Listen to live Northern Thai folk songs as you dine in the garden next to the Ping River. Tha Nam (which means Riverfront) is a great choice if you're looking for somewhere with a relaxing ambience in an atmospheric Thai teak house setting. Tha Nam is situated on the "quieter" spot of the Ping River near Ratilanna Hotel, about 10 min drive South of the famous Night Bazaar. The restaurant serves Thai & Northern Thai food.

The restaurant building was made from 5 old teakwood houses, with plenty of woodcarvings and an art gallery. As we stepped into the restaurant, it was almost felt like we were stepping back in time. It was so peaceful and and even though we were so close to the centre of town, it felt like we were somewhere very far away!

The test, of course, is the food. Often you get lovely restaurants, but not so great food. How was Tha Nam's food? I'm pleased to say, the food, at least what we had, was excellent, and the price, reasonable.

Without further ado, this are what we had:

Lemongrass Salad with Green Leaves. This was so lovely and made a great refreshing appetizer. If you haven't tried lemongrass salad before, I'd highly recommend you try it. A lot of restaurants make the dressing too sweet. I found Tha Nam's version sweet as well, but there was a nice balance of saltiness, tanginess, sweetness and just a touch of spiciness. In case you are wondering, the green leaves are called "Cha Pu" leaves, similar to betel leaves, but have a less intense flavour and smaller. To eat the salad, you put the salad on the leaves, and wrap it up, and pop the whole "parcel" into your mouth, then enjoy! The salad was srumptious, full of flavour, and crunch (from the peanuts!). Mmm very nice indeed! 75 baht.

Since we didn't feel like anything too heavy that night, we ordered Somtum, aka papaya salad. You can of course, find somtum EVERYWHERE in Thailand. The best (most delicious) place to eat this dish is probably at street stalls, but those who are worried about hygiene, "proper" restaurants also offer decent renditions (but some better than others!). Tha Nam's Som tum was very good, and the dressing quite intense in flavour, and not TOO spicy. Just the way I like it! 55 baht.

Hor Mok Talay (in Coconut). Steamed Seafood Curry in Coconut. This was excellent, possibly one of the best hor moks I've had. There were lots of prawns and other seafood (no seafood stick in sight! yeah!). Hor Moks are usually quite firm in texture, and come served in banana leaves (or aluminium foil). The ones served in coconut are normally runnier, more like the consistency of a thick curry, and this was the case here. Very tasty. I really liked the way the coconut was overfilled too....looked a bit like an exploding volcano with larva flowing down...150 baht.

At this stage, we were quite enjoying the food, and our "light" meal wasn't to be. We ordered a few more dishes:

Stir fried fish fillet seasoned with mixed herbs - This was also very nice. Pla Klung ("Klung" fish) was used (not sure what the English name for it is). Very good also. 120 baht.

Spring rolls- had "everything" in it, including taro strips. Quite good & fairly large serving. 80 baht

Tom Kha Gai - "Chicken Galangal Soup" - a hot and spicy soup similar to the more well known (at least among foreigners), Tom Yum, but with coconut milk added. In many ways, I prefer Tom Kha to Tom Yum because the coconut milk gives the soup a smoother, rounder flavour. It's also often milder than Tom Yum, so I think it's a great dish to try if you can't take spicy food. Tha Nam's Tom Kha was quite creamy, which was very nice, and also full of chicken meat. Eventhough I prefer my Tom Khas lighter, there wasn't much of it left! 80 baht.

So that was our meal. It was a very pleasant evening, and I will definitely be back, especially when I have overseas visitors. Tha Nam is a great place to have good Thai food in authentic Lanna (Northern Thailand) atmosphere. The prices are reasonable too.

Just a couple of annoying things, though. There were a lot of insects. I suppose you have to expect it, having dinner at dusk outside in the garden in the rainy season. The waiting staff were very quick to offer mosquito coils, but there were quite a few tiny insects circling us, we were still bitten by mosquitos. So a hint for you to take insect repellents with you when you go, especially around 6-7pm. I guess this problem would improve as we move towards the cooler months.

The other warning is for the ladies - be careful walking around with your high heels! The paths to the river side dining areas are rather uneven!

Tha Nam

43/3 Moo 2 T. Phardad, A. Muang, Chiang Mai 50100

Tel: 053 275125

Open: 10am-11pm daily

Live folk music nightly

Website & Map

Just an aside - the steamed dim sum dishes are great, however, the fried dishes (eg spring rolls or taro dumpling) are only fried in the morning, so they get cold by lunch time - not great...but would be alright in the morning, I think.

So what did we have for our family CNY dinner? This year we went to the ever reliable China Palace, at the Holiday Inn. The food and service there is always great, and prices reasonable! This year we broke away from the traditional Chinese New Year dinner (eg. having whole fish, abalone and muscles, the hair like vegie, etc). Here are some of the dishes we had:

Mixed-entree: Deep-fried prawn balls, spring rolls, deep-fried pork (sweet), and an egg dish that you eat with lettuce (San Choy Bow style). Everything was lovely, especially the pork. (I have an extra-sweet tooth this week, for some reason!). Everything also looked very grand on the silver dragon serving platter.

Chicken with Chinese Herbs: This was really lovely and light. The herbs were fragrant without being over powering.

And what is a Chinese celebratory dinner without Peking Duck? Thai style Peking Duck is very different from what I had in Beijing, where a lot of fat is eaten with the duck skin. In Thailand, duck skin served is crispy, and very little fat - I guess this makes a "healthier" version, so we can eat more! The great thing about peking duck is that you get two (or sometimes more) dishes from the one duck. This time we had the meat stir-fried with pickled cabbages and bean sprouts - delicious!

Stir-fried tofu with vegies: This dish looks better than it tastes, but still very nice!

Another dish worth mentioning is Calamari Stuffed with Prawns - unfortunately, the photo didn't turn out, but it was very interesting and scrumptious. The calamari outer were coated with what I think might have been salted egg yoke, fried and topped with a salt and chilli mixture (which looked and tasted like instant noodles' seasoning!). Yum!

Needless to say it was a great meal, and we were all extremely full and happy! : )

China Palace, Holiday Inn

Chiang Mai-Lamphun Rd

Tel: 053 275 3000