Wow - had lunch here today, it's just opened and has some fantastic food. Really recommend the fish (grown in London) and the fried insects! Finished with coconut ice cream - great location, great ambience and great food that you won't find anywhere else in London. Saiphin Moore has excelled herself at this new venture.
Yes it's spicy, yes it's not the cheapest eat ever... but it's south East Asian cuisine in the heart of central London - that's to get you to ignore the rubbish negative review... This place is magic for those of us who love spice, Asia and are fed up with the burger culture taking over London...! Service was fantastic, food was delicious, location is perfect... if you know you won't like it, don't go. If you know you will - do!
Came here for dinner around 8pm. Service was fast and efficient, food was amazing! Loved both versions of the papaya salad; nuts and salted eggs made for a very interesting taste profile. The spicy minced pork was also delicious and to my surprise I handled it well despite not usually eating spicy food. Got a diet coke with my food. Thank you!
The fermented sausage was tasty. All the dishes were flavourful, especially the mushroom curry. I chose the least spicy option but the papaya salad still seemed a bit too hot for my tastes. Overall reasonable for the number of dishes we had. No complaints!
Coming with friends on Friday evening with reservations, I have had a great experience. Most dishes were yummy 😋 , esp. for the grilled fish and papaya salad. It’s quite authentic style of the papaya salad, similar to northern Thai style
The service was also friendly and good 😊, I will come again!!!
Guido Maresca (Guidoch)
+5
Very good food! Staff is nice and polite, welcoming and warm feeling.
There aren't many vegetarian options, I wish there would be more choice.
The curry is delicious and something I have never tried in any other asian restaurant, so I was pleasantly surprised!
really great food and ambience!
the servers were really friendly and we went at 6pm on a weekday without a booking.
we ordered the pickled crab papaya salad, chargrilled pork neck and the salt grilled whole fish. all dishes were really tasty but i enjoyed the papaya salad the most!
Junqian Qiu (Jun_radioheadache)
+5
I never had Lao food before even I have had been living in Asia all my life. We came here on a Wednesday afternoon for lunch before we went to see our show at the KitKat club. The restaurant is not very far away from Monument station. The restaurant it’s very clean and stylish decor. There are bar tables and regular dining tables. We didn’t have any reservations so we were seated at the bar table.
Manuel is very comprehensive, introducing how many dishes you should order. We were too, so we ordered one plain sticky rice, one pork fried noodles, one portion of barbecue sausage and one bamboo shoot salad. For two girls, they were about the right quantity.
The food strikes me first as northern Thai food. The sausages taste, a little bit sour and in the very unique way. You can eat it with mint leaf, coriander and chilli pepper. It was really tasty.
The sticky (gluten rich) plain rice tastes like Chinese Zong Zi, it is very soft with a good texture. It goes very well with the bamboo shoots salad.
Although it says it is salad, the bamboo shoots, it’s actually a hot dish. The sauce is full of mint leaves, different spices. Very yummy. The bamboo shoots is very crunchy.
The fried vimcilimi is full of sweet sauce, the pork on top is well marinated, which is also good to go with rice.
There are staffs at the shop front, they seem very busy but also very attentive. I asked for chilli powder and fresh chilli, they brought me what I asked for and kept refilling our water.
If you like south East Asian food, don’t miss out.
We came for a quick dinner before a show and between the four of us, we shared the deep-fried chicken wings, the chargrilled pork skewers, fermented Lao sausages, tum Thai (papaya salad), prawn pad mee Lao (vermicelli noodles) and laab moo (minced pork). All the dishes packed a punch in flavour and were really tasty. The service was also very efficient.
Lao Cafe is an excellent introduction to Laos cuisine in London. I really love their spicy Papaya Salad, Grilled Pork Neck, and Spicy Sour Pork Ribs.
If you like spicy and flavorful dishes (think a mix of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine) you will probably like the dishes at Lao Cafe as well.
It helps that it’s in a central location and it’s also quite affordable.
It was fine, was t a massive fan of the flavours in general but it was interesting. Especially the ants egg soup.
Service was good and price was reasonable.
Delicious & authentic food. Good service.
I really love papaya salad and pork spicy soup, stir fry noodles .My favourite Thai restaurant in London .
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