Ready for a front-row seat? Here are the essential restaurants in Chiang Mai – and beyond – leading the culinary charge.

Vinegar, lime and chiles keep things from veering too sweet in Yewande Komolafe’s honey-glazed chicken and shallots.

The menu features Filipino Spanish dishes, drawing from the Philippines’ history as a colony of Spain, by chef Anton Dayrit. This means baby octopus adobo, longanisa fried rice with crab, prawns in ...