Down under or Thai? Aussie mum trades Oz for Land of Smiles

[Ulysses G.]

Have you had the smoked BBQ Ribs at Salsa Kitchen yet? They really are the best in town.

How long before I give the place another visit?

Edited September 7, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[cmsoulbrother]

Thanks UG,

The air is actually thick with woodsmoke as I write this...but those ribs still have a couple of hours of smoky lovin to go before they'll become my dinner!

[Ulysses G.]

I'm on my way, so russle some good ones up for Big Ralphie Boy and myself please!

[mcgriffith]

I was there at Salsa about a week ago with CrowBoy, Austhaied, and the inimitable PeaceBlondie. Ribs were marvelous, as always. And so were the 1 litre jugs of Margaritas. I love the place. An 11 on a scale of 10.....

McG

[Crow Boy]

I was there at Salsa about a week ago with CrowBoy, Austhaied, and the inimitable PeaceBlondie. Ribs were marvelous, as always. And so were the 1 litre jugs of Margaritas. I love the place. An 11 on a scale of 10.....

McG

The ribs are very good but I leave that tequilla stuff to you boys. I will stick to the Singha thanks. My little one had never eaten farung style ribs before and it was a whole new experience for her. She was hungry and when a huge plate of food came out she thought it was a share meal deal like normal Thai food. She couldn't understand why it was placed directly in front of Peace Blondie diagonally across the table. Then your plate came and she still couldn't figure it out. When our plates of ribs arrived her eyes just went wide and she suddenly realised that we had all got our own plate of food. I think it took her about 3 seconds to figure out how to enjoy eating them and looked like a well fed pup at the end. Somewhere along the line I ended up with a couple of her ribs as well as my own. Obviously she has eaten ribs before but only Thai style and not slow smoked and with the sauce. She really enjoyed them and is looking forward to eating them again.

CB

Edited September 7, 2007 by Crow Boy

[Ulysses G.]

We went last night and the ribs were superb.

Ralphie-Boy and I don't agree on much when it comes to restaurants. He loves the Duke's Burgers, but I prefer the CM Saloon's. He loves the rib eye steaks at the Saloon, but I prefer the Duke's Australian sirloin; he HATED Mi Casa and The House and would never go back, where I just think that they are over-priced and pretentious, but worth a visit now and again when I'm bored of every place else and so on, but we both concur that Salsa Kitchen's Ribs can't be beat in Chiang Mai.

The new Caribbean menu looks good too, but I have no expertise concerning that kind of food, so am just guessing.

Edited September 8, 2007 by Ulysses G.

[Crow Boy]

We went last night and the ribs were superb.

Ralphie-Boy and I don't agree on much when it comes to restaurants. He loves the Duke's Burgers, but I prefer the CM Saloon's.

If I am after a plain up cheese burger the saloon is good, if I want something a bit different then I like the Dukes. However my favourite is Woodies for their "burger with the lot" The kebabs (chicken with cheese) are pretty good too.

He loves the rib eye steaks at the Saloon, but I prefer the Duke's Australian sirloin

I think Ron's Rib Eye (from NZ) steak is excellent and good value, I also like Dave's Sirloin (Australian).

he HATED Mi Casa and The House and would never go back, where I just think that they are over-priced and pretentious, but worth a visit now and again when I'm bored of every place else and so on.

I agree with both of you - I hate them both because they are pretentious and overpriced. The food is nothing special and I will never go back. There are too many really good little restaurants selling good quality food at reasonable prices to toss money away there. I rarely bag a place but I can't see what the lure of them is except for brag value. When I took out guests for meals we went to both of those places because the Thai MDs thought they were taking the visitors to somewhere special. It wasn't and universally failed to impress the visitors. If we had some good clients coming they enjoyed a visit to Le Crystal which is expensive but for the whole package of food, wine, service, and ambience is good value.

but we both concur that Salsa Kitchen's Ribs can't be beat in Chiang Mai.

Buckwheat was saying he is seriously thinking of coming to CM permanently. He had never considered our little part of paradise until he came up for the recce of the TV party. If he comes up he will be opening up a BBQ restaurant similar to what he ran very successfully in Pattaya before selling it for an offer he couldn't refuse. I took he and the rest of the TV admin to the Salsa Kitchen and they were impressed. High praise indeed. My personal opinion is that he would do well to run a Creole style restaurant with blackened cat fish, black eyed peas, jambalaya etc. All easy to source up here and something both the expat and the Thai can appreciate. Buckwheat was not keen thinking the uptake would be too slow because people don't know creole food. I still think it would do very well. In my mind we have a surplus of same same restaurants and need to have a couple that are different from the rest.

The new Caribbean menu looks good too, but I have no expertise concerning that kind of food, so am just guessing.

I only ever eat the ribs there so have no idea what the rest of the menu is like. McSpicy and PeaceBlondie both have eaten the other items on a couple of occasions. They would be in a better position to comment.

[Austhaied]

I was there at Salsa about a week ago with CrowBoy, Austhaied, and the inimitable PeaceBlondie. Ribs were marvelous, as always. And so were the 1 litre jugs of Margaritas. I love the place. An 11 on a scale of 10.....

McG

I'd give it a 12 out of 10. Can't wait to get back there. I think McG and i polished of 5 margarita jugs there one night . The ribs are delicious for sure.

[anonymouse]

I've been trying to eat at a couple of new restaurants every month but I still end up gravitating towards the Salsa Kitchen, great food, great margaritas.

Tried Woodys on Friday for the first time, lining my stomach before a night out on the piss,

I had the pork kebab which did the job. A group of Irish lads were in there for the second night running and reckoned that the burgers were the best they had ever tasted - anywhere!

Haven't tried Woodys burgers so I can't comment