Date of visit: Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Time of visit: 6:40 p.m.
My friend, Sarah, assembling the dish she ordered while sitting at a picnic table at Skeleton Park.
Friends, this was my first time trying Cat House Chiang Mai. I’m Leila (pronounced lay-la) by the way. Founder and curator of Kingston Current. Hi!
Back to Cat House Chiang Mai. This restaurant was recommended to me over a year ago, and, well, you know, life gets busy, until this spontaneous hang out with my friend, Sarah (pictured above), who recommended visiting their new location on Concession Street.
Cat House Chiang Mai is Thai cuisine. I can’t say I’ve had much experience with Thai food in Kingston specifically, but I have been to Thailand and have had many Thai dishes throughout Ontario.
So, on a gorgeous sunny Tuesday evening, Sarah suggested we go. She received no opposition from me. In fact, I may have jumped up and down at the suggestion. I cannot confirm nor deny.
Off we went down the yellow brick road.
We parked in the Coffee Way Donuts plaza parking lot and walked over to the front doors of the restaurant facing concession street.
After looking over the menu and battling between the chicken pad thai and the chicken pad se ew (both under the ‘stir-fried noodles’ category and $18.25 each), I ended up ordering the latter. I really do love me some pad thai, though. Sarah ordered the khao soi (under the ‘noodle soup’ category and $20). Her dish was/is spicy, baby. Not this girl’s vibe anymore. My acid reflux cannot with spice.
The service was kind, quick and efficient. Sarah also picked up a bottle of sweet lychee fruit juice from the fridge (kind of seen on the left side of the photo below – it’s pink!). The brand is Mogu Mogu and the drink has chewy nata de coco. Kind of reminds me of bubble tea in some ways with it having something to chew on. It was surprisingly good. I say ‘surprisingly’ because I don’t typically drink juice, or pop for that matter. But I enjoyed it and would consider getting it.
Sarah and I chatted and waited inside the restaurant for our meals to be ready. The restaurant has an interesting vibe. Very hole-in-the-wall style, which can either be a GOOD thing or a not so good thing. Keep reading to find out which it was….
There are kids’ drawings on the walls. I assume they’re kids, but honestly, I’m not a good drawer so any of those could be an adults’ as well, lol. I didn’t get a chance to ask.
There are different types of spice on the table. You could literally spell the spice wafting out of the container and it smelled spectacular.
Once ready, Sarah and I paid for our dishes and drove to Skeleton Park, where we set up on a picnic bench to enjoy our food in the gorgeous sun just after 7:00 p.m.
The park was buzzing with people, in a good way. The weather was perfect. Not too hot and not too cold. There was enough light to see what we were eating and to enjoy the park vibes.
You’re probably wondering what the heck I thought of the restaurant and the meal (if you didn’t already scroll to the bottom to find out. I promise I won’t tell).
So, without further ado. Friends. The meal was cooked well, the noodles were perfect, the veggies were crunchy, but I was disappointed by the missing flavour in the pad se ew.
I was lucky enough to have a bite of Sarah’s dish and it was EXCELLENT! I regrettably could not continue eating it because:
1. it wasn’t my meal, and
2. the aforementioned spice, which also means it’s not a dish I would order.
BUT if you can handle spice, one hundred per cent.
Sarah did say she didn’t like how challenging it was to put her dish together. She has not experienced this at the other location of which she has been a few times and exclusively gets the khao soi.
All that being said, there was no pad se ew leftover for my lunch the next day, so I do consider that a good sign, but also a note that it may not be as big of a dish as people say, or I was just super hungry….
Okay. Drum roll. IS Cat House Chiang Mai worth leaving the house for? For the right dish, absolutely. I will for sure go back to try the pad thai ($18.25), but I won’t get the pad se ew again, unless I go to their main location on Progress Avenue. I would also try on of their homemade drinks like the Thai milk tea.
Locations
New location:
19 Concession St, Kingston, ON, K7K 2A5
Original location:
660 Progress Ave, Kingston, ON, K7M4W9
Website: https://cathousechiangmai.ca/location/kingston/
NOTE – it looks like you can order online! AND there seems to be some items available at the Concession Street location that are not available at the Progress Avenue location.