Chiang Mai Food Scene: Nimman Edition
A large part of the reason that we elected to stay in the Nimman district of Chiang Mai was our Airbnb’s proximity to some great street food, cafes, and restaurants. Here are a few of our favourite spots:
Kao Soy Nimman was by far our favourite local haunt, so much so that we both ate in and ordered in from the restaurant countless times during our two weeks in Chiang Mai. As you would expect from its name, this restaurant is known for its khao soi — a northern Thai specialty consisting of meat and noodles in a rich broth, topped with crispy noodles, pickled vegetables, and fragrant herbs — and it has the preparation and distribution of this meal down to an art. So much so that Kao Soy Nimman was included in the prestigious Michelin Guide for several years in a row.
The restaurant itself has a great atmosphere, but if you visit in person you should expect to wait, because there’s always a queue — depending on the time and day, you’ll likely need to wait between 15 minutes and an hour.
As an alternative, you can order Kao Soy Nimman directly to your home via Grab (note that it’s listed under the name Kaosoy Nimman on Grab). We were a bit iffy about how it would hold up via delivery given the various elements of the dish and how they all come together, but it actually worked out very well, as they send everything to you packaged separately so you can assemble each of the constituent parts in at home. This ensured that the fried noodles remained crunchy, the vegetables remained crispy, and the broth remained unadulterated. Note that for kids, the khao soi broth might be a little bit too spicy, but we can recommend the chicken satay (or “chicken popsicles,” as our kids called them) as a more kid-friendly option.
Total cost: 90–200 THB per person (3–6 USD)
This place was right around the corner from our villa, and it was another spot we frequented more than once. Its specialty is bingsu — a Korean milk-based shaved ice dessert, piled high in towering fluffy heaps and topped with your choice of fruits and sauces. It’s both superbly Instagrammable and incredibly delicious. The mango sticky rice and strawberry cheesecake flavours were standouts for us. We found that one of the family-size bingsu was enough to share among the four of us, but we could easily make our way through two of them if we were feeling gluttonous.
Total cost: 50–100 THB per person sharing (1.50–2 USD)
Cafe Rosemary flew under the radar for us until late in the trip. It is a very small spot tucked away in a more residential area adjacent to Nimman – you’ll need a maps app to find it, likely. But this restaurant ended up being one of our favourite spots later on in our trip. Little Miss and Young Mister WorldSmith absolutely devoured the French toast stuffed with Nutella, and Mr. and Mrs. WorldSmith still dream about the spinach gnocchi in bacon and parmesan cream sauce. The restaurant was also very child friendly — the servers were super with the kids, they provided us with kids cups and utensils without being asked, and they even gave our kids stickers during one visit. There are very few tables here, and the place does tend to fill up pretty quickly around lunch time, but we never had an issue getting a table when showing up on weekdays around 11:30 am.
Total Cost: 150–250 THB per person (4.50–7.50 USD)
If you’ve had your fill of the amazing northern Thai food Chiang Mai has to offer (if this is even possible!), and you’re looking for something a little bit different, then Chai n Thai might be a good option for you. With a massive menu featuring everything from western-style breakfasts to northern and southern Indian food to Thai specialties, it’s got something for just about any taste or palate. We went with the traditional Indian fare, and every dish we tried was delicious. We opted to contact the restaurant and then pick up our meal for takeaway, but they have a cute dining area as well.
Total Cost: 200–400 THB per person (5–10 USD)
So, apparently the theme of our time in Nimman was ice cream, as you can tell by the three different local ice cream/frozen treat shops that made it onto our best eats list. In contrast to Door Bell, Tim Baan Yaii is a much more traditional ice cream shop, with friendly ice-cream scoopers waiting to help you and some cute spots to sit both inside and outside. What made Tim Baan Yaii a standout for us was the great range of flavours they had on offer — we had a very difficult time picking what we wanted, since just about every single one sounded incredible. And they were! The shop also sells a variety of coffee and tea beverages, as well as other ice-cream based desserts like ice-cream sandwiches and waffles topped with ice cream and fruit. Needless to say, our kids were in heaven and asked to go back often.
Total cost: 75 THB per single-scoop cone (2 USD)
Nimman is known as a paradise for people who take their coffee seriously. There’s a high-end coffee shop on nearly every corner, and pretty much everyone you see walking around is carrying a comically large hot or iced coffee. Unfortunately, neither Mr. nor Mrs. WorldSmith is a coffee drinker — we’re both tea people — so the fantastic coffee culture here was entirely wasted on us. That said, we love a fancy iced drink as much as the next person, and so we joined in the fun with our fair share of Thai iced teas and bubble teas. Kōri Kōri is an adorable Japanese-inspired boba cafe around the corner from our Airbnb, and we loved it for its wide selection of iced teas and bubble teas and their willingness to cater each drink to our taste when it came to sweetness levels. The also sell delicious-looking choux pastry cream puff sandwiches, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to try those. Next time!
Total cost: 30–80 THB per drink (1–2.50 USD)
Okay, so as we mentioned above, coffee isn’t really our thing. But we would be remiss if we didn’t include at least one cafe on our list, given coffee’s legendary stature within the food and drink scene in Nimman. And we have it on good authority that Roast8ry Lab is the pinnacle of coffee culture in Nimman. With two Nimman-based locations, a slew of awards from coffee competitions around the world, and a dedicated fanbase of coffee aficionados constantly camped out on their patio, this is definitely the place to go for your daily caffeine fix. Just don’t try to order an iced coffee — if you do, you’ll apparently be met by a look of either confusion or downright derision from their baristas.
Total cost: 80–140 THB per drink (2.25–4 USD)