Chiang Mai Restaurants › Cheap eats — under ฿300

45 places · cross-checked · updated August 2026

Cheap eats — under ฿300 in Chiang Mai

Top-rated meals at street prices: the Baht Heroes of Chiang Mai. As always: multi-list agreements first, every card shows all three judges, and nobody paid to be here.

Eating cheaply in Chiang Mai is not a compromise and it is not a hack — it is the default, and the reason so many people extend their stay. Everything on this page sits in the bottom price band our sources report, which in practice means Google's ฿1–200 bracket or TripAdvisor's single-dollar tier: a full plate of food, not a snack.

What that budget actually buys is worth being concrete about. A rice-and-curry plate with two toppings. A bowl of noodles with the meat on the bone. A whole grilled chicken with sticky rice and som tam to share. A plate of pad kaphrao with a fried egg on top, cooked to order in ninety seconds. The gap between a ฿60 meal and a ฿600 meal in this city is a gap in comfort, service and air conditioning far more often than it is a gap in cooking.

One honest caveat about this list. It is built from the price data our sources publish, and the MICHELIN Guide does not publish a price for its Chiang Mai entries — so the Bib Gourmand shops, which are by definition good cooking at a moderate price, cannot appear on this page at all. If you want the cheap end of the guide's own list, that is the MICHELIN page, and it is the best value in the city.

This list holds 45 places, 29 with a Google rating (averaging 4.6★) and 18 with a TripAdvisor score. 2 appear on more than one judge's list and sort to the top; 45 sit in the cheapest price band.

Mr. KAI Restaurant

Asian, Thai · ฿1–200
Double-CheckedCrowd FavoriteBaht Hero
GOOGLE4.7(2,480)TRIPADVISOR4.5(1,026)

“Friendly service, great tasting food, and good atmosphere.”

Map Reviews Compare

Thai Food Resto

Thai · ฿1–200
Crowd FavoriteBaht Hero
GOOGLE4.8(1,067)

“Delicious food, friendly staff and very chilled and relaxed environment.”

Map Reviews Compare

Nun's Restaurant

Asian, Thai · $
Baht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.7(643)

“Amazing Khao soi. Really love the food in this small place. Most of the time…”

Map Reviews Compare

Pakorn's Kitchen

Thai, Beer restaurants · $
Baht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.7(469)

“We had a larb and spring rolls and khao soi and it was absolutely amazing. — Great veggie Khao soi!”

Map Reviews Compare

Kat's Kitchen

Healthy · $
Baht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.6(1,079)

“Our must try: Kao Soi, Fried rice with pork and Mama noodles!! — Recommend the spring rolls!”

Map Reviews Compare

Krua Dabb Lob

Asian, Thai · $
Hidden GemBaht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.7(37)

“Absolutely loved the Khao Soi curry soup! — My husband had the massaman curry…”

Map Reviews Compare

Coconut Shell

Fast Food, Healthy · $
Baht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.5(780)

“The massaman curry and khao soi were outstanding, and the fresh coconut…”

Map Reviews Compare

Lucky Too

Pizza, International · $
Baht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.5(497)

“Thai food and breakfast — Best first Khao Soi experience :)”

Map Reviews Compare

Aroy Dee

Asian, Thai · $
Hidden GemBaht Hero
TRIPADVISOR4.6(37)

“The best restaurant of Chiang-Mai I recommend it, you will be not…”

Map Reviews Compare

Ratana's Kitchen

International, Asian · $
TRIPADVISOR4.2(671)

“This is one of my favourite restaurants in Chiang Mai. Great location on…”

Map Reviews Compare

How to use this list

Follow the queue, and follow the time of day. A shop with a line at 11:30am is selling to people on a lunch break who could go anywhere. A shop that is empty at 1pm has told you something.

Cash. The cheaper the meal, the more likely the answer to a card is a shake of the head. Small notes are better than large ones at a stall.

Cheap does not mean unrated. Several entries below carry four-figure review counts — this is not the bargain-bin end of the site, it is the part of it that most locals eat from.

⚔️ Can't pick two? Plate-Off them All 259 restaurants The MICHELIN list

Ratings are Google and TripAdvisor listings captured August 2026; MICHELIN status is the Guide's Chiang Mai selection. A blank column means our sources hold no score for that restaurant, which on some categories is the norm rather than a warning — how we built this.