15 Best Restaurants in Laos

With an unbeatable location over a UNESCO-classified lotus pond, this impressive wooden restaurant only serves traditional Lao food, all based on the owner's family recipes. The dishes, such as fish hor mok steamed in banana leaves or delicious jungle honey-glazed spareribs, are presented with a panache that helps emphasize the venue's authenticity. Signature cocktails feature Lao ingredients combined with modern mixologies. Best visited at dinner when the flicker of light from dozens of lanterns makes it look extremely romantic.

This riverside restaurant is the place to experience and understand Lao cuisine in Luang Prabang. The various tasting menus feature five traditional types of jeow, or dips, to be eaten with vegetables or sticky rice; there's also a "five-bites" selection that includes dried buffalo, sai oua (flavored local sausage), and other delicacies. The restaurant also runs a popular cooking school worth checking out.

A wonderful place to experience Lao cuisine and culture, the latter in the form of classical dances performed nightly, this restaurant provides a blissful retreat from the downtown tourist frenzy. You can dine either in the teakwood interior space or outside in the garden. The specialty here is the cuisine of Luang Prabang, such as the pla larb (minced fish with herbs). Dinner service doesn't begin until 6.

Crispy riverweed with spicy buffalo jam and steamed mushrooms in an herbal mousse are just two of the local specialties served at this atmospheric restaurant on the front terrace of 3 Nagas Luang Prabang hotel. Set menus are available from 300,000 kip, though you can also order à la carte. Across the street, the hotel's trendy cocktail bar Nagini is great for a nightcap.

Inside a thatched hillside bungalow overlooking Huay Xai's main street, Daauw Home is run by an NGO that helps local women and ethnic minorities empower themselves. Cooking over an open fire, the chefs prepare amazing dishes that diners enjoy with "mojitlao" cocktails. There are knockout sunset views, and a bonfire keeps things warm when it's chilly.

A training restaurant for marginalized youths, Khaiphaen's menu might include anything from tofu with Khaiphaen crispy river weed and green mango dip to fusion Lao staples such as grilled buffalo steak with pickled daikon. The food is great and you'll also be helping young Lao people build their hospitality skills.

A popular downtown restaurant and bar in a French colonial building, this is an excellent stop for happy-hour cocktails or dinner. For a tasty introduction to traditional Lao cuisine, try the Discovery Lao, a set menu including laap (a semi-spicy salad of ground meat), a zesty sour fish soup, khao niaw (Lao sticky rice), and a glass of lao-lao (rice whisky).

The Lao food at this restaurant inside a fading mansion is among Vientiane's best. Favorites include mok pa fork (steamed fish wrapped in banana leaves and cooked with eggs, onions, and coconut milk), and gaeng panaeng (a thick red curry with chicken, pork, or beef). Servings are small, so most people order several entrées à la carte or set menus featuring seven to nine dishes, plus dessert and coffee.

The owner of this popular joint cooks up tasty soups, stir-fries, and even Western breakfasts. Sometimes, you might even find some local ethnic specialties, depending on the season.

Local families mix with tourists in the night market to eat grilled meats and fish served alongside papaya salad, noodle dishes, and other local specialties. For about 100,000 kip you can score an entire chicken, dip it in hot sauce along with a handful of sticky rice, and accompany it with a cold beer.

This rickety restaurant on wooden planks just above the Mekong may not look like much, but its cooks consistently deliver tasty and authentic Lao food. The setting is intimate and romantic, though the place can get busy with tour groups staying at the family's decent guesthouse.

Despite its humble appearance, this small thatched-roof eatery serves the best food in Oudomxay and is itself a reason to slip into this otherwise colorless town. The owner, Mrs. Souphailin, specializes in northern Lao cuisine. It's well worth the effort to come in early and preorder any of the first 15 dishes on the menu, all authentic local specialties that require several hours of prep time.

The set menu is the way to sample a wide cross-selection of Lao dishes at this noted restaurant, cooking school, and (just for good measure) book exchange. Alternatively, you can order à la carte from a lengthy menu that includes kaipan, a crispy dried Mekong River plant covered with sesame seeds (it's the local equivalent of chips and salsa), and a local favorite, orlam, an eggplant "casserole" that can be compared to an exotic gaeng kiew waan (Thai green curry). Lao and Western options are available for breakfast.

Next to the stairs of Wat Chom Kao Manilat, this no-frills bamboo-and-thatch restaurant is a good choice for French and Lao food that's cooked with market-fresh ingredients. The hammocks and beautiful views over the Mekong help stretch meals into lazy spells—a perfect pastime in this sleepy town.