Top 10 Sai Oua in Chiang Mai: Where to Eat Northern Thai Sausage
Where to find the best sai oua in Chiang Mai, from a sausage seller at Warorot Market to northern Thai restaurants that serve the herb sausage with sticky rice.
Sai oua is Chiang Mai's signature sausage: coarsely chopped pork packed with red curry paste, lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaf, shallots, garlic and dried chilli, coiled into a spiral and grilled slowly until the casing blisters and the fat starts to drip. A good one smells of lemongrass before you bite it, tastes of herbs as much as meat, and has enough chilli to make you reach for the sticky rice.
You can buy it in two kinds of places. Markets such as Warorot sell it by weight, hot off the grill or wrapped to take away, with each vendor using their own blend. Northern Thai restaurants serve it as part of a spread of dips, curries and grilled meats. This list starts with a well-known sausage seller at Warorot Market, then covers nine restaurants where sai oua is one of the reasons to go, most of them named by the Michelin Guide as places to try it.
Every cook has their own recipe. Some versions are lean and dry, some fatty and juicy, some heavy on lemongrass, others milder and porkier. Trying two or three side by side is the easiest way to work out which style you like. If you want to make it at home afterwards, our sai oua recipe walks you through it.
What to look for
- Herbs you can see. Flecks of lemongrass, lime leaf and chilli through the cut surface are a good sign. A uniform pink interior usually means less paste and fewer fresh herbs.
- A slow grill. The best stalls grill over charcoal on a low heat so the inside cooks through without the casing splitting. A slightly charred, wrinkled skin is what you want.
- A queue. At markets, the stall with the line is usually the one locals rate, and turnover means the sausage is fresh.
- The right partners. Sai oua is eaten with sticky rice, fresh ginger, raw shallots, cabbage and a green chilli dip such as nam prik noom. Good vendors sell these alongside.
1. Sai Ua Mae Ga Bua at Warorot Market
Sai Ua Mae Ga Bua is a sausage seller inside Warorot Market, Chiang Mai's big central market by the Ping River. You will find her at the back of the fresh-food hall, and if you get lost, asking anyone for "Mae Ga Bua" should get you pointed in the right direction.
She sells sai oua by the kilo, but will cut a smaller section, around 200 grams, and wrap it in banana leaf and newspaper for you to take away. It is a good way to try a market-style sausage before comparing it with the restaurant versions further down this list.
Where: back of the fresh-food hall, Warorot Market (Kad Luang), Chang Moi, east of the old city. Order: a 200-gram piece of sai oua, with sticky rice from a nearby stall.
2. Huen Muan Jai
Huen Muan Jai is a northern Thai restaurant in a traditional Lanna-style wooden house in Chang Phueak, north of the old city, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. The Michelin Guide names it among the places to try sai oua, and Time Out's writers pick its sausage as the dish to order.
Order the sausage with the minced fish laap and plenty of sticky rice. If you want to try several northern starters at once, the Lanna hors d'oeuvres platter is a good place to begin.
Where: 24 Ratchaphruek Road, Chang Phueak. Order: sai oua, the minced fish laap and the Lanna hors d'oeuvres.
3. Tong Tem Toh
Tong Tem Toh is a busy restaurant on Nimman Soi 13 that draws crowds of locals and visitors for its northern Thai dips, curries and grilled meats. Its sai oua is often singled out by food writers as one of the best you can sit down to in the city.
Expect a queue at busy times, but tables turn over quickly. Pair the sausage with the gaeng hang lay, a rich pork curry topped with peanuts, and sticky rice.
Where: 11 Nimmanhaemin Soi 13, Suthep. Order: sai oua, gaeng hang lay and sticky rice.
4. Huen Phen
Huen Phen is a long-running northern Thai restaurant on Ratchamanka Road in the old city, south of Wat Chedi Luang. Sai oua sits on its menu alongside a range of northern curries and dips, which makes it an easy place to try several classics in one sitting.
Order the sausage as a starter to share while you work through the rest of the menu.
Where: 112 Ratchamanka Road, old city. Order: sai oua and a northern curry.
5. Kiti Panit
Kiti Panit occupies an 1880s mansion on Tha Phae Road, near the river end of the street, and serves an updated take on traditional Lanna cooking. It is one of the Chiang Mai restaurants the Michelin Guide suggests for sai oua, and Time Out includes it among the city's best places for northern Thai food.
Alongside the sausage, the Michelin Guide highlights the hang le (northern pork curry) and a grilled chicken salad with coriander. It is a more polished setting than most places on this list, and a handy choice if you are staying near Tha Phae Gate or the Night Bazaar.
Where: 19 Tha Phae Road, Chang Khlan. Order: sai oua, hang le mu and the grilled chicken salad.
6. Huan Soontaree
Huan Soontaree is a large, open-air Lanna-style restaurant on Pa Tan Road beside the Ping River, owned by the northern singer Soontaree Vechanont. It is listed in the Michelin Guide, which also names it among the places to find northern sausage.
Its most talked-about dish takes the idea of sai oua somewhere different: a boneless murrel fish stuffed with spiced pork, which Michelin describes as fragrant and spicy with well-seasoned sausage. It opens in the late afternoon and is closed on Sundays.
Where: 208 Pa Tan Road, north of the old city, on the Ping River. Order: the stuffed murrel fish and a plate of sai oua.
7. Krua Phech Doi Ngam
Krua Phech Doi Ngam is a popular northern Thai restaurant on Mahidol Road, south of the old city, listed in the Michelin Guide for a menu built on traditional Lanna recipes, local herbs and wild vegetables. Michelin's guide to Thai sausages names it as one of the places to try sai oua.
Check the seasonal specials and order the sausage as a starter while you decide on the rest. Michelin picks out the lap pla phia as a standout. It is open every day.
Where: 267/1 Mahidol Road, Pa Daet. Order: sai oua, lap pla phia and whatever is seasonal.
8. Krua Lawng Khao
If you are heading out of the city towards Mae Rim, Krua Lawng Khao is a relaxed northern Thai restaurant in a two-storey wooden house looking over rice fields, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. It is also one of the restaurants Michelin suggests for sai oua.
The menu is seasonal and focused on local specialities, so it is a good place to eat sausage the way northern families do, as one dish among many. It is closed on Mondays.
Where: 18 Mu 2, Soi Sukhaphiban Mae Rim, Rim Tai, Mae Rim. Order: sai oua, khao soi and a seasonal northern dish.
9. Lumdee Te Khuadang
Lumdee Te Khuadang is a big, Lanna-inspired wooden restaurant in V Community on the outer ring road in San Sai, north-east of the city. The Michelin Guide lists it for home-style northern Thai food cooked to order and served piping hot, and includes it among its picks for sai oua.
With around 200 seats, an air-conditioned room and a terrace, it suits groups and families. Order the sausage with the stir-fried termite mushrooms with herbs or the saep pork rib that Michelin highlights.
Where: V Community, Wongwaen Rop 2 Road, San Phra Net, San Sai. Order: sai oua, stir-fried termite mushrooms and saep pork rib.
10. Kinlum Kindee
Kinlum Kindee is a northern Thai restaurant in a quiet, green setting in Mueang Len, San Sai, that cooks with vegetables, fruit and herbs grown in its own garden. The Michelin Guide describes the flavours as bold and distinctly local, and lists it among the places to try sai oua.
It is a good place for northern food that goes beyond the usual dishes: Michelin mentions nam prik noom with fermented fish, khua khae with frog and a sweet vegetable curry with ant eggs. Add sai oua and sticky rice to round out the table.
Where: 172 Mu 3, Mueang Len, San Sai. Order: sai oua, nam prik noom and a garden vegetable dish.
Tips for eating sai oua in Chiang Mai
- Go to the markets early in the day. Sausage is grilled through the morning and the freshest batches sell first.
- Buy by weight. Market vendors sell sai oua in any amount, so ask for 100 or 200 grams to try a few stalls.
- Ask to taste. Many vendors are happy to cut you a sample, which is the easiest way to compare styles.
- Eat it with sticky rice, raw shallot, fresh ginger and nam prik noom. The ginger and shallot cut the richness.
- Taking some home? Ask for it vacuum-packed, keep it chilled, and reheat it on a dry pan or grill rather than in a microwave.
- Sai oua can be spicy. If you are unsure, start with a small piece and ask for a milder one before moving on to the herb-heavy versions.
Leonidas Georgiadis
Leonidas Georgiadis is the founder and writer of Aroy Mak Mak. He is from Greece, has been travelling in Thailand for almost twenty years and is married to a Thai wife, so Thai food is everyday family cooking in his home.
