Laos Eating
Vientiane
Budget
PVO, 344 Th Samsenthai (opp Asian Pavilion Hotel), advertises Vietnamese food and the pho isn't bad, but the best eats here are the stuffed baguettes. English menu, open 08:00-20:00.
Unamed Riverside Restaurant, 344 Th Samsenthai (Between river and PVO). Great views of the river at sunset. Food is mostly acceptable but not great, and a bit pricy. Beware of dirty plates and glasses, and biting red ants. Pleasant place for a beer and chips while the sun goes down.
Samsenthai Fried Noodle, Th Samsenthai (west end), serves all sorts of noodles (fried or otherwise) and some basic rice dishes too. English menu.
Mid Range
John Restaurant, Fa Ngum Road. Inexpensive Lao and Western food. Be sure to have your bill signed by the mysterious (and imaginary?) "John".
Lotus Restaurant and Bar, next to Cultural Hall. Serves traditional Lao and Western food, 08:30-11:30. VISA and Master Card accepted. Free wireless internet available!
Kop Chai Deu, near the fountain. Very good Lao, Thai, Western and Indian food. Competent and friendly service. Open until late evening.. Good band plays Western popular music covers some evenings. Also a bar. Buffet at lunchtime.
Hong Kong Restaurant, opposite Lao Plaza Hotel. Excellent Cantonese dishes and a small selection of dim sum. Its slogan boasts about its unbelievably good value: unfortunately it routinely attempts to present an unitemised bill coming in at double(!) the advertised prices - check the accounting carefully before paying.
Inter Hotel Restaurant - Quai Ngum, riverside, well prepared Szechuan food.
JoMa - near the fountain, extremely popular air-conditioned cafe and bakery with excellent cakes and coffee. If you sit outside keep a close eye on your bag.
Sticky Fingers - One a lane coming up from the river. Quality western style food at reasonable prices. There's happy hour on Wednesday and Friday nights, including half price cocktails.
Top End
There are numerous restaurants offering cuisine from Provence in France clustered around the Nam Phou fountain.
Nam Phou. The first and arguably the best, with good food and exceptional service. A favourite of NGO types.
La Terrasse, near the riverfront and possibly the best of all the French restaurants in Vientiane, dishes out scrumptious French fare, even extending to a competent creme brulee.
Huay Xai
Most of the guesthouses also provide simple meals. There restaurant next door to the Gibbon Experience office is home of the ex-pat crowd in town. It has a nice garden restaurant and terrace overlooking the Mekong river. Along the water, on the main road, south of border check there is an outdoor restaurant with a big patio overlooking the Mekong. They offer Lao Barbecue, a tasty combination of Japanese Shabu-Shabu and Korean BBQ, i.e., you grill and stew up your own meats and veggies.
Luang Prabang
Restaurants line Sisavangvong Road and the road along the Mekong. Food runs the line from standard Southeast Asian backpacker fare to more traditional Lao dishes, including buffalo sausage. There are several pizza restaurants -- although they aren't really that good -- as well. For more upscale options, try near the end of Sisavangvong Road (end of the Night Market) in a little Alley. There are several boutique restaurants which serve quite nice fusion Asian food. Local specialties include: French baguettes; watercress; fried dried seaweed with sesame seeds dipped in a chili sauce; Buffalo steak.
Blue Lagoon Café - A balanced mix of eastern and western delicacies are awaiting you at Blue Lagoon Café. You will find Laotian highlights and Swiss classics as well as tender local beef and a large variety of delicious snacks and fresh salad creations. The generously compiled drink list provides an exquisite selection of wine, fruit juice, cocktails, mocktails, beer and coffee. Located at the road to the Mekong river who start at the end of the night market, next to the national museum.
L'Elephant- A lovely restaurant with a unique mix of Laotian and French cuisine. The food is extremely good, but has its price. It is directly in front of a small guesthouse, and not far away from Les 3 Nagas hotel and Villa Santi hotel. The ingredients are of the highest quality, ranging from French camembert to Laotian lemongrass and river weeds. The soups are very good, along with the tender and juicy local and French meat. The desserts are mouthwatering, and most of them have chocolate.
Luang Namtha
Apart from the storefront restaurants that are commonplace in Southeast Asia, there is also an Indian restaurant. The Indian proprietor speaks English, a real rarity in this town. Panda restaurant is on a road between the highway 13 road and the bus station. It has a friendly owner and sells Lao Coffee.
Muang Xay
Sinphet guesthouse (700 m north of the bus just after the second gas station) has a restaurant offering good food for reasonable prices. Just 10m north of the Sinaphet guesthouse there is a really good soup shop owned by a friendly (though not smiling) local guy offering meat and vegetarian noodle soups.
Pakbeng
Several guesthouses and some "restaurants" offer food, but don’t expect anything special. There's an Indian restaurant with decent curries along the main street, called "Hassan". The friendly manager will also package meals for consumption on the slow-boat. Locals set up small sandwich stands along the road to the waterfront each morning. You can buy basic sandwiches of bread and Laughing Cow cheese. If not, ask your guesthouse to provide you with a packed lunch, as you are going to be in for a 9 hour boat ride without meals. Standard beer options are available, at inflated prices. To insure a good night’s sleep, try the local "lao-lao bong" -- water poured over fermented rice and slipped through a straw.
Pakse
Nazim, Phonsavan hotel, serves Indian dishes. Portions are small, food is ok. Plenty of vegetarian options. Jasmin is next door and serves exactly the same dishes.
Savannakhet
Cafe Lao Paris has an excellent selection of beautifully prepared French style meals and snacks for next to nothing. There are also a few small bars up on the river front up in the north end of town. Mama's Kitchen also does amazing food, if you can find it.
Vang Vieng
DK3 - Milan Pizza - Let Jackie and Vaughn make you the best wood fired pizza in town.
Jaidees - Serves delish drinks and plays wicked tunes.
Sunset Bar - Swing in a Hammock and have a Beer Lao.
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Laos Travel Information has been derived in part from ‘http://wikitravel.org/en/Laos’ and is based on work by Michael Skragge, ruben, Aparna T, Stephen Atkins, John Fremlin, Itamar Berman, yoni y, jan, nang, Ryan Holliday, Mat Connolley, Joey Sheung, Brian Hnatiak, Michele Ann Jenkins, Evan Prodromou, Paul N. Richter, Yann Forget, Colin Jensen and Peter Donaghy, Wikitravel user(s) Episteme, Jake73, Thaihans, Texugo, Tniehoff, WindHorse, InterLangBot, Nzpcmad, Ront, Nikita Borisov, Pjamescowie, Bijee, Nils and CIAWorldFactbook2002 and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.
