Best sweet roti in Chiang Mai: Pa Day at the South Gate night market — banana-Nutella, ฿60, queue around 20 minutes. If the wait is too long, three solid alternatives match it: Mustafa near Wat Lok Molee, the unnamed Saturday Wualai cart, and the Sunday Walking Street cart at Three Kings. Below is the ordering vocabulary and a quick stall ranking.
Why is "roti" in Thailand different?
Thai roti is closer to Indian paratha than chapati — flat dough discs stretched paper-thin, fried with margarine, folded around a filling.
"Roti" (โรตี) here means a flatbread brought by Indian-Muslim traders to southern Thailand in the late 1800s. The dough is stretched dramatically across a marble slab until almost translucent. Sweet variants (banana, banana-Nutella, banana-egg-cheese, increasingly Oreo) are the tourist face. Savoury (mataba) folds in curried minced meat.
Where is Pa Day and why the queue?
Pa Day sits at the South Gate (Pratu Chiang Mai) night market, Old City side of Bumrungburi Road. Queue is 15 to 35 minutes.
Pa Day has been making roti at South Gate for over 30 years. Two griddles, output around 60 to 80 roti per hour. The signature is dough technique: stretched until light passes through, folded, fried in three layers. Shatteringly crispy outside, dense-chewy inside, banana caramelised but not mushy.
What are the actual orderings?
Six combinations cover 95% of stalls.
| Order | Thai phrase | Cost (Pa Day vs generic) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain banana with sugar | Roti gluay | ฿40 / ฿30 | Cleanest. Dough does the work. |
| Banana + condensed milk | Roti gluay nom | ฿50 / ฿35 | Default sweet. Very sweet. |
| Banana-Nutella | Roti gluay Nutella | ฿60 / ฿45 | Pa Day's signature. |
| Banana-egg-cheese | Roti gluay khai cheese | ฿70 / ฿55 | Underrated. |
| Egg savoury (mataba) | Roti khai | ฿40 / ฿30 | Curry-egg filling. |
| Cheese only | Roti cheese | ฿50 / ฿40 | Stretchy, salty. |
The savoury order ("roti khai") gets overlooked because the visuals lead sweet. A late-night egg roti is one of the best ฿40 spends in Chiang Mai.
What if Pa Day's queue is too long?
Three stalls within walking distance match Pa Day for half the wait.
- Mustafa, soi off Manee Nopharat near Wat Lok Molee. Slightly thicker dough, better cheese. Banana-egg-cheese ฿55, five-minute queue.
- Wualai Saturday cart (no name). Dough rolled fresh per order. Banana-Nutella ฿50, five to ten minutes.
- Three Kings Sunday cart. Workmanlike, ฿45, two to five minutes.
Why does dough technique matter?
Eighty per cent of what makes a great roti versus a mediocre one is the stretch. Paper-thin dough fries to glass-crispness. Pre-rolled dough turns out spongy.
Watch the cook before queueing. The right move is hand-tossing: slap a ball onto an oiled marble surface, push it with the heels of the palms, flip-stretch by hand or with a quick aerial spin until the dough is larger than the pan. Pa Day, Mustafa, and the Wualai cart all hand-toss. Most generic carts use pre-rolled discs — fine, but denser.
Are there vegan or gluten-free options?
Vegan, yes with substitutions. Gluten-free, essentially no.
Vegan script: ask for no condensed milk ("mai sai nom-khon"), no Nutella ("mai sai Nutella"), substitute honey or palm sugar ("sai nam-pheung" / "sai nam-tan oi"). Margarine at street carts is usually plant-based. Banana plain is fully vegan.
Gluten-free isn't a sensible ask — the product is wheat dough.
Chiang Mai vs Bangkok roti?
Bangkok has more density (Soi Rambuttri especially). Chiang Mai's median is higher. Peaks in each city are roughly equal.
Bangkok's advantage is variety — six competing stalls within 50 metres on Rambuttri. Chiang Mai's are more spread out.
What's the right context to eat roti?
Late evening, after dinner, walking. Roti at 22:00 with the last beer of the night is the platonic ideal.
Roti is a snack, not a meal. The typical rhythm:
- 17:30 dinner at a hot stall (khao soi, sai oua).
- 19:30 wander the night market.
- 21:30 roti at Pa Day.
- 22:30 back to the hotel.
No reliable daytime roti — this is a night food. If your only window is daytime, the closest equivalent is a Thai-Muslim teahouse paratha, but those are rare in Chiang Mai.
What does a roti-included food walk look like?
Three hours: Pratu Chiang Mai dinner stalls 18:30, moat walk, Wat Phra Singh at night, roti at Pa Day 21:30. ฿400 to ฿600 per person.
Pratu Chiang Mai is the deepest dinner-stall cluster in the Old City. Eat khao soi or sai oua for ฿100 to ฿150, leaving room for the queue. End with the roti. If you want to learn the dishes around the roti rather than just eat them, our Thai cooking class at Siam Garden and the class at Mamanoi both start with a market walk, and you can see the full set of Chiang Mai food experiences here.
Book the Siam Garden Thai cooking classMarket walk, hands-on, small groups, hotel pickupInternal reading worth your time:
- Chiang Mai street food guide — the full map
- Sunday vs Saturday Walking Street — which to do
- Is Chiang Mai worth visiting in 2026?
For background, the Wikipedia entry on Roti canai covers the lineage from Indian-Muslim traders, and the Michelin Guide Thailand (accessed 2026-05-25) profiles a handful of named Chiang Mai roti carts.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best roti stall in Chiang Mai?
Pa Day at the South Gate (Pratu Chiang Mai) night market has the deepest reputation and the longest queue — banana-Nutella for ฿60, dough still rolled to order. The realistic shortlist also includes Mustafa near Wat Lok Molee for the egg-cheese savoury version, the unnamed cart on Wualai Road Saturdays for the cleanest banana version, and the Sunday Walking Street cart near Three Kings Monument for a fast solid one. Pa Day is best by a small margin, but the wait is 15 to 35 minutes most nights.
What exactly is banana roti?
It's a flat dough disc — closer to an Indian paratha than a roti canai — cooked on a hot griddle with margarine, banana slices folded in, then cut into squares and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup or Nutella. Sugar topping is standard. The dough is wheat flour, salt, water, sometimes egg. The recipe came to Thailand via Indian-Muslim communities in southern Thailand, where 'roti' refers to this style of flatbread, not Indian roti.
Are there vegan roti options?
Yes, but you need to ask. The default has margarine (vegan in most cases — the cheap Thai margarine brands are plant-based), but condensed milk is dairy and Nutella contains milk powder. Ask for 'no condensed milk, no Nutella' (mai sai nom-khon, mai sai Nutella). Honey or palm-sugar syrup as a replacement is available at most stalls. Banana-only roti with a sugar dusting is fully vegan. Egg roti obviously isn't.
When are roti carts open?
Most open 17:00 to 23:30, peak business 19:30 to 22:00. The Sunday Walking Street carts run 16:00 to 22:00. Pa Day at South Gate is night-market hours, so 17:30 to 23:00 most days, with Sunday a different street setup. A few late-night carts on Nimman Soi 5 run until 01:00 on weekends. No reliable daytime roti — this is a night food.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best roti stall in Chiang Mai?
Pa Day at the South Gate (Pratu Chiang Mai) night market has the deepest reputation and the longest queue — banana-Nutella for ฿60, dough still rolled to order. The realistic shortlist also includes Mustafa near Wat Lok Molee for the egg-cheese savoury version, the unnamed cart on Wualai Road Saturdays for the cleanest banana version, and the Sunday Walking Street cart near Three Kings Monument for a fast solid one. Pa Day is best by a small margin, but the wait is 15 to 35 minutes most nights.
What exactly is banana roti?
It's a flat dough disc — closer to an Indian paratha than a roti canai — cooked on a hot griddle with margarine, banana slices folded in, then cut into squares and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup or Nutella. Sugar topping is standard. The dough is wheat flour, salt, water, sometimes egg. The recipe came to Thailand via Indian-Muslim communities in southern Thailand, where 'roti' refers to this style of flatbread, not Indian roti.
Are there vegan roti options?
Yes, but you need to ask. The default has margarine (vegan in most cases — the cheap Thai margarine brands are plant-based), but condensed milk is dairy and Nutella contains milk powder. Ask for 'no condensed milk, no Nutella' (mai sai nom-khon, mai sai Nutella). Honey or palm-sugar syrup as a replacement is available at most stalls. Banana-only roti with a sugar dusting is fully vegan. Egg roti obviously isn't.
When are roti carts open?
Most open 17:00 to 23:30, peak business 19:30 to 22:00. The Sunday Walking Street carts run 16:00 to 22:00. Pa Day at South Gate is night-market hours, so 17:30 to 23:00 most days, with Sunday a different street setup. A few late-night carts on Nimman Soi 5 run until 01:00 on weekends. No reliable daytime roti — this is a night food.
