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It was 20 years ago that Le Crystal Restaurant opened its glass doors, inviting us into its glittering fine dining restaurant which led to a charming rose-lined English garden facing the Ping River. Serving classic French fare, with, at the time the most impressive wine cellar in the city, Le Crytal’s spotless tablecloths presented plate after plate of French cuisine’s beloved favourites as its three-piece classical band serenaded guests and its unobtrusive staff came and went with ghostly attention.
Twenty years later and truly little has changed. Consistency is the mark of an excellent restaurant, and Le Crystal has consistently maintained its DNA as a fine dining establishment, changing only ingredients, produce and the occasional menu item or bottle of wine and champagne as supplies and demand rose and fell. Even many of the staff have remained the same, year after year perfecting their craft and working together through some of the best and toughest of times such as the pandemic.
Riddhi Diskul, 47, who has managed Le Crystal since he returned home to Thailand from the United States in 2010, taking over the business from his father, its founder, says that Le Crystal has been fortunate to have enjoyed some very loyal long term customers who have dined at Le Crystal for not just years, but decades.
“They appreciate the fact that they can come here and expect a certain high standard of food and service and we have always been focused on maintaining this. We are still very proud of our food as well as our wine cellar and our service, not being tempted to veer into fusion food or food trends, which come and go. Our restaurant is for people who truly appreciate classical French cuisine, a timeless and elevated dining experience which is focused on ingredients, techniques and refinement.”
Riddhi’s grandparents, both from Bangkok, used to come to Chiang Mai every winter for a holiday, falling in love with the northern capital and eventually buying this plot of land by the river. When his father started visiting many decades ago, he too fell in love with the city but struggled to find somewhere he wanted to eat at since he had studied in France’s Bordeaux region as youth and loved his French cuisine. He then recalled that their family owned this plot of land by the river, and remembering his years in London and how much he enjoyed many wonderful meals by the Thames River, he decided then to build Le Crystal on the family land.
“We have had so many highlights here over the years, from Princess Sirinthorn’s visit, which was so truly special, to many private events and special occasions.”
In fact, Citylife has also had quite a relationship with Le Crystal, writing the first article about the restaurant for The Nation newspaper in 2006 called ‘Bling Bling on the Ping’ to organising our post pandemic River Crawl when we brought boatloads of guests to the restaurant as one of the stops along the Ping River.
Citylife has also been invited to judge in-house cooking competitions, whereby all staff of Le Crystal, not just those working in the kitchen, were split into teams and tasked with creating new dishes. There were some truly creative, innovative and superb plates of food.
Every year Le Crystal can also be found at the Citylife Garden Fair, so if you haven’t made it to this grand dame of a restaurant, you can certainly get a taste of them later this November at our fair.
“There will always be people who want a classic meal,” said Riddhi, who says that many couples choose Le Crystal to mark special life moments, numerous groups come by to celebrate achievements and it is always a good spot for friends to come together to enjoy a fine meal.
The wine cellar, said Riddhi, is as well stocked as ever, and we noticed that prices start at a very reasonable 1,400 baht per bottle.
When asked what the secret to Le Crystal’s longevity was, Riddhi answered without hesitation, “the staff.”
If you haven’t been, head over to check out this magnificent restaurant which guarantees a fine dining experience at a quality rarely found in the city.
Le Crystal is open for dinner from 5 pm.- 10 pm. (Closed on Mondays)
Live music jazz band: 6.30 pm.–9.30 pm.
Tel. 084 177 6599, 053 218 059
www.lecrystalrestaurant.com
