Teng Nueng — Restaurant in Chiang Mai Province

My favorite Thai restaurant is hard to say. There are obviously hundreds to choose from on potentially just one street. So what makes me give Teng Nueng the number one spot ? I believe one major reason we travel is for the difference in our surroundings. So the atmosphere here is so much of what I would expect in south east Asia. Cement floors and walls, with random koi pounds, even one in the center of the room. Open air with cats wondering in as they please. In addition to that is the service that the owner JJ provides. Every day greeting his guests and wanting to provide you with a local and honestly the best price for a portion I've had here. I asked JJ what he was reading one day while I was having my typical chicken fried rice and mango smoothie. He told me he was practicing Chinese so he could interact on a more personal level with his guests. This is because of the large increase in Chinese tourists the past few years. So that really stood out to me as an owner of a restaurant here. Finally the food is fantastic with a very large menu of just about every Thai dish you could ask for. I've tried many things here and I'm always impressed with how well done it is for the price - typically around one US dollar. If I head over into the tourist district I would easily pay four or five for a dish that was more quantity...

Prices are pretty good but I was not impressed by the food. I asked the waitress for a recommendation and ended up picking the chicken with cashews, I also asked for a papaya salad thinking it would be refreshing. I made sure to tell her I eat medium spicy when she asked if I like spicy. She was sweet and helpful. The chicken and cashew dish was okay, the chicken and cashews were tasty, but the peppers and onions were lacking flavor. The portion was quiet small, the rice was okay but the hero of the dishes was not enough. The papaya salad arrived much later, after I was done eating and unfortunately was so spicy that I couldn’t finish it. I was still hungry since the chicken dish portion was so small, but because my mouth was in pain I couldn’t eat any more of the salad. I did tell the waitress that it was way too spicy when I was leaving and she apologized. I just wanted her to know to be more careful with tourists...

The food isn't the worst I've ever had...but there are two important reasons I wouldn't go back. First is that the portions are laughably small and inconsistent...I felt bad for my friend who just got a couple of sad slices of chicken (not that I had much more on my plate!). The worst part is the mosquitos though...they have a lot of decorative water fountains/ponds --- which is pretty and tranquil --- but man you will get eaten up by mosquitos, and don't even think about using the bathroom, it's not maintained plus the mosquitos are all over it!! The mosquitos are the only ones getting a full meal at...