B Samcook Home 16, Chiang Mai, Thailand - Restaurant Review

Cuisine: Northern Thai and Fusion
Style Points: 5/5
Location: Chiang Mai
Price: ££-£££
Overall: 5/5

Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand has some of the best food in the country as well as some of the freshest ingredients. I absolutely love walking around Chiang Mai and discovering street food dishes that are both super cheap and incredibly delicious. However, even before I arrived in Chiang Mai I had heard about a restaurant that was creating quite a stir when it comes to Northern Thai cuisine. The unusually and uniquely named B Samcook Home 16 is located just outside the Old City and is a family owned restaurant that has been operating for just over two years under the highly talented Chef Boy. His food is both refreshing and daring as he tried to elevate the cuisine of Northern Thai to a higher plane of culinary finesse.

Before I get onto the food though I must mention the decor. The furnishings are hip and trendy, complete with koi pond and giant elephant statues to greet you at the door, making me feel as if I was back home in a restaurant in Shoreditch. Yet the ambience is super relaxed and it’s the type of place you could spend hours just reading a book with a steady supply of lattes.

The food?

We tried the Chef Table Set Menu and to kick off proceedings we tried the Spring Rolls with Crab Meat and Cream Cheese served with a refreshing Roselle and Rose Herb juice. The deep fried spring rolls were served halved in a martini glass and were very tasty with lots of herbs and chili running through it. The sweet crab meat and cream cheese went really well together and it was a great start to the meal.

Next up was one of my favourite Thai dishes, Tom Yum Soup, but this time with a fusion of Vietnamese cuisine. Tom Yum is hugely popular Thai hot and sour soup that is flavoured with lots of fragrant herbs and spices and usually has prawns or shrimps in it. I absolutely love it and was curious to try this one with a Vietnamese twist.

The soup came with a lovely grilled spice-rubbed shrimp skewer that was cooked perfectly and had the flavour of coconut running through it. The soup had an array of aromatic Thai flavours in it including galangal, lemongrass, garlic, green and red chilis, chives, basil leaf and coconut. However, it also had mushroom, nuts and tomato in it that really added some nice flavour and texture to it that I wasn’t really expecting. The soup had a good kick of spice in it as expected yet it was also packed with flavour and I happily ate it all.

Next we had the Pork Rib in Garlic Pepper Sauce. This dish serves as an appetiser before the main course and is inspired by the world famous Chinese BBQ spare-rib. The rib was crunchy on the outside and very tender on the inside after being boiled with Thai herbs for several hours then stir-fried with a sweet chili garlic sauce. The sauce itself was surprisingly quite mild with more of a sweet flavour yet it was very moreish and was a perfect accompaniment to the pork meat. I also really liked the presentation of the dish with the Thai flower on top and herbs around the side of the dish, although Gordon Ramsey might disagree!

Before the main course we were served a palette cleansing juice of cold pressed beetroot, carrot and broccoli which was quite a nice touch and helped to bring down the spice leftover in the mouth from the Tom Yum soup.

The main course dishes were up next and the first one was Grilled Salmon with spicy lime sauce. The salmon was grilled and skewered with a lemongrass stalk so it is infused with the flavour of the lemongrass. The lime sauce was ferociously hot and the accompanied orange half was put to good use to cut through the spice. However, my guest found it to be overwhelmingly hot by Western standards so you may wish to put the sauce to the side and just eat the salmon if you aren’t a fan of spice. The salmon was topped with salmon rose and mango pieces which was nice and refreshing but the dish probably could’ve done with more mango to help cut through the spice.

Following the salmon, we had Confit Duck Leg with Mix Berry Sauce. Beautifully presented again to showcase the wonderful flowers available in the region, the dish was fabulous. The duck was tender inside and the sauce itself was very tart but sweet dragon fruit that accompanied it worked perfectly to cut through the tartness. Both components worked very well with the rich duck meat as well as the peppery herb shoots.

Before dessert, we had one last juice palette cleanser of cold pressed guava, pineapple and green apple. Served in a shot glass, I wish it was in a pint glass as it was refreshing and delicious!

Onto dessert and it was a simple and traditional Thai dessert of mixed tapioca in coconut milk. Sadly, I’m not a massive fan of tapioca and this dish did little to change that but if you like tapioca you’ll enjoy this dish. My guest loves tapioca and really enjoyed the tapioca in this dish as it had a crunchy middle, though what was inside it we don’t really know! The coconut milk itself was rich and creamy and I happily consumed it without a second thought.

Price?

The set menu was 990 Baht per person which is around £25 or $30. This is seriously good value considering the amount of food you get and the fact that it is fine-dining. They also serve main dishes that are around 250-300 baht or £6-8 or $8-10. Again, very reasonable even if it costs more than a meal in a typical restaurant in Chiang Mai.

Overall?

I had a fantastic experience at B Samcook Home 16. This is a restaurant that isn’t afraid of taking traditional Northern Thai dishes and giving them a little twist to be enjoyed by locals and travelers alike. Chef Boy is not only a talented chef but also a great guy and is making great waves in Chiang Mai as a pioneer of Northern Thai Fusion cuisine. If you find yourself in the area, I would definitely recommend stopping at B Samcook Home 16. You will not be disappointed by the decor, ambience, service and, most importantly, the food.