yam Bar

They prepare a lot of food at a little bar corner, so I felt a bit like I was in Japan, but it was in Thailand. They have a fantastic menu.

I found it on Google Maps because many reviewers wrote, “Wow, what a hidden gem. What a surprise. How can that be here in this area?” Sometimes the Google Maps reviews are absolutely 100% on point.

Ping River Coffee in Chiang Mai

The second coffee tip in the area is Stories Ping River Chiang Mai. It is at the Ping River, and there’s, I mean, it’s just coffee, yes, but the location is special.

You sit on comfortable chairs in the garden. They even have an electrical device to call the waiters. The staff is not really trying to make money, but I don’t care. I order my coffee, pay for it, sit outside, and nobody asks me again. Wonderful.

And you look at the river. It’s a wonderful place.

Roast Chicken, Roti, and Khao Soi Khun Yai

Starting with Chang Phueak roast chicken, typically a dish from the northeast, the Isan region, which usually has nothing to do with Chiang Mai, this was the best roast chicken I ever had.

They had something else on the menu that I had never seen before: fried som tam. Oh my God, is this a great idea.

In Thailand, it’s very good to have enough roti options. A Chiang Mai Thai friend brought me to G Fusion Roti, Champions League roti.

Another highly recommended restaurant is Khao Soi Khun Yai, but you have to be lucky to come at the right time because it’s so popular and famous. It’s an old-school wooden restaurant. Everything shakes when someone walks. Very good khao soi. Very fatty, crispy pork belly. I would always go there.

Very close nearby is Khao Soi Mae Sai. This place is also absolutely popular and overcrowded, and you have to take a number. But the place is very organised, and there is some kind of MC who greets people, calls out numbers, and organises everything. He can speak English, which is not so common in Thailand. The food is very good and cheap.

One Nimman in Chiang Mai

A surprisingly huge space that’s really hidden at the same time is One Nimman. It’s like a giant indoor market hall with super-high ceilings. It’s really modern, a beautiful area, some live music, and little craftsman shops, perfect for a little walk in the evening.

This whole area is one good street after another. Every little side street is full of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. That’s the place to be in Chiang Mai.

Roast Chicken and Roast8ry Coffee Lab

Another roast-chicken shop is really surprising. The northern Thailand guys make northeastern Thai food so well. Roast chicken, Vichai and Buri Ala. If aliens came to Earth and asked, “How does a Thai restaurant look, and how does Thai food taste? Which dish should we try first?” Roast chicken, Vichai and Buri Ala. It’s like a painting. It’s like a role model.

This is an example of the really, really high level of design and coffee in Chiang Mai. Especially Nimman feels like everyone who lives there is a graphic designer and a coffee roaster, and Roast8ry Coffee Lab looks like it came out of a science-fiction movie.

I love it. Really good staff. Really nice. Really well-trained, friendly, and English-speaking.

Tong Tem Toh

The absolute highlight of my Chiang Mai food tour was Tong Tem Toh. Beautiful name.

Some friends brought me there, and what a cool menu. If you really are into cool Thai dishes and hardcore trying out new stuff, Tong Tem Toh is a bit chaotic. They may forget one or two dishes, and then you tell them, and then they say, “Oh, sorry. Maybe we eat, but we can give you this. This is Thailand.”

But they’re all friendly, and it’s worth the wait.