Maeya

This is the kind of Thai restaurant a town gets attached to. It sits on Thanarak Market Road in Mueang Udon Thani, it charges mid-range prices, and it has clearly built a following of regulars rather than one-off tourists. That matters more than any menu description. Places that survive on repeat custom in a market street tend to cook consistently, because the neighbors would notice if they didn't.

My advice is to treat it as your default dinner when you're staying central and don't fancy hunting. It's open from 10:00 straight through to 22:00, seven days a week, so it also covers the awkward mid-afternoon gap when plenty of Udon kitchens shut and reopen. Turn up around three or four if you want a quiet table. Lunch and the early evening are when the crowd arrives.

I wouldn't go expecting anything designed for visitors. There's no elaborate setting to photograph and the appeal is straightforwardly the food and the price.