Hello,
I will be in Luang Prabang in early january and have heard wonderful things about a restaurant that is run by the people that own Les 3 Nagas. Is this L'Elephant? For some reason i seem to remember a post saying there were two restaurants that sounded similar ... just want to make sure i book at the right one,
thanks for your help,
Carly

Yes, I remember that post - it was Bob's trip report. The not-so-good restaurant was Three Elephants. The good one is L'Elephant. (I can't remember how to create a link to a posting or I'd do so, but you can search for luang prabang restaurants, and his post, at the moment, is the first one to come up.)

L'Elephant is the fancy French place that many people always recommend. It's on a back street around the corner from the Villa Santi. The 3 Nagas hotel has two restaurants across the street from each other right by the hotel itself. One is French, and the other is Lao food. The most famous restaurant right now that's getting rave reviews is the 3 Nagas Lao restaurant. Actually, I think all of these are owned by the same people.

meal. is correct ...they are all owned by some french men....l'elephant on the side street in back of villa santi sort of, is the best in town for western food....lovely really...french bistro sort of...

we ate at 3 nagas and it was ok, but not great...we at at the continental one...we should have had lao...

the 3 elephants was terrible and we ate there our first nite thinking it was L'Elephant....it is on the main street across from villa santi...a bad mistage...

have at least one meal at L'Elephant...

The 3 Nagas and L'Elephant are owned by the same people. L'Elephant is actually more French while 3 Nagas is like Nouvelle Laos cuisine.
I stayed at their hotel and ate at the 3 Nagas twice. This was the 2nd best meal i had during my 5 weeks in Asia (the other being Jean George in Shanghai). Stick to Laosian and you can enjoy some fine cuisine at rock bottom prices ($14 inc starter, main and dessert + $10 more for a great half bottle of good bordeaux!).

thanks for the all those responses. sounds like i might have to try them all

I really liked L'elephant, although I did feel it was overpriced for the quality of the food (sorry, I seem to be contradicting everyone else).
We also ate at 3 Nagas Laos restaurant and thought it was great, aside from the buffalo skin chilli sauce, which sounded good, but actually was buffalo skin - I guess I should have asked first!!

as the food at l'elephant is about the best in LP, i don't see how you could say it is overpriced, but we all have our own indexes....it is not cheap, but neither is its quality...

I guess I didn't feel it was the best in LP. We still really enjoyed it, but the food was a bit cold and meals arrived at different times. That didn't happen anywhere else.
Perhaps they were having an off night....

sounds very french to me....cold is not good however...

I realize that this post is quite old, but I wanted to post my review of the restaurant - not a great experience!

We Were Not Welcome
My spouse and I attempted to dine at L'Elephant in late February 2013, but they would not even let us sit down for a few minutes to enjoy a drink because they were expecting guests over an hour later; however, the restaurant was COMPLETELY EMPTY when we were turned away, which made us feel totally unwelcome. As a result, we did not attempt to eat at L'Elephant again during our time in Luang Prabang. The restaurant is attractive with many outdoor patio tables adjacent to the sidewalk but separated by a row of lovely potted plants, many indoor tables, and a large bar. The restaurant is located in a block between busy Sisavangvong Road and the river. Even if all of the tables were reserved at L’Elephant, we wonder why they did not offer us a place to sit at the bar to enjoy a quick refreshment instead of turning us away? (Later in the week, we dined at sister restaurant, Coconut Garden, where we were given a warm welcome.)

I still remember eating at L'Elephant in 2002 - it was quite a contrast to the other places in LP at that time, and I enjoyed my first taste of wild boar. It is quite possible that the restaurant wasn't ready for guests at the time you stopped by. And I'm quite sure they expect that eating dinner will take more than an hour.

Don't fret, fluffnfold. There are many better places in Luang Prabang. Our dinner at L'Elephant was average at best. We didn't feel welocme even with reservations.

L'Elephant is an excellent restaurant and probably the best in LP. The Three Nagas is also very good, as is Blue Lagoon. You were not accepted because most people take much longer than an hour to eat their meal. The restaurant is often booked out.