Mai Restaurant & Bar is the latest addition in Chiang Mai’s newest five-star hotel, Meliá Chiang Mai on Charoen Prathet Road in the heart of Chiang Mai. This intimate fine-dining restaurant serves contemporary Northern Thai dishes with Mediterranean influences accompanied by spectacular vistas and a compelling design that references the city’s rich culture.
Located on the 21st floor with panoramic views of the city and famed Doi Suthep Temple on the mountaintop to the west, the 38-seat restaurant is adjacent to the hotel’s executive lounge and tucked under the highest rooftop bar in the city. Diners enter the venue under an arch that pays homage to a nearby temple. In a salute to Chiang Mai’s Bo Sang Umbrella Village, large lit installations of umbrella ribs cling to the ceiling. Various artworks of umbrella canopies hang on the walls, such as those made from antique Chiang Mai textiles. The carpet’s concentric patterns, in the likes of gun-metal gray, periwinkle and soft amber hues, reference umbrella tops in a striking yet subdued way.
The menu at Mai Restaurant & Bar celebrates traditional Lanna cuisine in a contemporary fashion with Mediterranean touches. Under the stewardship of award-winning executive chef Suksant Chutinthratip (Billy) and sous chef Karn Phojun, each dish from the restaurant’s seasonal menu is prepared à la minute from an open kitchen. One of the recommended dishes is Mai’s Samplers, which comprises of tasting size portions of five different delicacies including crisp fried fluffy catfish and pomelo salad scented with rice field crab jus, Vietnamese sausage and edible flowers salad roll with yellow chili puree, grilled green chili relish on crispy salmon skin, Northern Thai-style pork sausage with grilled ginger and pickled cucumber and warm spicy tomato relish in golden-fried tortilla.
For main dishes, it’s recommended to taste Pappardelle Soi Neur featuring fresh homemade pappardelle with creamy khao soi curry sauce and slices of seared Australian sirloin, served with homemade pickled vegetables and chili oil, and Pla Salmon Nham Prik Oung, a baked salmon fillet with northern Thai-style tomato confit, sautéed gurmar leaves and pickled garlic served upon steamed pandan rice.
Of the 28 vegetarian, vegan, meat and seafood menu options, 12 belong to the hotel’s ‘360° Cuisine’ concept, which has been designed to minimise waste and carbon emissions. Under the program, the chefs craft dishes using produce from the hotel’s nearby organic gourmet farm partnership with ORI9IN, and use every part of each ingredient possible before leftovers are returned to the farm as compost.
Mai Restaurant & Bar is open for dinner from Wednesday to Sunday from 6pm – 10pm. For more information, please visit here
