If you are traveling to Chiang Mai in Thailand, prepare yourself for an abundance of delicious food for every meal! I’m not usually a very adventurous eater and was fully prepared to eat pad Thai for every meal, but I tried a lot of new dishes during my trip and I was not disappointed. I can’t tolerate a lot of spicy food, so I still had to be careful with certain dishes.  My recommendations will be more on the mild side. If you like to spice it up, there are lots of options to kick it up a notch (or two or three).
I’ve compiled a list of my favorite meals and restaurants I ate at during my trip, one of which was a meal that I cooked all on my own in a cooking class. A couple of my meals were cooked by local Karen Tribes and provided during the tours that did. If this is an option on a tour you’re considering, I highly recommend!
**DISCLAIMER – don’t read this post if you are hungry. Mouth-watering pictures coming at ya!

1. Tikky Cafe

2/2 Arak Soi 3 | Sriphum, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
This was my first stop after checking into the hotel when I got to Thailand on Saturday. It came highly recommended on Trip Advisor and didn’t disappoint. I had to wait quite a while for a table for a cafe (probably 30 minutes), as the restaurant isn’t that large and this is a popular spot. They have a huge menu for both food and drinks (shakes/smoothies), and while I knew that my first Thai meal would be real pad Thai, I had a hard time choosing just one drink. I ended up ordering the mango, passion fruit, coconut smoothie and chicken pad Thai. I was so hungry that I didn’t get a picture of my food, but look at this beautiful drink! Great lunch spot!

2. Mango Tango

Nimmana Haeminda Lane 9 Suthep Mueang, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Mango Tango was recommended in a blog post that I found with recommendations on things to do in Chiang Mai. Since mango is one of my favorite fruits, I knew this would be a must try restaurant. They serve dessert dishes, all including mango in some form. I ordered one of the sampler style desserts that came with fresh mango, sticky rice, mango ice cream and mango pudding. I also ordered a passion fruit smoothie because passion fruit is right up there with mango for favorite fruits. The shop is the most adorable place ever and I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

3. Coco Corner

Nimman Haemin Rd. Soi 13, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
I stumbled across Coco Corner when I was leaving Mango Tango and realized there was a coconut themed dessert restaurant directly across the street. Since coconut is another favorite fruit of mine, I knew I’d be coming back. This shop is also decorated so cute and is covered with plants inside and out. I ordered one of the signature dishes which was coconut ice cream topped with coconut whipped cream, coconut meat and toasted coconut flakes. While I could do without the coconut meat, the rest was soooo good. I’d like to lift up these two places and transport them home.

4. Woo Cafe and Art Gallery

80 Charoen Rat Road.| Wat Ket Subdistrict, Chiang Mai 5000, Thailand
Another Trip Advisor and blog recommendation, Woo Cafe also came highly recommended. Don’t let the name fool you – it is a full service restaurant serving all meals. I went for dinner with some new friends that I made on one of my tours and we decided to order a bunch of different things to share so we could try it all. The only disappointing thing is that they have limited quantities of all of their dishes and by 7:30 for dinner, they were out of several appetizers, entrees and desserts that we wanted to try. I ordered a Thai Iced Tea to drink because at the end of my trip, I still hadn’t tried one! We also ordered the potato wedges and mini chicken tortilla snacks for an appetizer, chicken with cashews (a little spicy), garlic pork with white rice, and pineapple fried rice for our entrees, and apple tart, a brownie, chocolate cake, and banana pie for dessert. We really wanted the carrot cake, coconut pie, and red velvet cake, but those were all sold out already. Wahh! Everything we tried was still delicious though! I loved the restaurant and the atmosphere, and I was very excited when we were seated at this awesome table!

5. Street food

You can find street food everywhere, especially at any of the markets or the night bazaar. I was a little nervous ordering some of the dishes, so I stuck mostly with the fruits and desserts and pad Thai dishes. One recommendation someone made was a street food tour, but unfortunately I didn’t get around to doing that on this trip. I’ll save that one for next time! I didn’t do a good job taking pictures of my street food, but one steal I found was a bag of donuts for 20 baht (about $0.60).

6. FRUIT FRUIT FRUIT

If you can’t tell, I love fruit, so I was so excited when I realized how much fruit is a part of the Thai diet (a reason I should move to Thailand?). You can find the most delicious fresh fruit everywhere you go! My hotel served fruit with breakfast and I ate a whole plate each morning. They also left a bowl of fruit in my room for me to nibble on throughout my trip, so there was never a shortage. If you look through the rest of my pictures in this post, you’ll see fruit with almost every meal.

7. Homemade Lunch by the Karen Tribes

As I mentioned earlier, I had the opportunity to eat a homemade lunch provided by two different Karen Tribes on my day tours. Both meals were absolutely amazing! Each tribe served some form of fried chicken and both were some of the best chicken I’ve ever had! One lunch was served with an abundance of fruit, sticky rice, fried drumsticks, and several other Thai sides and desserts. There is a dessert that is served in banana leaves that contains coconut and some jello like substance. I had this dessert in a few placed and ate tons of and absolutely LOVED it, but I have no idea what it was! Of course I was too busy scarfing them down to stop and take a picture. The second lunch included fried chicken tenders, sweet and sour chicken, white rice, a coconut soup with chicken and of course, some fresh fruit.

8. Zabb-E-Lee Thai Cooking School

My experience with the cooking school was amazing. I was a little reluctant going in because I don’t really like cooking and I’m not that good at it. Also, while we had options for what we wanted to cook, I really just wanted the pad Thai and mango sticky rice. But I signed up for a class and I am so glad that I did. We had several options to choose from (check out their website for the others) and had to select one appetizer, one soup, one stir fry, and one curry. We were given detailed instructions on what to prep, what ingredients were needed, and how to cook all of the meals. Our instructor, Kiss Kiss, was also watching over us to ensure that everyone was on track and that (hopefully) no one burned their food. It was also very informative, as she taught us about the different dishes and ingredients as we went along. I chose to make the spring rolls, chicken pad Thai, Tom Kha Kai soup, and Panang curry. The mango sticky rice was made in batch for the group, so I didn’t partake in the actual cooking of that dessert, but I still ate it all up and it was delicious! Even with me cooking these meals, everything turned out really well and I was introduced to two new Thai dishes that I like a lot and wouldn’t have tried otherwise (I might have even liked the curry better than the pad Thai!)!

If you can’t tell from all of the pictures above and my enthusiasm about all of the food that I tried, I was very pleased with all of the food and beverage options available to me.  I know there are probably hundreds of other places that I didn’t get a chance to try.  What’s your favorite place (or thing) to eat in Chiang Mai that I missed?