Jul 08 2011
Chiang Mai’s best place for breakfast?
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The Blue Diamond health-food cafe in Chiang Mai‘s old town is hugely popular with expats, locals and tourists and has a reputation for being perhaps the best Western breakfast spot in town. It is actually open all day — 07:00 to 21:00 — so it’s a lunch, afternoon tea or dinner option as well, with plenty of Thai food options to choose from, but as the sign below indicates, it’s breakfasts that made it famous.
Blue Daimond The Brekfas Club.
Now the emphasis is on healthy eating, with organic-only fruit and veggies used and plenty of vegetarian and vegan choices, so think lashings of muesli, yoghurt and fruit salads for breakfast, and oodles of salads for lunch.
We were pleased to see that there were still plenty of unhealthy — but tasty — English-style fry-ups too, so you don’t actually need to have a beard and Grateful Dead T-shirt to eat here.
Dinner options include Western dishes as well as Thai classics (peruse the menu below…), though we’re a bit dubious about some of their cross-over dishes such as Massaman curry and spaghetti!?
Doors of perception.
Coffee’s also important at Blue Diamond (as the below indicates), so there’s a wide range of local brews and teas, as well as fruit juices and shakes too. The restaurant also incorporates a shop and bakery, so you can also stock up on organic fruit and veg, teas, coffees and so on while you’re here.
Nothing makes sense before coffee.
Blue Diamond is tucked away down Moonmuang Soi 9, so just past Somphet market on the left as the traffic flows (see map here). All in all, a great — yes and healthy — eating and drinking spot and not for nothing one of the most well known in town so we’ll leave you with a last shot of some happy eaters:
Look no (well not many) beards ...
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Tags: bakery, health-food, Moonmuang, organic vegetables, Somphet
This place is Ok but as you see from the pic the only custmers here are farang. I have never seen a Thai here.Prices reflect this.
Try the Garden Cafe at the Chang puak hotel on Chang Puak road about 500m away.
Blue Diamond is an institution here in Chiang Mai and well deserves its reputation for tasty food. The reason that there are few Thai customers is because the food is NOT Thai food. It is tasty farang food, sometimes with a Thai twist. It is more expensive than typical Thai restaurants which reflects the quality of the ingredients. On this they do not skimp. And Blue Diamond will be forever in our hearts because they purchased an adjoining lot and, rather than cover it in cement, built a beautiful pond and garden. Blue Diamond walks the walk. Eat there and enjoy!
[...] Blue Diamond ar ett utmarkt stalle att ata och umgas pa. [...]
I adore the BD too, i find its food amazingly fresh and premium quality. however, I dont agree with Earl.. at BD you DO find thai food indeed!! it’s a restaurant business owned by thais in thailand.. guess what? they serve thai food!!!
said so, you can of course find other types of dishes (western style like…) but you still dont get pasta, kebabs, tapas, escargots, gulash and pizza, right?