What is Khao Soi?
Khao Soi is a deliciously rich, creamy, slightly spicy yellow curry dish common in Northern Thailand. It usually contains tender slow cooked meat of pork, chicken or beef along with both boiled and fried noodles. Often Khao Soi will be served with pickles and onion with lime on the side. Add these to your dish as you go to get the full flavour combination. This is absolutely a dish you will want to try while in Northern Thailand.
Spicey food pro tip
If spicey food isn’t your thing but you still want to try the local cuisine you can always ask for the spice to be reduced. If that’s not possible then add sugar to the meal until you get the balance to your preferred taste. In Thailand there will very often be sugar, soy, and chili flakes available on every table so you can adjust the meal to your liking.
The restaurant – Khao Soi Lung Prakit Kad Kom
When we spoke to the monks in one of our many temple visits one key message was that everything happens for a reason. We’re not religious but I do find that life tends to work itself out in the end. For this place, we’re were willing to play loose and fast with the atheism vibes and allow a little Buddhism to shine through.
We were randomly looking at Google maps for places nearby and saw this little eatery pop up. Clicked on it and saw 4.4 stars – great we thought. But more reading and it turns out it was featured on Netflix and holds a place in the Michelin guide (Bib Gourmand). Needless to say, our stomachs made clear there was no way we weren’t immediately marching there. And march we did.
There was a large queue outside, vying for the shady spots to avoid the blistering heat, but as ever they have a system even if it’s not immediately apparent (everything will work itself out in the end) – a slip of paper with the modest sized menu on it, and a box to tick of you want takeaway or a table. Google translate was our best friend here and if you haven’t downloaded the offline version of the app we’d really recommend it!
We selected a Khao Soi with pork and one with beef, as we’d not yet tried the latter meat version whilst here.
The Verdict
The dishes had chunkier pieces of meat than previous versions that we’ve tried and of the two our preference was for the beef. It was melt-in-the-mouth tender and delicious. The pork was also really good but had a roast pork texture, instead of a fall-apart slow cook texture.
Each came with the traditional accompaniments (pictured) of raw red onion, lime wedge and some pickled mustard greens which Jonny loves to throw right in because he’s a huge fan of the sour flavour being added.
This Khao Soi had a delicious soup base – it was really tasty, rich and complex. As ever, it was spicy (a tad too much for Em) but with a slight sugar addition it hit the perfect level of heat for Jonny. I think one of the best things about Khao Soi is the mix of noodles and crispy noodles on top, it means you’re getting the texture hit, the rich and complex savoury flavour from the soup and meat, the heat too. It’s a fantastic combination and this place was a real winner – definitely worth the table wait and a highly recommended from us!
Find it here:
Location: 53 Suriyawong 5 Rd, Tambon Hai Ya, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand
Opening times: 09:30-16:30 every day
Price: 50-60฿ per dish
Find more great places to eat in Chiang Mai in our blog post How to eat really (really) well in Chiang Mai on a budget.
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