01 Jul Favourite Chiang Mai Restaurants in the Old City

One of the things we love most about Chiang Mai is all the delicious food that’s on offer. There are literally thousands of restaurants in Chiang Mai as well as cafes, pubs and bakeries. That’s not to mention the night markets and street food. What’s more, the city caters to all kinds of diets with restaurants specialising in vegetarian, vegan, raw or gluten-free food. Here are our top picks of Chiang Mai restaurants in the Old City area.

Our Top Chiang Mai Restaurants

As a vegetarian, I eat incredibly well now that we’re living in Chiang Mai. We’re lucky enough to have a full kitchen in our amazing Chiang Mai apartment and tons of excellent eateries in our local area, Nimman (check out our top restaurant picks in Nimman here). However, some of our favourite Chiang Mai restaurants are in the Old City, here are our top picks.

*All prices are correct as at 08/12/2016

Taste from Heaven

This highly-rated restaurant is quite literally heaven for vegetarians and vegans in Chiang Mai. We go there at least once a week to devour the tasty samosas, Pad Thai, spring rolls and curries. Taste from Heaven serves the most delicious vegan chocolate brownies we’ve ever tasted, which go perfectly with their home-made coconut ice cream. When we’re feeling lazy, we order Taste From Heaven’s bean burger with chips to be delivered straight to our apartment through Food Panda. This costs us just 105 Thai Baht (THB), which is £2.33, each. A Pad Thai costs 75 THB (£1.67). Sheer heaven!

Where is Taste from Heaven? 34/1 Ratmakka Road.

Da’s Bakery

If you’re looking for healthy food in Chiang Mai, this is the place to have breakfast. You can start the day in Chiang Mai at Da’s with their amazing home-made muesli and yoghurt with fresh fruit. For just 70THB (£1.55) you get a huge bowl of mango, banana, watermelon, pineapple, melon and papaya served with creamy, thick yogurt sprinkled with delicious flap-jack like muesli and dried banana pieces. We usually buy a 40THB (90p) fruit shake to accompany our nutritious brekkie and occasionally take away some home-baked bread for later. Da’s also does a great range of sandwiches and egg dishes and sells baked goodies; cookies, croissants and cakes.

Where is Da’s Bakery?  11/4 Soi6 Moon Muang Road.

Cooking Love

Cooking Love is one of our favourite restaurants for Thai food in the Old City. It’s located down a leafy side street and is always busy with Thai people and tourists. You can order a range of cheap Thai meals such as curries, rice or noodle dishes. We also loved the spring rolls from Cooking Love and found they had plenty of vegetarian options on their menu. Cooking Love also run an extremely popular Thai cooking class. To give you an idea of prices, spring rolls, vegetable fried rice and Pad Thai, plus drinks, comes to 300 THB (£6.66).

Where is Cooking Love? 18/7 Rachadamnoen Road

Free Bird Café

When you eat at Free Bird Café, all the profits go the Thai Freedom House, a charity that runs a language and arts centre for Burmese refugees. The café serves a range of Thai, Burmese and western meals, including salads, curries, hummus plates and rice dishes. We love Free Bird Café for its breakfast and brunch options; the fruit and muesli bowls, omelettes and fresh fruit shakes. There’s also a charity shop in the café where you can buy second hand books for just 40 THB (90p) and clothes for as little as 50 THB (£1.12). Food is a bit pricier than average; the spread of food and drinks pictured below came to 520 THB (£11.55) but your cash goes towards a good cause.

Where is Free Bird Café? 116 Maneenopparat Road.

Angel’s Secrets

Angel’s Secrets serves delicious, highly-rated breakfasts and lunches as well as a range of cakes. They serve the best pancakes we’ve had in Chiang Mai, as well as delicious egg-based brunch dishes, French toast, curries and desserts. We love the  carrot cake, which is beautifully decorated and extremely tasty but a bit pricey at 125THB (£2.78). A brunch of omelette, toast, jam, pancake and drinks comes to 355 THB (£7.88).

Where is Angel’s Secrets? 27 Moonmueang Soi 5.

The Cat House

The Cat House is another great-value eatery that offers delicious dishes from around the world. We’ve tried the Burmese curries and Mexican quesadillas for around 100 THB (£2.22) each. Andrew always goes for a peanut-butter and banana smoothie when we visit the Cat House and we’ve also tried the chocolate brownie and ice cream, which is delicious.

Where is the Cat House? 8 Chaiyapoom Lane 1 Si Phum.

The U.N Irish Pub

We love a slice of familiarity every now and again and the U.N Irish pub reminds us of home. While Andrew watches the football on TV and has a pint I read the paper and we order one of the pub meals. This place does comforting pub food really well; fish and chips, burgers, sandwiches, cooked breakfasts and pies. I always go for the spinach pie and mash while Andrew likes to tuck in to a chicken burger; we also occasionally buy bread from the pub’s Crusty Loaf Bakery next door. It might be slightly more pricey, at around 180 THB (£4) per meal, but good for an occasional treat.

Where is the U.N Irish Pub? 24-24/1, Ratwithi Road.

The Sunday Walking Street Market

Every Sunday that we’re in Chiang Mai we excitedly head to the Walking Market for our evening meal. We tend to check out all the stalls first and then choose a few different dishes and snacks; spring rolls and samosas, potato twists, rice salad, quail eggs, mango sticky rice and fruit smoothies. We usually spend around 250THB (£5.55) here and are absolutely stuffed afterwards so we take a stroll around the rest of the market which is full of souvenirs, clothes and handicrafts.

Where is the Sunday Walking Street Market? Rachadamnoen Road (near Tha Pae Gate).

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Do you have a favourite Chiang Mai restaurant in the Old City?