Meliá Chiang Mai recently launched Mai Restaurant & Bar, an intimate fine-dining space with spectacular views.
Meliá Chiang Mai, one of Chiang Mai’s fanciest five-star hotel, has luanched its signature Mai Restaurant & Bar. Located in the heart of Chiang Mai, the intimate fine-dining restaurant is set on the hotel’s 21st floor.
The restaurant will serve contemporary dishes from northern Thailand with Mediterranean influences, set to the panoramic vistas of the city and the famed Doi Suthep Temple on the mountaintop to the west.
Sited under the highest rooftop bar in the city, the 38-seat restaurant’s compelling design is reflective of the city’s culture. 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 grey, periwinkle and soft amber hues, reference umbrella tops in a striking yet subdued way.
“Given there are so many local restaurants in our vicinity that offer a great bowl of food, we knew from the outset that Mai Restaurant & Bar needed to be different with not just an aesthetically pleasing environment and a great view but also with one-of-a-kind dishes,” says hotel General Manager Edward E. Snoeks.
The menu celebrates traditional Lanna cuisine in a contemporary fashion with Mediterranean touches. Each dish uses a distinctive combination of ingredients and textures. The 360° Cuisine program promotes healthy and sustainable eating based on ‘farm to plate’ and ‘plate to farm’ processes, making for a guilt-free indulgent experience.
Helmed by 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.
With 28 years of hospitality experience, Chef Billy was previously the executive chef at some of Bangkok’s top hotels. From cook helper to Executive Chef, it’s been a long and illustrious journey. As for Chef Karn, he’s spent 19 years in the industry at notable places including Bangkok-based Michelin Guide restaurants Baan Suriyasai Royal Thai Restaurant and Saneh Jaan. Starting out in 1993 as chef de partie at Mahanaga Thai Fusion Restaurant, his career has taken him as far as Switzerland where he was Head Chef at Michelin Guide restaurant Patara.
What comes highly recommended here are ‘Mai’s Samplers’, which comprise tasting size portions of five different delicacies
- Crisp fried fluffy catfish and pomelo salad scented with rice field crab jus
- Vietnamese sausage and edible flowers salad roll with yellow chilli puree
- Grilled green chilli relish on crispy salmon skin
- Northern Thai-style pork sausage with grilled ginger and pickled cucumber
- Warm spicy tomato relish in a golden-fried tortilla
The main dishes include the delicious Pappardelle Soi Neur, fresh homemade pappardelle with creamy khao soi curry sauce and slices of seared Australian sirloin, served with homemade pickled vegetables and chilli oil. There’s also the 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. Designed to minimise waste and carbon emissions, chefs craft dishes using produce from the hotel’s nearby organic gourmet farm partnership with ORI9IN. Each and every possible part of each ingredient is used before leftovers are returned to the farm as compost.
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