Rating:

Fern Restaurant, on the main road of Mae Hong Son near the night market, is a funny place. The main dining area is immense, with a smaller area in the front and a large recessed section in the back that seems targeted to tour groups. However, it’s no longer high season, and we’ve had the restaurant mostly to ourselves on our visits.

The LP describes Fern Restaurant as “Mae Hong Son’s most upscale restaurant, but remember, this is Mae Hong Son.” This doesn’t quite give you the correct impression though. While the prices are higher than most in town, they still average under 150 Baht (<$5), and the setting is much more relaxed and low-key than you might expect. The staff are clearly used to foreigners, speak excellent English, and provide great table service. The tall ceilings, endless pitchers of ice water, and strategically placed fans provide welcome relief from the heat.

The food at the Fern is mixed. Our first meal was a bi-polar experience. We loved the fern salad, a house specialty mix of ferns, carrots, tofu, and peanuts with a chili-lime-coconut dressing. The dressing, reminiscent of that used in the wing bean salad at Bon Kitchen, is so addictive that we used the cabbage garnish and our leftover rice to soak up any remains. On the other extreme, the northern curry was a pungent, sour soup that we couldn’t force ourselves to finish.

Since then, we’ve always included the fern salad in our meal and it’s consistently delicious. Their green curry is also quite tasty, almost at the level of Rom Jinda’s. The red curry was decent but not as good as the  green curry. Take a pass on ginger chicken with black mushrooms unless you like very bland dishes.

Overall, Fern Restaurant is worth an occasional visit if you have an extended stay in Mae Hong Son. While Rom Jinda offers a more intimate atmosphere, better food, and generally cheaper prices, the Fern can provide a nice change of scenery along with an enjoyable meal of green curry and fern salad at around 200 Baht.

Tasty fern salad

Green curry

Two dishes not to order: northern curry and ginger chicken with mushrooms

Fern Restauran
Khunlum Praphat, across from the library
Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Daily: 10:30AM-midnight (Lunch, Dinner)

Rating:

When we arrived in Mae Hong Son, our guest house owner recommended a nearby restaurant called Rom Jinda. For our first dinner in Mae Hong Son we stopped by to check it out. The environment was warm and inviting, with cushioned seating available inside and an outdoor seating area with a fountain and lots of foliage.

The expansive menu includes Thai, Chinese, and pizza/pasta choices. Our first meal consisted of spicy fish with basil and chilies, and pad see iw. The fish was indeed spicy, with ample chilies and ginger, though river fish is not particularly exciting (we hadn’t yet internalized our landlocked location). The pad see iw was amazing, and was the first time I had pad see iw that rivals my hometown favorite at Jamjuree. The noodles are seeped in dark soy sauce and prepared with very fresh morning glory, carrots, cauliflower, and tofu.

We quickly became regulars at Rom Jinda, which we affectionately nicknamed “RJ” by our second week in Mae Hong Son (at which point we had probably eaten there six times). On our second visit I realized that the Thai dishes on the menu were separated into two sections. The three-page section at the front was labeled “Thai food”, and towards the back was a single page of dishes labeled “Easy Thai Food”. While the only commonality that I originally noticed among the “Easy Thai” choices (which included pad see iw) is that they were all 35 Baht, I later learned that the “Easy Thai” section covered a set of dishes on offer at most local food stalls.

While the menu listed the dishes in English, over time the wait staff educated me on the food’s Thai names and pronunciation. I think this was partially because they were really nice and partially because they got a huge kick out of correcting me when I’d err on my farang pronunciation (tonal languages are hard!). We learned a few off-menu specials such as yam rom, the house salad of greens, fried mushrooms, onions, mint, peanuts, and the traditional Thai dressing of lime and chilies.

It was also at RJ that I received my introduction to pad prik giang, a stir fry with red curry paste that is prepared slightly differently everywhere and is top-notch at RJ. Most of our meals at RJ consist of pad see ew, and either pad prik giang or giang kiew wan (green curry), or both if we bring another friend along for dinner. I’ve also enjoyed their spicy seafood salad and their pad thai.

Overall, I love Rom Jinda. It’s certainly the best atmosphere in town and, while not every dish is a standout, I dream about their green curry, pad see iw, and pad prik giang. We no longer live two blocks away from RJ, but it’s worth the uphill bike ride to get our regular curry and pad see iw fix.

Shawn loves Rom Jinda

The best pad see iw (that we’ve had) in Thailand

Awesome geang kiew wan gai (green cury with chicken)

Pad prik geang gai

Rom Jinda
Corner of Nivet Pisarn and Ratchatampituck
Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Daily: 12:00PM-3:00PM (Lunch), 5:00PM-10:00PM (Dinner)