The tuk-tuk was traveling along the side of the moat that surrounds old Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, when the rain started — hot, tropical rain that came from nowhere and intensified as we entered a dark street in search of dinner.

The tuk-tuk’s single headlight picked out a slim young woman dressed in silk, standing still and bearing a red parasol. She met us, took us through an archway and across a pond with stepping stones to a modern glass-sided building, a warmly lit refuge.

Dalaabaa Bar & Restaurant, with its long cocktail list, its English-language menu and its striking modern design, shows the changes that have occurred in Chiang Mai. The city has long drawn European tourists and it now has attractive restaurants and luxurious hotels to accommodate them.

I stayed in D2, one of those so-hip-it-hurts boutique venues where the staff look as designed as the property, with its bold orange color theme, its striking lighting and design features such as transparent plastic tubes filled with green apples.

D2 is a new-generation hotel from the owners of the Dusit Thani in Bangkok. You can hear the quality of the sound system while you sit at the Moxie bar and work your way through cocktails that include an exotic lemongrass and ginger martini and the tom yum martini, which tastes too much like the soup to be good.

You’re just across from the Night Bazaar, which may be the best place for Thai food in Chiang Mai, though I’d hesitate to eat there again, so strong are my memories of food poisoning from a clam dish there in 1985. Frankly, the food at Dalaabaa is nothing special, and the cocktails are shockingly short on alcohol.

Charming Company

The waitresses stood sweetly in a row and watched us eat, paying enough attention to make us uncomfortable, yet not enough to do anything about glasses that needed refilling or that big ant that wandered across our table. Still, the prices are very low — about $2-$3 for dishes such as shrimp with young coconut — and everyone is so charming, it would be hard not to enjoy the place, where the diners included five Frenchmen with Thai companions.

There’s a more contemporary feel at Maze Cafe, with its concrete and steel design, its exposed pipes and its large windows. Unfortunately, you just look out onto a busy road, and we get so much concrete chic in London — especially the Barbican, where I live — that I wouldn’t travel to Chiang Mai for more.

The food, drink and service at Maze are good, and the prices, of course, low by European standards. There’s even decent Thai wine and some passable Western food, such as mini-pizzas, along with Thai and Chinese favorites such as tom yum gong and spring rolls. Our fellow diners were young Thais who looked more affluent than us. They trooped out to a sports-utility vehicle and a Mercedes while we flagged down a tuk-tuk.

Romance, Champagne

Other options include the House, where Western and fusion food is served in what you might describe as a colonial-style residence. With its high ceilings and candlelight, it’s a romantic spot, like somewhere out of the movie “Indochine.” Plus, there’s champagne and a selection of other French wines.

Whether you get an urge in Chiang Mai for dishes such as hoisin-marinated duck breast on Japanese pumpkin risotto, white asparagus, orange glaze ($10.67) is another question.

My favorite place nowadays in Chiang Mai is, as it was almost a quarter of a century ago, the Whole Earth. This is surprising for two reasons. First, there’s a strong showing on the menu for vegetarian dishes, which aren’t really my thing. Second, I first ate there on a honeymoon I tend to blot out. Where was I?

My mood wasn’t improved by having to remove my shoes, and it took a turn for the worse when I read, “Every fiber of food we eat has within it the total potentiality of cosmic intelligence.” I’ll bear that wisdom in mind next time my microwave oven pings.

Coconut With Straw

Fortunately, the food is good enough at Whole Earth. There are plenty of non-vegetarian Thai and Indian dishes. While the meat and fish were a tad overcooked, the freshness of the herbs showed through in the delicious sauces. Again, the prices are low. Chicken tikka masala is $9. A juice-filled whole fresh coconut, with a straw and a spoon, is $1.25. I had three.

There is an air-conditioned restaurant, but it’s best to sit on the terrace of this old Thai house, cooled by fans and enjoying the fragrance of gardens filled with lush vegetation and colorful flowers. A young man slowly raked the leaves from the grass as we sipped coconut juice and pondered the message, “No matter what we eat, a stressed physiology will not make the best of it.”

I thought back to my honeymoon, tasted the coconut, suppressed a couple of stray memories, and felt at one with the universe. For me, it normally takes champagne to induce such well- being. Ommmm.

Dalaabaaa Bar & Restaurant, 113 Bumrungraj Road, Watgate Muang, Chiang Mai 50000. Tel. ++66-53-242491 or click on http://www.dalaabaa.com/ . D2, 100 Chang Klan Road, Tambol Chang Klan, Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50100. Tel. ++66-53-999999 or click on http://www.d2hotels.com/ . Maze Cafe, 12/2 Boonruangrit Road, Sriphum Muang, Chiang Mai 50200. Tel. ++66-53-894879 or click on http://www.mazecafe.com . The House, 199 Moonmuang Road, T. Sriphum, Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai 50200. Tel. +66-53-419011. The Whole Earth Restaurant, 88 Sridonchai Road, Chiang Mai. Tel. ++66- 53-282463.

(Richard Vines is London food critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg.)