All About Coffee is our favorite coffee shop in Thailand!
I have written a post about the lovely Pai already but I feel ‘All About Coffee’ deserves a post all of its own.
Sitting 145 km away from our house in Chiang Mai, nestled deep in a leafy wooded valley sits a little wooden house.
This traditional Shan style house, standing for 140 years, blends unassumingly into the quiet road.
As a passerby, you wouldn’t know its greatness from the outside and could easily walk past it, never knowing what you were missing.
To anyone else this wooden house, concealed from the rest of the world by the mountains of Northern Thailand, could just be another little coffee shop in the small village of Pai. To us it is a beacon.
It was the place we headed straight to, 7 years after discovering it on our Round the World trip. Within half an hour of arriving in Pai, we were sitting at one of the wooden tables with our dog at our feet.
We were worried that maybe in our absence the coffee shop would be no more, or we had built it up in our minds, making it better than reality.
Yet as we approached, it was as if we had never left, it had stayed exactly the same.
It had no reason to change.
There are many coffee places and cafes in Pai to choose from yet what sets this coffee shop apart from all the other’s, is the ambiance.
The rustic wooden charm, the soft jazz music playing in the background, a perfect place to relax, to read a book, or just sit, taking in the surroundings and gaze at the art work proudly adorning the walls as you sip on what could be one of the nicest coffees ever to pass your lips.
The decadent cakes are the major draw for a visit to All About Coffee, 7 years ago when we visited, we sat at the wooden tables and ate chocolate brownies and passion fruit shakes. This is a memory that never left us.
Each brownie that we consumed since never managed to reach the level of what we had tasted here.
Jmayel always saying after finishing a slice ‘it wasn’t as good as All About Coffee’
Cravings for a passion fruit smoothie as we sat on the sofa in our flat in England, reminiscing about our travels in Thailand and the visit to Pai, with the amazing brownies.
The delicious cakes all made by the welcoming and friendly owner, Watcharee, are something to go out of your way for.
When we first placed our order, chocolate brownies and passion fruit shakes of course, she modestly came out to tell us about her signature dish, the renowned ‘Binoffi Pai’ – we told her that we had waited too long for these brownies with a promise to return the next day and sample her famous desert.
We were in Pai to celebrate our very first wedding anniversary, and on the morning of our celebrations we started off the day in All About Coffee where we had a leisurely late breakfast, only on anniversary weekends do you get to eat chocolate brownies straight after your breakfast!
The menu at All About Coffee is simple and elegant, breakfasts and lunches all made with fresh homemade bread with a large selection of coffee, teas, fruit shakes and juices to choose from.
As promised to Wat we returned later on in the day after exploring the surrounding area and nearby waterfall, I tried the special banoffee pie whilst Jmayel devoured a delicious portion of mango cheese pie. Made with fresh in season local mangos. Both were immensely enjoyed and utterly scrumptious.
The indulgent chocolate and ginger pie wouldn’t be out of place in a Michelin stared restaurant and I would quite happily drive the 3.5 hours back there just to have a single slice.
Presentation of the cakes is just fantastic, you know you are in for something great when it is brought out to you looking so perfect you almost don’t want to eat it.
If you haven’t already guessed I have a bit of a passion for coffee shops and if I was ever lucky enough to own my own one, I picture it to be a little sister to All About Coffee, it is exactly what a coffee shop should be.
Petite, rustic, relaxing and enticing, great food, fantastic beverages, with an interesting art gallery on the upper level.
You may think I am biased towards this little gem as it has a place in our hearts from when we travelled the world.
All I can say is, come and see All About Coffee for yourself and try not to fall in love.
All About Coffee can be found at:
100 Chaisongkram Road
ViangTai,
Pai
SADLY ALL ABOUT COFFEE PAI HAS NOW CLOSED. BUT THEY HAVE MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION TO CHIANG MAI THAILAND.
View All About Coffee, Pai in a larger map
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