Eat in Thailand

A Good Restaurant in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand

A Good Restaurant in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand

We don’t know what this place is called, but the subtitle of its sign is, “Thai E-Sarn Lao Food.” It’s located at the southwest corner of the Huay Rang Nong reservoir, which is located in the northeast quadrant of the city, east of the airport. This is the only good restaurant we found in Ubon, and the number of locals […]

Old Dutch Restaurant, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Old Dutch Restaurant, Chiang Rai, Thailand

This place is located on the tourist strip of Chiang Rai, along with all the other fleece-the-tourist places. It absolutely sucks. Avoid it. It is crazy expensive. Flip the menu, and everything is in the 200 baht and 300 baht range – and up.  For comparison, you can get a dinner for two, with beer, for the mid-200 baht range […]

Rim Nam Restaurant, Chiang Khong, Thailand

Rim Nam Restaurant, Chiang Khong, Thailand

We ate lunch here, and ordered a spicy mushroom salad and a vegetarian soup. One of the guys running the place understood vegetarian, and helped us with the selection. The food was decent, and the price was OK. We would eat here, again. The restaurant is near the river, and has a good view. This is also a guesthouse operation. […]

Riverside Restaurant, Lampang, Thailand

Riverside Restaurant, Lampang, Thailand

This place is owned by the same folks who own the nearby Riverside Guesthouse. It’s on the river, has a dining area and a bar, and has live bands. We ate here twice. The food is decent, and the price isn’t outrageous, although the charges are a bit higher than average. This place has the disadvantage of being in easy […]

Nong Beer Restaurant, Pai, Thailand

This place was like eating at a US restaurant where everything comes from Costco – just nuke it and serve it.  Not good stuff.  Like eating frozen dinners. This was a bit surprising, as we chose it because there were mostly locals eating there, which is usually a good indication.  This was one instance where that indicator failed us. We […]

Aroy One Baht Restaurant, Lampang, Thailand

Aroy One Baht Restaurant, Lampang, Thailand

This is easily one of the best all-around places at which we ate in a month in Thailand. Food quality was great. Vegetarian selection was great. Pricing was great. Service was great. And since this place was busy, busy with business from locals (we were the only foreigners there during both our visits), it should be no surprise that it’s […]

Tohng Tueng Kitchen, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Tohng Tueng Kitchen, Chiang Rai, Thailand

This place is located just north of the Laluna Hotel and Resort, on the southern end of Chiang Rai. The sign is not in English. It’s on the west side of the road, with a kind of white brick archway entrance.  Please take a look at the photos for reference if you are looking to find it. We came to […]

Cham Cha Restaurant, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Cham Cha Restaurant, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Cham Cha is located on the north end of Chiang Rai  along the river. We went here after walking the town, and hoping to find something that was: 1) not stupidly expensive like everything in the tourist drag near the night market, and 2) frequented by locals.  We found this place to meet both criteria, although the English menu with […]

Good Life Herb-Health Restaurant and World Tea House, Pai, Thailand

Good Life Herb-Health Restaurant and World Tea House, Pai, Thailand

We had lunch here. It wasn’t bad at all, and the price was good. It’s Pai’s hippie eatery. I even had my first ever shot of wheat grass here. It kinda tasted like shit, but Jen says it’s crazy good for me. I would prefer a beer. This joint is a worthwhile place to eat in a town full of […]

Vegan Restaurant, Pai, Thailand

Vegan Restaurant, Pai, Thailand

I don’t really know what this place is called, but it’s located on Th Ratchadamnoen on the way to the market area. It has signs indicating it’s vegetarian and vegan, like signs with the word “vegan” posted inside and visible from the street. Pretty clear indication it isn’t a Brazilian barbecue joint. Well, it was just OK.  Nothing remarkable, which […]

Ma Moo-ahng Dip

This is a simple recipe for something crazy good: unripened mango spears that you dip in a mixture of sugar, salt, and pepper. Maybe it doesn’t sound like it would be that great, but it is. Take an unripened mango, peel it, and cut it into spears. Put the spears on a serving plate. In a serving bowl, mix course […]

Ban Phleng Restaurant, Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Ban Phleng Restaurant, Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Ban Phleng is located at the south end of Mae Hong Son. It’s an open-air restaurant, with both tourists and a fair number of locals as customers. We ate here twice in the one full day we stayed in Mae Hong Son, mostly because it had papaya salad on the menu and other vegan-friendly Thai cuisine. The prices are good […]

The Restaurant at Soppong River Inn, Soppong, Thailand

The Restaurant at Soppong River Inn, Soppong, Thailand

The actual restaurant is called Seven Elephants, but you will only see the hotel sign from the road. We sampled four places in Soppong – the restaurant at the Little Eden Guesthouse, The Border Pub and Restaurant, a roadside food stall where we got some roadside-bad coffee, and this place. Four may not sound like much, but this is a […]

The Border Pub and Restaurant, Soppong, Thailand

The Border is located about center mass of the roadway that cuts through Soppong. It’s a basic pub configuration – center bar, stools around that, tables around that. It’s a standard-for-these-parts, open-air configuration. We went here because everything else was closed at 7:30pm on a Sunday evening. No one was inside at first, but the young bartender ran over enthusiastically […]

Kwan Khao Kitchen, Tha Song Yang, Thailand

Kwan Khao Kitchen, Tha Song Yang, Thailand

At first we didn’t know the name of this place, and started calling it, “The Best Restaurant…Ever.”  Now we know it’s called the Kwan Khao Restaurant. This place is super great.  Not at first, though… At first…just a day ago…they weren’t sure what to do with vegans or vegetarians. We got a vegetable stir fry thing that was marginal. That […]

Restaurant Review: Aiya, Mae Sot, Thailand

Restaurant Review: Aiya, Mae Sot, Thailand

Aiya is on the main drag in Mae Sot, right across the street from the Bai Fern Restaurant. It appears to be run by some Burmese folks, given the number of Burmese dishes on the menu and the number of pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi hanging on the walls. There are also many, many pictures of Che Guevara on […]

Restaurant Review: Khao-Mao Khao-Fang, Mae Sot, Thailand

Restaurant Review: Khao-Mao Khao-Fang, Mae Sot, Thailand

This restaurant is located two kilometers north of Mae Sot. The food here is not remarkable, and it’s a bit more expensive than even the expensive joints in Mae Sot proper. However, it’s a beautiful setting, and that’s what you are paying to experience. It’s got nice outside, covered seating around a pond with lots of flora, as well as […]

Restaurant Review: Bai Fern Restaurant, Mae Sot, Thailand

Restaurant Review: Bai Fern Restaurant, Mae Sot, Thailand

For Mae Sot, this is an upscale place. It clearly caters to Westerners (lots of English translations; lots of Western food options), and the price reflects this (lunch for two cost us 240 baht without beer – over twice the cost of a good vegetarian food stall we found a block off the main drag). Nonetheless, we really liked this […]

Restaurant Review: Outside Cafe at Old Sukhothai

Restaurant Review: Outside Cafe at Old Sukhothai

We don’t know what the name of this joint is. It’s one of a handful of food places located outside the southern gate (not the main, eastern gate) of the central part of the park at Old Sukhothai. Park your bicycle or moped or whatever in the dirt lot, ignore the ladies fighting for your attention at the closest two […]

Restaurant Review: Fuang Fa Restaurant, New Sukhothai, Thailand

Restaurant Review: Fuang Fa Restaurant, New Sukhothai, Thailand

This eatery is located on the Mae Nam Yom river, which runs through New Sukhothai. It’s a covered, open air joint. The menu is the standard fare around here – mostly some sort of meat or fish option, with rice or noodles. We went there on a Sunday around noon, and were the only customers. It was a bit pricey […]

Vegan is a Challenge in Thailand…So Far

Buddhism doesn’t mean vegetarianism around here. Most everything is based upon some sort of meat or fish. And getting across that you don’t eat meat, fish, or dairy isn’t exactly easy. We have tried the words and phrases in a small phrase book by Lonely Planet, but this is hit or miss. I get a lot of confused looks when […]

Restaurant Reviews: Dream Cafe, New Sukhothai, Thailand

This is an “Our Pick” in the Lonely Planet guide, which is what brought us to this place. The inside of the place is nice and warm. Very woody. The wait staff is very nice and attentive. There was only one other couple in the joint the whole time we were there, so we weren’t exactly competing for attention. The […]