Food4Thought (Original Flagship Location) — Restaurant in Chiang Mai Province

My main focus in this review is the brilliant partnership between Food 4 Thought and Bay’s café, with the one specialising in organic, wholesome food and the other in my one true love, coffee. Putting these two specialists in the same setting causes your senses to implode with flavours, textures and aromas worthy of Olympia.

Most restaurants in Chiang Mai will have one or two good things in a large menu surrounded by mediocrity? at best, but what I found was that Food 4 Thought’s relatively small menu focuses on quality over quantity. My favourite on Charles’ menu has to be his wraps, from a vegetable hummus, Thai chicken, and avocado; they all make a brilliant combination with avocado ‘fries’.

I’ve had a love affair with coffee my entire life, and watching the passion that Bay puts into his hand grinded, drip brewed, mostly ‘Akha Ama’ (Arabic beans sourced from Chiang Rai) coffee is a great way to get any day started. In addition to his Single origin, Bay’s blend, and Café Latté that can be served hot or iced (Japanese style on request), he servers a divine 12-14 hour cold brew.

Bay explained that by taking the rush out of brewing Java, he wants the customer to truly appreciate the intimate details that form part of the process - from plantation to cup. “We are living in such a fast pace world that we miss so many great things around us. Why don’t we just slow things down a bit and appreciate whatever is around us? For example; a great brewed cup...

Wow. From the moment we stepped off the plane into Food 4 Thought, the service, atmosphere and environment was perfect. I came here with my partner who has severe allergies and they catered so beautifully to this, he was able to eat comfortably without any issues. And I thoroughly enjoyed so many home comfort foods.

So for our entire 8 days in Chiang Mai we came here for lunch and dinner, served by the same staff that we soon became acquainted with. They were attentive, polite, understanding and patient with us as we navigated menu options that suited our needs. Since it was Christmas time we were warmly welcomed with festive decorations and good old fashioned Christmas music that I very much enjoyed throughout my visits. As tourists and not used to heat there were fans located perfectly and always fresh cold water served on entry.

We loved our food here and each and every time we were blown away by our meals. The size is amazing for the value; fresh and beautiful prepared and served. As we were able to make lots of menu alterations we felt so comfortable going out for dinner, we would not normally at home.

So to the staff at Food4Thought Thankyou so much, we loved our stay, loved your company and wish you a...

I do not have any complaints about the food, but I do have a complaint about a staff member. FYI, this is not just from my end, two separate groups of people had the same comments at different points in time, as I overheard them.

She seems to be the head of the servers and she cut's off customers while talking. Anytime anyone requests something other than pointing at the menu, she says "No, can't do not allowed". In my case, it was raining heavily outside in the evening while I was on a work call, I had my laptop with me and no way to get back to my hotel in time. I requested her to please allow me an additional 20 mins to conclude the call and I even said, I can move outside while they clean it up, even before I could complete my request, she said no many times and essentially kicked me out in the rain in the middle of a work call.

Food is one thing, but human empathy and politeness are sorely missing in her. So decent food but...