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

What a name! They say "W for Wanlamun"'s French pastries are fantastic, some of the best in Thailand, and rivals those in Montreal and San Francisco. In addition, they are supposed to have lovely fusion and authentic (traditional) Central Thai (Bangkok style) food, prepared by the patisserie chef's mum. So I was curious...

The ambience was lovely. There is a air-conditioned indoor section, and a very nice outdoor garden area. Simple but comfortable. The waiting staff were very nice and helpful too, but sometimes they were a bit hard to find.

Since we were there at dinner time, the dessert will just have to wait! A selection of Thai dishes were ordered, including this simply sublime Yum Som-O (Pomelo Salad), a sweet and sour dish with combination of pomelo, prawns, pork, deep fried chopped garlic & shallots and toasted coconut, possibly one the best I've had. It was amazing how every ingredient complimented each other so well, there was just the right balance of sweetness, tartness and spiciness giving a "high tone" and the "earthiness" - a kind of undertone (if that makes sense!). The toasted coconut gives the dish a whole different dimension, and somehow every ingredients work together to become a kind of symphony in your mouth. Hmm..I think I'm getting carried away here, but it was really very nice. 110 baht.

All the other dishes we had were also very good. We ended up ordering quite a few dishes as the servings were quite small (and we also wanted to try out other dishes as well!).

Other dishes of note were: Mee Grob (Crispy Fried Noodles) - very, very good ; Kaeng Keaw Wan Loog Chin Pla Krai (Fish Balls in Green Curry served with plain rice and Salted Egg Salad) - this dish was particularly interesting. The Green Curry was very nice, but the "salted egg salad" turned out to be tiny balls of salted egg yolk in a sour, spicy and slightly sweet dressing. Amazingly, it worked! The little balls of egg yolk (they gave us 3 - may be one per person?) and the curry were scrumptious eaten together.

So after a rather filling meal, we had to do what we came for --- try "W"'s famous pastries. By this time, there weren't a lot of choices left - a lot of the pastries have been sold in the afternoon. We ordered two to share - a lemon tart (85 baht) and a rather fascinating sounding Thai Tea Millefeuille (115 baht)....both disappointingly arrived on the same plate complete with their gold cardboard bases. I wouldn't normally so picky about such things, but the prices of the desserts and quality of the restaurant is similar to a 5 star hotel's, so I expected the same standard. It seemed that these pastries were carelessly thrown on the plate. I wasn't impressed, and felt a bit sorry for the patisserie chef who put so much loving care into his work to have it "thrown" about this way...

The lemon tart was quite good, but I don't know if it's the best in Thailand. Fortunately, the millefeuille turned out to be fantastic. The pastry was firm but crispy, actually rather hard to cut (and eat gracefully!), the thai tea custard had a firm texture and had the right amount of sweetness and went perfectly with the pastry. Gorgeous!

Having reviewed so many nice restaurants lately, I think it's time to visit something a bit more basic - the local market, well, more precisely, the "Talad Nut". "Talad Nut" are local markets that are held in the evenings and sell everything from clothing, shoes, accessories, and plenty of...food! "Talad Nuts" are usually held once or twice a week in an area. Vendors typically move to different "Talad Nuts" each day of the week. For example, the Somtum (papaya salad) vendor might be at Meechok Plaza (a local shopping centre) on Mondays and Tuesdays, the rest of the week might be spent at other "Talad Nuts", and on Sundays, the Sunday Walking Street (the ultimate "Talad Nut"!).

Here are a few samplings of what you might find to eat at Talad Nuts:

My favourite - Moo Kham Wan - Spicy grilled pork (nice and tender) served with fresh vegies and this super amazing chilli and lime dip. We often keep the dip for use during the week on other dishes like grilled fish.

"Talad Nut" is also the place to buy your dinner! This lady sells various dishes that you can take home in plastic bags.

Here is something that looks rather nicely presented - sausage wrap in bread. Good size for eating on the go while you look around the market.

You can even get sushi! The weather has been pretty cool, but may not be so good in the heat in summer! It's pretty popular though and turn over is pretty quick.

Delicious grilled pork sticks!

Hope you're not too hungry yet! More coming up soon in Part 2!