Michelin-recommended Thai that earns every accolade — wide-ranging, deeply flavored, and the table the neighborhood keeps coming back to.
Chiang Rai takes its name from the mountainous province in Northern Thailand — a region with its own culinary traditions that diverge significantly from the pad Thai and green curry that define most Thai restaurant menus in the United States. The kitchen here takes these distinctions seriously. The Chiang Rai Local Food section of the menu is not a token gesture toward regional specificity; it is the conceptual center of the restaurant, offering preparations that most Long Beach diners will encounter here and nowhere else in the city.
The dining room on Anaheim Street is, by the standards of the restaurants that surround it in Long Beach's list, straightforwardly decorated — contemporary, colorful, quirky in the manner of a restaurant that is confident enough in its food to let the food be the spectacle. The kitchen has earned Michelin recommendation in the 2025 MICHELIN Guide USA, a distinction that has sent new visitors who then become regulars with remarkable consistency. Over eleven hundred Yelp reviews reflect a following that extends well beyond the neighborhood, drawing diners from across Long Beach and Los Angeles to a stretch of Anaheim Street that has become worth the specific trip.
The service ethos is efficient and knowledgeable — the staff can explain the Northern Thai preparations to guests encountering them for the first time without condescension and without oversimplification. They understand that many guests arrive at Chiang Rai with limited familiarity with the regional cuisine and that part of their role is to make the menu accessible without making it feel like a menu that requires explanation. The result is a restaurant where first-time visitors leave understanding something about Northern Thailand that they did not know before, and wanting to return to explore further.
For value-conscious diners who refuse to compromise on kitchen quality, Chiang Rai represents the best proposition in Long Beach. At the price point, the food quality is exceptional. The Michelin committee agrees.
Chiang Rai is the ideal team dinner choice in Long Beach when the group values genuinely excellent food over theatrical presentation or power-dining formality. The sharing format of the menu — multiple dishes arriving at the table for collective exploration — naturally facilitates group conversation and collective discovery. The Northern Thai specialties provide a genuine talking point that does not require industry context to engage with. The price point allows for generous ordering without the table math anxiety that accompanies more expensive group dinners. This is the restaurant you choose when the goal is good food, good conversation, and a team that leaves having eaten exceptionally well. See also our complete team dinner guide and The Attic for a more American-format team dinner option in Long Beach.
The Khao Soi is the restaurant's most celebrated preparation and the best introduction to Northern Thai cuisine for first-time guests: a fragrant coconut curry noodle soup built on a long-simmered broth, served with tender braised chicken, crispy fried egg noodles as a textural counterpoint, pickled mustard greens for acidity, and shallots and lime for finish. It is a bowl that rewards attention — the layered flavors reveal themselves gradually in a way that generic versions of the dish do not. The Sai Oua is the other essential Northern specialty: a grilled herbal pork sausage made with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and dried chilies, served with sticky rice and spicy dipping sauces. It is emphatically not the sausage concept most Western diners arrive expecting, and that surprise is part of its value. The regular Thai menu extends to a wide range of preparations, all executed with the consistency that Michelin recognition demands.
Chiang Rai is located at 3832 E Anaheim Street in East Long Beach. Reservations are recommended for dinner service and especially advisable for groups of four or more, as the room fills quickly on weekends following the Michelin recognition. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner; hours are subject to seasonal adjustment. For team dinners, call ahead to discuss the optimal menu format for the group size — the kitchen accommodates sharing formats and the staff have clear recommendations for groups who want to cover the most ground on the Northern Thai menu in a single evening. Parking is available on Anaheim Street and adjacent side streets. The price-to-quality ratio is extraordinary and group ordering is strongly encouraged.
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Brought seven colleagues from the office for a Friday team dinner — half had never tried Northern Thai food. The staff walked us through the Chiang Rai specialties without being condescending about it, and by the third course everyone had dropped their phone and was just eating. The Khao Soi is extraordinary. This is the team dinner you book when you want everyone talking on Monday morning.
The birthday in our group wanted Chiang Rai specifically — she had been reading about it since the Michelin recognition. We ordered eight dishes for six people and there was nothing on the table that was not exceptional. The Sai Oua sausage was the highlight. At this price point, for this quality, there is nothing in Long Beach that comes close.
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