BAAN LANDAI in Chiang Mai does its best and got better (2-19-25)

 Our last night in Chiang was at Baan Landai which had great ratings, a Michelin Bib and so much more going for it. When we arrived we entered the adorable two-tiered space which has a very old-world colonial feel with what we felt at first was severely lackluster service. One guy seemed uninterested in us when we asked for suggestions, spicier options and a wine list. he said there was no cocktails. Luckily after about 20 minutes of perusing the menu and finally getting a wine list with prices that were half what we had seen all over Thailand (no clue how they managed that) and trying to get a bottle of wine, a very nice woman decided to help us and the guy promptly disappeared. She suggested the Ripe Mango & Crab Spicy Sald (all fotos on FB) which we loved and the wine was superb with it, an Alma Cersius Grande Reserve from Gardian blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc & Vermentino from Cote de Beziers in France!!

We advised the server that we didn't want to order too much so only chose a second dish to start...this was our routine, so everything did not arrive at once. We saw a dish at the table next to us and immediately called the server over to switch to the Northern Thai Spicy DIP....yes that was the dish. It was an amazing and monstrous platter of beans, cucumber, cabbage, tomato, pork rinds, eggplant and sausage that you simply dipped in the spicy minced pork and tomato dip in the middle. It was heaven and we adored the super kick the dip had.

Our final dish was Grilled Pork Black pepper and Thai Spices which was a nice, if slightly fatty, grilled pork slices with coriander and tamarind in the sauce. There were long and regular coriander that we had never seen before and loved the long as it is spicier and shaper. Brown rice accompanied and we were full!

A superb last night in the end before we headed off to Cambodia!

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