Places to Eat in Lampang

Lampang is a great place to taste local northern Thai specialties in a more authentic version than those found in more tourist-oriented Chiang Mai venues.

Street Food and Markets

Street food is available everywhere in town, both in the old part and in the new one. Every evening many local vendor set up stalls with cooking stations and a few plastic chairs and tables and offer delicious traditional Thai food. Even if it can be quite complicated to communicate, give it a try anyway, since most of time this is how you’ll get the chance to try the most authentic, tasty and cheap food.

If your hotel happens to be on Sanambin Road (the road to the airport) check out Khao Gaeng Im Aroy, located in the beginning of the road coming from the city centre. They cook everything right in front of you and their curries are exceptional – don’t miss the panaeng gai if you like chicken. For a fish alternative you can try pla duk, catfish fried with curry paste; the result is crispy and extra tasty pieces of catfish with a mixed sweet and spicy flavour. Everything they sell will come at THB30 per portion.

If you’re looking for a more organized night market with a lot of vendors to choose from head to train station where you’ll find all the classic street food dishes like chicken or pork skewers, rice dishes, pad thai, noodles and much more. Seating options are very few since the Thai way to visit a night market is just to walk around and with a snack and buying more food to take home.

Noodle Shops

For a quick lunch while visiting the old town, search for one of the many noodle shops selling khao soi, a traditional northern Thai dish made of egg noodles with a coconut milk curry sauce. They usually come with chicken or pork, but even the beef option is quite common in Lampang. Every different shop has their secret recipe of the curry and the result is that you’ll hardly find two dishes tasting exactly the same. Make sure you choose a shop that uses homemade noodles. A dish shouldn’t cost you more than THB40/THB50 regardless of the setting and the location.

Local Food

On the southern side of the river, close to the River Side Guesthouse, Mae Hae (1017 Thanon Upparaj), is an institution among locals for regional northern Thai food. With over 50 years of history, they definitely know what they’re doing, with no concessions to any changes in favour of healthier or fancier variations of this incredible tasty cuisine. And the best part is that if you don’t know about this venue, you would probably never stop there, since it doesn’t look any different from the other countless hole-in-the-wall restaurants with just 3 or 4 tables.

Mae Hae is best visited at lunch time, since the food is prepared in the morning and put on display in a glass showcase. And of course the best dishes will sell out quite quickly and if you show up in the evening, you’ll have a much narrower choice. Most of the dishes contain pork meat and everything is delicious, but if we had to choose one we would go with gaeng hunglay, tender and juicy (and extra fatty) pieces of pork belly in a terrific sauce where ginger, garlic and tamarind are the strongest tastes. Northern herbs sausages are definitely not too be missed either. Prices are within the THB30/THB50 range and Mae Hae is open every day from 11:00am to 8:00pm.

Western and International Food

A great option for a chilled dinner in a great location is Riverside, next door to River Side Guesthouse (286, Talad Kao Road) and owned by the same people. Thai and Western food are listed among the entries of rather a long English menu, and the location right on the river makes it a good spot to spend a few hours before or after dinner enjoying a cold beer with a nice view.