Ta Boon Buffet ตาบุญ ขนมจีนบุฟเฟต์ - Chiang Mai, Thailand

The literal translation of the restaurant is Ta Boon khanom jeen buffet. Khanom jeen is a type of fresh noodle which is sometimes fermented for three days (source : wikipedia). Khanom jeen is usually served with curry or some sort of sauce. 

I happened to find this restaurant while looking at Google maps for any restaurants in our area. This place showed up as a buffet of northern style food. I thought it was a great idea to try different types of northern style dishes that I most likely wouldn't have bought myself. Hubby liked the idea as well.

From our hotel in the Huay Kaew area we took a grab to the restaurant. It wasn't very far distance wise but by then it's pretty warm so we didn't want to feel hot and sweaty when we got there. Save our energy for the buffet instead. 😁

When we got there, we went straight to the counter. I didn't realize but we had to pay first before being seated. After we paid then we each received a plate and a bowl. That's ours to use for the whole time we were there. It's kinda of a nice concept to reuse bowls and plates. But I would like to use a porcelain bowl and plate instead of melamine. I do understand that using melamine wares are cheaper and safer. Perhaps.

The bad thing about reusing the dishes for items that has soups is we have to drink off the excess soup or throw the soup away. On my first round I didn't take too much soup for my khanom jeen so I poured the excess broth in the trash bin. 😅 Not sure how others are doing it. 

Of all the dishes there we only know khao soi and perhaps green curry. The rest of the broth got names next to it but it's in Thai. I noticed one with tangy flavor and another one rich and almost fishy flavor. Too bad I didn't know the names. I also liked one that had pork bones in it. Very interesting. 

Another item I found interesting was some purplish rice (maybe riceberry ?) wrapped in leaves. I half thought it was sticky rice. It wasn't sticky rice and it wasn't plain either. It's a bit salty and savory. I saw a person at the table next to us putting some fried shallot on it. I ate mine with a combination of broth. 😂

Btw, if you are taking Grab to this restaurant, search for Khao Ngiao Ta Bun Restaurant instead. For some reason I tried to search Ta Boon Buffet and couldn't find it. Maybe it's a matter of translation.

Ta Boon Buffet

RX59+8FX, Tambon Chang Phueak, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50300

Phone: 089 755 5055