Smoothie bowls make an excellent breakfast or brunch. They are usually packed with fruits and often include banana to give a thicker, creamier texture. Unlike a regular drinkable smoothie, they usual contain lavish toppings such as extra chopped fruit pieces or seeds, nuts, coconut shavings etc. They can be extremely healthy, low in fat, easy to whip up and yet can also fill you up easily as well. I am a big smoothie bowl fan. Getting a smoothie bowl was commonplace on the island of Bali when I was there. Now, smoothie bowls seem to be becoming more and more popular everywhere. I eat one almost every morning.
So, where in Chiang Mai can you get a good smoothie bowl? I have listed the places that I know of down below. If you know of any more, please inform me and I shall add them to the list! Thank you!
Snooze (OUR TOP PICK)
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/snoozechiangmai/ HappyCow listing: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/snooze-chiang-mai-99113
This small café is part of a guest house on the same premises. This place sells only smoothie bowls and only between the hours of 11:00 and 3:00 PM, which they do extremely well. The bowls are all of a good size and they have around five different creative varieties. They all taste fantastic and have a brilliant selection of toppings including things like almonds and puffed millet. You can add extra toppings for an additional cost. The prices here are very reasonable at 160 BAHT per bowl. It’s also a lovely little place to sit with a small garden, just a stone’s throw from Thapae Gate. Find it by walking past Boots Chemist going towards May Kaidee’s vegetarian restaurant. The owners are very friendly and chatty, and they were recently giving a discount for social media check-ins. They also give you free passion fruit and banana chips! For value, quality and ambiance this place is definitely our pick of the best.
Free Bird Café
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FreeBirdCafe/ HappyCow listing: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/free-bird-cafe-chiang-mai-17922 Veggie in Chiang Mai blog review: http://www.veggieinchiangmai.com/free-bird-cafe
Free Bird Café introduced two smoothie bowls to their menu a while back. There is a cacao bowl or a spirulina bowl. Both of these are reasonably sized portions and taste very good, the cacao one being our personal favourite. Although the price is probably higher than average, we feel that this is justified given we know they use rare and high quality super food ingredients, such as cacao.
VAVA Frozen Yoghurt
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vavayogurt/ HappyCow listing: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/vava-frozen-yogurt-chiang-mai-102120
This expanding chain now has several branches in Chiang Mai. We have yet to visit all of them but believe they are located at Thapae Gate, road to the Night Safari, Central Festival and Maya. Each branch is offering smoothie bowls which are non-dairy. They have interesting flavours such as a cocoa passion. They are reasonably priced but we found that the bowls could have been a bit larger as we found that one bowl did not quite fill us up. We’re also not keen on the fact that they sell them in paper plates with plastic spoons. We are pleased to see that vegan options like these are hitting the mainstream chains. (Note: Frozen yogurt is their primary offering, they have at least one vegan flavour.)
Fruit Pulse Healthy Juice Bar
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fruitpulse.juicebar/ HappyCow listing: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/fruit-pulse-juice-bar-chiang-mai-67938 Fruit Pulse is not a vegetarian café but they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options. They have things like green smoothies and several flavours of smoothie bowls. They are reasonably priced and are quite big bowls with lots of extra pieces of fruit sliced in them. The museli topping makes them filling, too. We found these to be a pretty good option for a fruit bowl in the centre of the city.
Rustic and Blue
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rusticandbluechiangmai/ HappyCow listing: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/rustic-and-blue-chiang-mai-100744
Rustic and Blue are not a vegetarian or vegan restaurant but have been recently adding more and more vegan options to their menu. Their smoothie bowls are mostly all vegan or can be made vegan, the same goes for their smoothies. We have tried the acai bowl which was of a very high standard. It was a huge portion, tasted great and had lots of extra fruit in it. We are just not quite sure it is all that much better than the one sold at Snooze even though it is almost twice the cost. The bowls are very good but just very over-priced.
Amrita Garden
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/amritagarden/ HappyCow listing: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/amrita-garden-chiang-mai-49074 Veggie In Chiang Mai blog review: http://www.veggieinchiangmai.com/amrita-garden
Amrita Garden is one of Veggie In Chiang Mai’s favourite vegan restaurants, especially since it is one of the rare places that do not use eggs or dairy in their main dishes (apart from a few desserts.) However, the smoothie bowl is not one of our favourite dishes. It is a very large bowl at a reasonable price but it is a bit too watery and lacks the thick and creamy texture that they are often known to have. This was more like a large drink in a bowl. It’s very green and probably very healthy but not for those wanting something a bit sweeter and luxurious.
Know of somewhere else that I have not included in the list? Have a comment on this article? Please contact me to let me know. Thank you!
Dee x