E-mail to   : Chiang Mai Mail
From          : Richard Dawson
Sent           : Monday, July 14,2008
Subject      : Le Coq d’Or

With The permission of Chiang Mai Mail and their correspondent,
Mr.Richard J. Dawson, Le coq d’Or restaurant is proud to publish a letter they received from Mr.Dawson in response to a recent review in their newspaper. Mr.Dawson was the Chief Inspector of the USA’s Food & Drug Administration and latterly head of the UN’s FAO :

Hello Neil,

I just came across your recent review of the Chiang Mai restaurant Le Coq d’Or and found it to be most interesting and informative.
I noted at the end of your review that you asked for experiences from others who have eaten at this restaurant. Although I live in Bangkok, I have had the extreme pleasure of dining at Le Coq d’Or on at least six occasions over the past several years and I have never, ever, been disappointed.  I have, in fact, found the incredibly on each successive visit the selection of food and wines, food quality, presentation, and service have remarkably seemed to improve each time.

First, I’d like to give you some background on my history as it relates to food so as to perhaps qualify me as at least an amateur judge of food and food service.  For many years I was the Chief inspector of the USA’s Food and Drug Administration where one of the many factors that I was responsible for was ensuring the quality and safety of food and food products marketed in the USA. Following that work responsibility I became the head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Unit responsible for ensuing Global food quality and safety, headquartered in Rome, Italy and at the same time I also was responsible for the management of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission – the World’s food quality and standards setting organization. While living in Rome for over 15 years, I also was recognized by the Italian food magazine “La Cucina Italiana” – equivalent to the USA’s Bon Appetite – for my own cooking, presentation and food service.

Enough of me, as it is Le Coq d’Or that we are really interested in. From my point of view, everything about the restaurant has always been on the plus side, including the venue. Although the cost of  a meal is rather high I must say that the value and the enjoyment that my guest and I have always had has been more than the cost I could have ever paid. Following my first visit to the restaurant I was so favorably impressed that, I wrote a letter of compliments to the owner/management/staff for such a wonderful visit. I was surprised on my second visit to find that the management had framed my letter and hung it in the restaurant’s library. It is still there so if you care to see it please stop by and read it. 
I also wrote a review of my experience and had it posted on Trip advisor.

I found that your review of Le Coq d’Or gave a very good overall perspective of the restaurant. There were only a couple extra amenities that I found missing in your review, with the first being the excellent live musical entertainment that accompanies dining on most evenings.  The music has always been splendid whenever I dine there and to think that such good comes from only two extraordinary talented Thai musicians.  The other marvelous addition to the dining was the use of the old London taxi for free pick-up and return at the hotel. I might suggest that if you visit the restaurant again that you try to meet the Thai owner who is a very nice individual and speaks fluent English.

In summary, I would have to say that, at least in my humble estimation, Le Coq d’Or is certainly the best European-style restaurant not only in Chiang Mai but clearly in all of Thailand; one of the finest European style restaurants in Asia; and it certainly ranks as one of the best European-style restaurants that I have ever had the privilege to dine.

I hope that have found the aforementioned information of some value in responding to your request and please feel free to contact me if you want to do so.

Richard J Dawson