Huan Soontaree: Where Lanna food, folk music and the Ping meet
This traditional Northern Thai restaurant is a Chiang Mai institution, and if you haven’t been, read on.
Iconic Huan Soontaree is perched on the banks of the Ping River along Pa Tan Road, where Lanna food and folk music have been converging in a quintessentially Chiang Mai setting — open-air, wooden columns, colourful glowing Lanna lanterns and splendidly Ping-side — for decades.
The perfect place to take out-of-town guests or to satisfy a Northern Thai food and cultural craving. At the centre of it all is Soontaree Vechanont, the celebrated diva of folk music in Northern Thailand. She established the restaurant in its current form in 2015, though it has been a fixture of the Chiang Mai scene for over two decades. Each evening she takes to the stage to perform traditional melodies in lovely lilting northern Thai — her songs long established as national classics. If you are really lucky, on a rare occasion her daughter Lanna Commins, who became a household name in her recent youth for her blend of traditional Lanna music and pop, steps up for a song.
The food holds its own. Three consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2022–now) speak to a kitchen that rolls out consistently banging dishes. The signature boneless snakehead fish, stuffed with spiced pork sausage and fried to a golden crisp, is the dish to order. Beyond that, hung-le — the deep, sweet-savoury pork belly curry that defines northern Thai cooking — and sai-ua sausage fragrant with local herbs are essential. The northern mixed platter, with nam prik num, nam prik ong and pork crackling, is an ideal introduction for the uninitiated.
Open Mondays to Saturdays from 4pm with parking.
208 Pa Tan Road
