hey guys,
just a note to say we had an amazing time in chiang mai, i absolutely loved the city!!!! (wonderful get-away from bangkok!!)

I had heard of the Whole Earth restaurant here on fodors, and we were excited about dining out there. I must say though that we were so utterly dissapointed!!
The menu was all in Thai, with a bit of English, but not enough to actually explain the dish... and asking the waiter was useless, as they barely understood english. service was proffessional but barely with a smile, and as we couldnt really understand the menu, we ended up not much liking our wild guess choices anyway.
what can i say, dinner for 2 in Thailand, for 1,000 bhat (lotta money in thailand)was so unexciting that i just had to post this and let u all know.

be warned.

Julia

i thought we had eaten there and that there was an english menu....there must be one, so many fodorites have been there...

We had an English menu when we went - it gave the names of the dishes in English but no description so I guess if we hadn't been familiar with Thai or Indian dishes we would be at a bit of a loss. From memory, the English menu was behind the thai menu or vice versa - but they were in the same book.

We had a fantastic meal the first time we ate there but the second time it was a bit lacklustre, making me wonder if it was the head chef's day off!
BB

Yes I guess we had an English menu ( can't remember) but I fancy there was at least one with pictures of every dish. Wasn't crazy about the place but thought it was ok and yes the service was to say the least laid back!

I at there years ago and was definitly unimpressed. There are much better places to get vegetarian food in Thailand.

Speaking of which, has anybody tried Tamarind Cafe in Bangkok (Suk 33 I think)?

guen tried it last winter and probably last week again and i have it on my list for november..

she says it is great!!

We tried it in December. The menu was in English, with lots of pictures. We were familiar with both the Indian and Thai dishes so ordering wasn't problematic, but the lack of description might have made ordering difficult if we didn't know what things were.

One problem we had was the dish we ordered for my daughter. We clearly said not spicy, for a child...and the waiter clearly understood, repeated it, told us children don't like spice. The dish, however, was the spiciest on the table...painful even for us. Our daughter was very unhappy, and drank two mango lassis to overcome the heat - they were quite excellent. She then ordered a grilled cheese sandwich which was of course, not spicy, but also not at all what she had in mind at the start of the meal.

The rest of the food was fine, but rather unremarkable. When food is really good or really bad, I remember afterwards what it was that I ate. In the Case of Whole Earth, I only remember the spice problem, but not what dish it was supposed to be. I also don't remember what we ate, other than it was neither very good nor very bad.

At any rate, we did not go back. We just weren't impressed. I'd recommend it only if your were staying nearby at Yaang Come village or Chiang Mai Plaza and wanted something nearby and easy.

We ate there in April 2006 and our menu was in English. we found the food to be good, not spectacular nor as good as 6-7 we ate at in Bangkok on that same trip. The prices were fair and the ambience was fairly decent. Sorry to hear you were not happy. Maybe host/hostess gave you the wrong menu and the head chef might have been on his/her day off.You are just lucky you did not eat at the Gallery for that was the most disappointing meal we had in Thailand.

We ate at the Whole Earth a couple of times in February as it was right next door to the Yang Come Village where we stayed. Compared to other Indian places we have eaten it was OK but in no way outstanding. There was an English menu but with very few descriptions. The place seemed to do good business and was crowded most nights. It was OK but not super great.
Sue