$208! Chiang Mai Thai Hot Pot All-You-Can-Eat A Variety of Seafood & Meats to Choose From

Text & Photos byXiao Sheng

Sukonthan Buffet’s all-you-can-eat Thai hot pot, with its rich variety of ingredients and traditional Thai-style hot pot, has always been attractive to me. After three years away, I revisited it — the environment remains the same, but the feeling is totally different.

This is my third visit to Sukonthan Buffet. The price has gone up from the initial 139 Bhat, then to 199 Bhat, and now it's 229 Bhat for all you can eat. Having not visited in three years, in today’s Chiang Mai — now swarmed with Chinese tourists — Sukonthan Buffet has even acquired a Chinese name: “Qian Ren Hot Pot” (Thousand People Hot Pot).

The Thousand People Hot Pot still maintains the same environment — a spacious setting with hundreds of tables. Although it probably couldn’t actually accommodate a thousand people, serving several hundred at once with Thai hot pot is no issue. That said, the crowd is noticeably thinner than it used to be.

Over time, more and more mainland Chinese visitors have come here, so many of the restaurant’s dining rules now have Chinese versions available. There aren’t many staff who can speak Chinese, so having the rules in Chinese is quite convenient for those who don’t understand English or Thai.

The environment hasn’t changed much from a few years ago — there’s a shrine to the Four-Faced Buddha and a central pool with statues. The spacious dining area features live singers, so while enjoying grilled meats, you can also leisurely listen to beautiful Thai songs.

This is what a traditional Thai charcoal grill looks like. However, the grill plate used here has been modified. The traditional one would look like this (→), but this version is less prone to food sticking and is easier to cook on. I saw Thai-style charcoal grills using the traditional type at night markets in Kanchanaburi before. Traditional grill plates are still available on the market, and though they’re harder to use, the experience is totally different.

There’s a huge variety of meats: beef, pork, chicken, lamb — you name it. There are also some types of offal available. Though the meats are labeled, everything is in Thai, and they all look pretty similar, so we just randomly picked whatever looked good. It would be better if there were Chinese labels.

There’s also a great selection of seafood — fish, squid, and various shellfish. Previously, the place even offered an all-you-can-eat grilled prawn service, but since I don’t eat shrimp and my friends didn’t know where to get them, I’m not sure if that option still exists.

In addition to raw items, there are also plenty of Thai cooked dishes to choose from, and the variety is incredibly rich.

Other sides, hot pot toppings, and desserts are also available. The cutest ones are the fish cakes, including adorable ones shaped like Angry Birds and Doraemon — they’re really amusing to look at.

For the grilled meat section, there are three sauce options. One is slightly sweet, another is spicy with a strong aroma, and the third is insanely hot. Which one you prefer depends entirely on your taste.

The large platter of meat looks quite generous, but compared to how impressive it was a few years ago, the quality has really gone downhill. The meats are now mostly dry and tough, and other dishes have also changed a lot. I had heard about the decline from friends in Chiang Mai, which is why they stopped coming. I had expected a drop in quality, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.

Drinks weren’t previously included in the all-you-can-eat deal, but the current price includes drinks, ice cream, and other desserts. That means I can drink Thai iced tea to my heart’s content. In addition, there are steamed buns and mango sticky rice (mango with coconut milk and sticky rice) available. The wide variety of food has always been a highlight of the Thousand People Hot Pot.

After three years, the reunion with the Thousand People Hot Pot wasn’t as memorable as I’d hoped. In the past, it was cheap and delicious — now, it’s just filling. If you want to experience a Thai hot pot shared by a crowd, you can give it a try, but if you’re looking for fine dining, you might want to skip this one.

Sukonthan Buffet (Thousand People Hot Pot)
Address: 46/1 Huay Kaew Road, T. Chang Puek, A. Muang, Chiang Mai 50300
Phone: (+66)53215666, (+66)53405123

Xiao Sheng’s Wandering Journey
Every journey, every trip, is a quest — though I’m not always sure what I’m searching for, what I gain in the end always exceeds my expectations. And so, my wandering journey will continue, without end.