For many, food brings us a lifetime of joy.
When we come together as friends to discover an exciting new restaurant, ordering too much food just so we can share and critique. When we feel special and want to be treated and wowed by something we know has been painstakingly created. When we travel and discover a new foodscape in a foreign land. When tired from school and dad makes the perfect dinner waiting for you to come home. When we are having a lazy Sunday and stay home making an easy comfort food dinner. Food is a basic human need that feed not just the body, but the soul.
Which happens to be the motto of Daddy’s Antique, a restaurant like no other in Chiang Mai which serves up gourmet standard European dishes, but without the pomp and the circumstance. Nath Deeanandlarp, the restaurant’s young owner spent his life in Canada and Australia, often visiting Europe where his father also spent much of his time travelling looking for vintage items and antiques.
“During my childhood in Canada, living with a host family for many years made me really learn to appreciate good solid home cooked food and how important it is in bonding friends and family,” said Nath of the inspiration behind his restaurant. “My dad had built a hotel here in Chiang Mai a few years back with a restaurant on-premises, but I felt that the restaurant needed a new direction from someone who really understood the importance of doing a restaurant business. I decided to quit my job in Bangkok and come to Chiang Mai to renovate every single aspect of our family restaurant, the interiors, garden, menu selection, and most importantly the open kitchen.”
“The result is a charming European-vibed casual restaurant decadently decorated with lush tropical ferns and European objets d’art. But the heart and soul are the menu selection that is very important and nostalgic to me.”
“European Comfort food is all about familiarity, things that we are used to and feel comfortable with but giving it a twist that you don’t expect, most important of all, every dish must have a reason for it and use the freshest ingredients only,” explained Nath. “The problem is that ingredients vary worldwide. That is why we spend so much time not just sourcing just the right product, but through putting in the painstaking process in our cooking with each ingredient, whether it is a comparable local product, or an imported item each ingredient’s flavour would be enhanced by putting in the right process. Many of our dishes appear to be deceptively simple, but the truth is to make something like the perfect croque monsieur, one of our more popular dishes, you can’t just slap some boiled ham and some cheese in between two slices of bread. What makes our dishes shine is in the detail, natural yeast sour dough made from home cultivated yeast, mango chutney made from Thai mango, Asian curry spice, walnut, and resin are just some of the example of the immense detail that goes into our Croque Monsieur.”
Daddy’s Antique’s menu is not vast, but it is on point and focusing on the things we really really want to put on the table. Pop in for a hearty breakfast of brioche eggs benedict and a strong cup of steaming coffee, or if you have a bigger appetite, go big or go home with Daddy’s big breakfast of grilled smoked bacon steak served with crispy potatoes with rosemary, toasted baguette, mixed greens with grilled lemon and a cr?me fruit dressing. Stop in for a light lunch of healthy avocado croissant with a wide selection of fresh beverages that uses no syrup or favouring just natural ingredients only, or make an evening of it and slice into a succulent steak served on a bed of rich Romesco sauce with a fine bottle of Spanish red wine.
Daddy’s Antique is a food destination for all occasions and Nath and his team will continue to source and forage the best ingredients so that they can bring to your body and your soul, the nourishing comfort which we all cherish.
All day dining brunch lunch and dinner from 9am – 10pm.
45/8 Moo 1, Mae Hia, Muang, Chiang Mai
facebook: daddyAntique Instagram: daddysantiquecafe
Tel: 094 764 1441
