Chiang Mai Cottage — Restaurant in Dacorum

Just a quick lunch with my wife in Hemel Old Town. The restaurant is in the row of what seem like Tudor, if Tudor-style terraced cottages at the far end of the high street.

Being a Wednesday lunchtime there only us and another table in use at the time we were there. We ordered:-

Set Meal A: MINIMUM OF 2 PERSONS OR MORE

› STARTERS CHIANG MAI MIXED STARTER Selection of satay chicken, spring rolls, thai fish cakes, prawns toast, fried chicken wings.

› MAIN COURSE Thai panang curry in coconut milk, with tiger [kind*] prawns, Wok fried beef with thai mild ginger (galinga) & chillies. Stir fried mixed vegetables with oyster sauce Steamed thai fragrant rice

Tea or Coffee

on the printed menu there's a typo calling the prawns "Kind" instead of King, which conjures up images of very accommodating prawns, helping older prawns across the road before dutifully hopping into hot water.

There are 4 set menus, one of which (D) is for four or more people, A to C for two or more.

The food was plentiful, hot and tasty, starters coming with satay, sweet chilli and another dip which I can't identify. Main course wasn't spicy but we were asked what our spice preference was by the waiter when ordering, so the meal can be tailored to suit you. The kind prawns were nice as was the beef and veggie dishes. Beef was a little tough though not unpleasant.

We had a green tea and a large soft drink which in total came to £46 plus tip.

I imagine, as it's quite tight for space upstairs and down, that the atmosphere is great when busy but make sure you call to book. No online booking.

Food was fine for a set menu but we'll go again to sample some of the a la carte options next time.

Better than Thai Rack in St Albans and more genuine than Giggling Squid. Set menus are good value. Give it a go.

You can park around the back in the public car park and walk up to the High Street next to the pay machines in the middle,...

Visited Chiang Mai last night, it was busy so I expected the food to be good. The service was great, felt looked after and no problems there. However with regards to the food I think the portion control needs to be looked at, there is definitely quantity but when your ordering meat dishes you expect meat to be in the dish. I ordered chicken masaman and a beef noodle dish. I both there was a real lack of meat in both. The masaman was loaded with potato and the noodles just everything but beef. I was so unimpressed that I decided to write this review so that the owners understand that they need to beware. You have got a great little buisness, but dont think that people will not notice when you start stretching the boundaries of ripping customers off.

There are 2 things which you could do. 1: either raise the price of meat dishes that reflect the amount of meat in the dish 2: look at the portion control with your establishment.

I thoroughly enjoyed the TomKa soup which was excellent. And I will definitely return, so I hope that this feedback will help you inspect...

A very strange ‘Thai restaurant’ experience. The food was bland, flavourless, unmemorable. A salad arrived without dressing but with a peanut dip to accompany it. The salad itself consisted of dried out pieces of carrot and lettuce, white and red onion, white onion? Very odd. No cucumber, no lime and no chilli. Three staple items in a Thai salad. A chicken salad was also unpalatable, with rubbery and gristly pieces of rather old chicken. We returned that dish and it was taken off our bill accordingly. Maybe the real chef was not in post that day. There is no way of knowing. If this was food cooked by the main chef and they earn 4.4 in review scores the customers must be from another planet. Having eaten Thai food all over the UK and all over the world I know a little bit about what qualifies as authentic and good quality Thai food. This was a 0 out of 10 experience. A huge pity as a lot of people seem to recommend this restaurant but perhaps that is when the true chef is in post a big letdown. Was hoping for a quality meal based on the 4.4...