Chez Marco

Best food city in Thailand? If variety, availability, cooking inventiveness and scale are the judging benchmarks - Bangkok is the hands down winner.

However, when it comes to value for money, as well as quality and freshness of ingredients, we think Chiang Mai edges it. One eatery that showcases these qualities and more (much more) is Chez Marco (CM), a popular and lively french restaurant.

Located at the top end of busy and boisterous Loi Khro Road in the old town, the CM kitchen prepares and serves some of the best southern french food that I've ever eaten outside of Provence and Avignon.

*Lemon and pepper crusted lamb chops - one of the best lamb dishes that I've ever eaten.

On taste, flavour, quality, presentation and serving sizes it far outscores french eateries visited in Singapore and Bangkok.

CM also scores big on atmosphere, and whether sitting indoors or in the open air front area, big laughs and plenty of banter is almost mandatory.

Chargrilled aubergine and capsicum salad. 

Dish sharing is also encouraged and we started with big plates of beef carpaccio, chargrilled vegetables and a smoked chicken salad. Our mains included a hulking rib eye perfectly cooked (grilled beautifully on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside), lemon and pepper crusted lamb cutlets, sizzling hot pan fried squid and prawns, duck and a simple pasta. Everything was devoured by our table of six happy diners.

Duck with apple and balsamic sauce.

Our desert orders of apple crumble cheesecake, creme brulee, chocolate cake and coffee ice cream took us to new heights on the joy richter scale and I'm hoping it won't be too long before I can dine at this magnificent restaurant.

There's still plenty on the menu to be tried and savoured and we didn't even get onto the wine list.

Chez Marco FB page
Great interview with Chef Marco
And another

*Photos borrowed from CM's FB page - hope that's ok.