A very honest review of Luang Prabang’s food scene

Let’s get this out of the way…

They can’t all be winners. If you’re looking for a blog post proclaiming Luang Prabang as the center of gastronomical heaven then you are going to be disappointed. Luang Prabang has a ton of restaurants, cafes and other forms of eateries – with a wide range of food available. We spent over a week here so tried as varied a sample as we could. We’re massive foodies so usually this isn’t a chore, but unfortunately for us we couldn’t really find many food spots that really wowed us – especially compared to northern Thailand… We mixed up smaller local restaurants with those serving slightly more western influenced cuisine, though the latter was partly through desperation as much as it was desire.

We began with a jaunt to the night market on our first evening. It was lively with a mix of locals and tourists, but predominantly tourists. The towers of beer Lao were flowing for the young gap yah lads, enjoying on meat-on-a-stick options. At 27,000Kip a bottle this was not expensive by any means… Food wise, Jonny had some Laos Khao Soi whilst Emily took a punt on some fried noodles. Neither was memorable. This partly began a trend of us feeling underwhelmed by the food…so, without further adieu, let’s get into it!

10 Restaurants in Luang Prabang

Breakfast at Two Little Birds, Luang Prabang

Here is the list of all the restaurants we tried in Luang Prabang and our honest scores. Please remember we all like different food and have different palates – you might end up loving the places we didn’t and vice versa. Hopefully, this is helpful and will point you in the direction of some delicious places to eat.

Bamboo Garden

This restaurant had great reviews on google maps so we were quite excited. It also offered a menu with local Laos dishes. Emily went for a Phat Thai whilst Jonny ordered pork with Thai basil. Decent enough but not deserving of the google maps accolades – 6/10 score.

Good people good food good price

This place was local, and was always busy – we realised it was busy because each dish took about 45 minutes to cook. It was also fully committed to a Thai based shopping channel on a flatscreen TV, blaring out the current special deal (buy 5 – get 5 free!!).

The place was rough and ready, but we’d eaten in loads of places like this before with no problems. Jonny had pork and rice whilst Em went for fried soy noodles. There was an odd treacle undertone to the noodles but Jonny’s dish was good. Em was scathing of the dirtiness and dish, dropping a 3/10 whereas Jonny was slightly more generous with a 6/10.

Whilst we didn’t receive a top meal, I am at least now the proud owner of 10 bars of soap and a tub of collagen powder (plus free shipping!!).

Phonheuang Cafe

Well, well, well. Laos food, localish prices and in the quaint old town to boot. Good enough to eat in twice.

Jonny sampled the belly pork and rice the first time, and chicken fried rice the second. Emily was so thrilled with her crispy fried pork and rice she had it twice (it also came with half a boiled egg!). Good eats and good prices – 7.5 / 10 from us both – pretty decent even if not overwhelmingly knock-out.

This should definitely be on your must eat list for restaurants in Luang Prabang.

Random sandwich stand outside Nang Ae Restaurant

Whilst eating the Laos version of the Bahn Mi – the Khao jee pâté – I was reasonably happy. It had an interesting set of fillings, with a pretty spicy element and some fresher coriander. Not amazing but not bad. We took two (one spicy, one not) to the waterfalls with us. Jonny spent the middle of the night stuck to the loo and thinks, based on what else we ate that day (either shared or not shared) this was the likely culprit.

Grim, but we’ll say no more. Originally a 6/10, reduced to 2/10 for obvious reasons.

Local Restaurant Ban Jek

Slight disappointment here as there was no crispy pork left when we arrived – there was however just normal pork, so seemingly Jonny once again went rice and pork Emily chose more noodles but was not impressed, partially due to a few bits of grissly meat. Not memorable enough for a rating from Emily, but about 5.6/10 from Jonny.

Lost in Baan

Found by complete surprise as we were hunting for something else, a French-owned (quelle surprise in Labuang Prabang) brand new restuarant which opened on Nov 15th 2023.

We spent more on this meal than any other so far this trip, coming in at a whopping 380,000Kip (£14.51) for two mains and two fresh orange juices. However, the food was really tasty and huge portions.

Jonny had, wait for it, belly pork with sticky rice, but accompanied with some pickled radish and cucumber. Emily had a Carbo-sayo-nara which was fresh soba noodles with nori miso sauce, chiitake mushrooms, soy cured egg yolk and parmesan chips. Ooh la la. Both were knock out and such large portions that they basically finished us off.

Emily rated this a 9/10 and Jonny did too. Definitely pay this restaurant a visit when you’re in Luang Prabang, it also has an incredibly aesthetic interior design touch.

Café Toui

This was another good meal, but once again at a price point above the ‘average’. Emily enjoyed her pumpkin curry with sticky rice, and Jonny really loved the slightly spicy fresh fish from the Mekong, grilled in banana leaf.

After eating Jonny asked which fish it was, and to be told (thanks again google translate) it was Barb. A quick google later told us that the Mekong is home to some super-sized fish, as a result of the river’s prehistoric nature, and the deep pools that make it up (upto 80m deep in places, protecting fish during dry season) and a lack of natural predators (beyond humans) have enabled giant fish species to flourish (including the Giant barb, Giant catfish). Unfortunately, once source I read (after eating) suggested that the Giant Barb is endangered (fish stocks generally in the Mekong are reduced by about 90% from the origins due to fishing practices. A real challenge to manage this I expect, especially for a river that flows through several SE Asia countries whom depend on it for livelihoods.

Anyway, back to the ratings, Emily scored this restaurant an 8/10 and Jonny an 8/10 too. Another to put on the must eat list for Luang Prabang restaurants.

Soum Noum Bar & Restaurant

This was a specific punt at some blander western food as a result of the-night-that-shall-not-be-discussed (see sandwich incident above).

We were surprised at the quality of the pizza that Emily had and Jonny’s burger. Far greater than our low expectations, and the lack of spice was probably just what Jonny’s immodium lined stomach required. Jonny’s slight nag was the chip portion which ran to 9 chips, but they were super hot and straight from the frier so tasted good.

Emily rated her pizza at 7/10 and Jonny gave the burger 7/10. Drinks were slightly more expensive here than elsewhere, but cold filtered water was brought to the table free of charge.

Would definitely recommend if you’re looking for a Western restaurant in Luang Prabang.

Two little birds

This was a hot spot for backpackers /tourists due to offering a very veggie / vegan friendly menu.

We utilised it for breakfast as they did a pretty good smoothie bowl coming in at 35-50,000KIP (though an extra 18,000 for a small bowl of granola on the side). It offered us a healthier breakfast option compared to pastries and was necessary given our accommodation didn’t include breakfast (we spent 8 days total in Luang Prabang).

We collectively rated them 8/10. This place regularly makes it to the top of people’s lists in Luang Prabang and for good reason.

Le Banneton Cafe

French bakery which did reasonable baguette – Jonny had some with bacon and eggs and it was quite good.

Em had a croissant with jam (actual jam rather than sweet jelly type stuff) though her profesional opinion was that insufficient resting time meant the croissant was on the denser side. We also both tried a pain au chocolat, which was pretty good.

We’re not talking France quality here, but pretty good none the less. 6/10 from Em, 6.5/10 from Jonny.

Final thoughts

Overall we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t find better local dishes, plus one night of terror, meant that overall our inner foodies were left a little sad. We’d love to hear from you if there are any places we missed that you think should be on this list! Leave us a comment or get in touch on Instagram.

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Happy Travels!

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Laos E-SIM

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