Maadae Slow Fish Kitchen — Restaurant in Chiang Mai Province

Highly rated spot so decided to try it out! I made a reservation 48 hours in advance and managed to get a spot at 6:00pm. If you make a reservation, you’ll sit inside, and if you don’t, you’ll sit outside.

I ordered the charcoal fish 15 minutes before ordering my other dishes as I was still deciding on which items. All 3 of my dishes ended up coming out together!

Yellow queen fish 600g - 10/10 - delicious!Enough for 2-3 people honestly. It wasn’t dry nor was it difficult to remove from the bones. Some parts of the skin (top) may be difficult to eat so be careful.

Hor mok pla - 9/10 - It has a kick but a good kick! I ate it with the fish and the spice mellows out. The paste wasn’t dry as what others say.

Crab fried rice- 4/10 - I had some kind of shell (crunchiness) in the dish. It’s nice seeing small bits of crab in my fried rice but the spice/flavor wasn’t there.

coconut spago - 3/10 - the coconut milk was really salty. The spago was sweet. Even when mixed together, the salt took over.

Price - it’s on the pricier side. The fish I worth it though.

Interior - it’s warm… went in and it was 28C, as we left it became 29C. Saw multiple people wiping their face while eating. I’ve read flies being outside but I didn’t expect it to be inside as well. I had to shoo flies 4 times...

Slightly disappointed for a nice operation.

Regretfully, A couple of incidents forces me to give a 3 star review for what could’ve been 5.

Wine: They have a few selections of wines on the menu which are sold by the glass, however upon inquiry, they only offer 1-2 selections by the glass. I wanted the chenin blanc which they had in a bottle, I asked them to open the bottle and serve a glass since I didn’t want the entire bottle. They declined, forcing me to purchase the entire bottle. -1 stars here.

They have nice grilled seafood and one of the menus were The grilled fresh water prawns. When we ordered, we got 2 prawns. After, I noticed that other table orders were getting 3 prawns. I asked them why we only got 2 instead of 3 like all the other tables and the server explained that it’s by weight and that it’s same same. In order for 2 prawns to weigh as much as 3, each prawns must be 50% larger. I looked to compare and they were not any bigger. -1 star here.

Make sure you get 3 prawns in total.

Other than these, the atmosphere was nice, some of the other foods were hits, some were ok.

They clean the kitchen at the end of the operation everyday it seems.

Servers were generally quick to respond and nice.

But for me, I wouldn’t return. The Food was good but...

The experience at this restaurant was profoundly disappointing, starting with the service, which can only be described as outright discourteous. Upon entering, instead of being welcomed with a smile or even a polite greeting, we were brusquely asked whether we had a reservation. At the time, more than 50% of the tables were visibly unoccupied. Despite this, we were instructed to wait outside, with the promise that someone would come to us within 2-3 minutes. In hindsight, we should have left immediately, as things only deteriorated from there.

I ordered fish and a glass of white wine, specifically inquiring whether the wine was dry. I was assured it was. However, the Riesling served was anything but dry, leading me to suspect that a cheap, inferior wine had been poured into another bottle to mislead customers. It certainly did not resemble the Riesling it was purported to be. The fish was passable at best, but the fried rice with crab was utterly bland, as if the kitchen had entirely forgotten the concept of seasoning.

The overall experience left much to be desired, both in terms of service and cuisine. It’s hard to recommend this establishment to anyone seeking a refined...