I had lunch today at a new Italian restaurant (Italics) on Soi 9, off Nimmanhaemin Road. It is a new hotel (Akyra Manor) and restaurant that just opened yesterday. In my opinion, it is upscale from all other Italian restaurants in Chiang Mai. I had a vegetarian pizza that was the best I have had in Thailand. The quality is what you would expect in a high end Italian restaurant in Italy. They served bread and water at no charge.

The pizza was 250 baht and once vat and service was added, it came to 295 baht. It is not cheap but won't break the bank either. I wrote this for the people who enjoy dinning out at nice restaurants who are not here on a shoe string budget. If you think "Dukes" is expensive, please keep moving, as there is nothing to more to see here.

This is their web site; WWW.theakyra.com. They are open daily from 7:00 am-11:00 pm.

Thanks,I'll give it a try.

might give it a try,seeing as why not, has doubled its prices,still think youse can not beat loh kanta though,

might give it a try,seeing as why not, has doubled its prices,still think youse can not beat loh kanta though,

Koh lanta was my first restaurant of choice for 3yrs, until they fell down on service big time during a high season visit; then I was introduced to Grandpas and never looked back in the direction of K.L or even Dukes.

incidently is Beccafinos still going; I have a sneaky feeling that it closed 3/4 month ago and has been taken over.....but I am not at all sure.

Grandpa's? Where is Grandpa's and what's on the menu? Oh, yeah. If compared to Dukes, more or less expensive?

if it is the Grandpa;s I am thinking about I love it, a bit of a ride but yum

some dude wrote a review of it here

http://learnthaireviews.com/best-pizza-chiang-mai/

I hunted down Koh lanta when they moved from behind spotlight/tha phae to nimman.

My options expanded, yet I thought they stayed the same so i moved on.

I don't live west-side.

On the east side of town Buonissimo is well worth a look.

Thanks for the tip #CMNightRider. We just happened to be in Chiang Mai today so we stop by Italics for dinner on your recommendation. We enjoyed the food and service very much. We even got a tour of their mockup rooms from the restaurant manager. She says they hope to open the hotel in October.

Thanks for the info OP. Always good to hear of new quality restaurants, especially Italian.

might give it a try,seeing as why not, has doubled its prices,still think youse can not beat loh kanta though,

Koh lanta was my first restaurant of choice for 3yrs, until they fell down on service big time during a high season visit; then I was introduced to Grandpas and never looked back in the direction of K.L or even Dukes.

incidently is Beccafinos still going; I have a sneaky feeling that it closed 3/4 month ago and has been taken over.....but I am not at all sure.

Beccofino closed last year to be reopened as an Italian rest with another name. Was talking to someone there and they said they needed some time to rebrand and develop a new menu, like a month. That was quite a while ago Don't know if it actually got off the ground. Every time I pass the joint looked deserted.