Places to Eat in Luang Prabang

Hungry travellers will surely enjoy what Luang Prabang has on offer. With everything from traditional Laotian food to upscale French cuisine, this Northern Lao city has something for everyone. Whether you are a backpacker on a tight budget or prefer to spend while travelling, Luang Prabang has restaurants for any occasion.

What to expect

If you are wondering what to order that’s traditionally Laotian, the first thing to note is that the country’s cuisine varies tremendously from city to city. Luang Prabang has many cooking schools where you can see how it all works there first hand and taste many flavours to get you acclimated to the city’s style of cooking. Tamarind is a recommended school that offers classes twice a day. Whether or not you choose to attend a cooking school, you will definitely encounter sticky rice in many of your meals. You will also notice a variety of dipping sauces that come with many entrees, as well as lots of lemon-grass chicken skewers. Residents of Luang Prabang eat a lot of BBQ style meats, be that chicken or pork, but whichever meat you choose, they all have the same freshness and flavourful nature in common.

Street Food

On the cheaper end of the spectrum, there are delicious meals in Luang Prabang that you can get for less than LAK20,000 (about USD2.5). Probably the funniest meal you’ll find in the streets of Luang Prabang is what known under the moniker “KFC.” No, it’s not the western food chain, but it does refer to a place to buy fried chicken at a low price.

Street vendors offer roti (crepes), grilled fish in salt, barbequed meats, noodle soups, and spring rolls – lots and lots of spring rolls. There’s also dumplings and salads, sugar cane drinks and exotic fruits – really, you could spend your entire time in Luang Prabang just eating street food and never breaking the bank.

Street food concept is best explained at Luang Prabang’s night market filled with buffet stands. Your best bet is the vegetarian buffet where a giant bowl of vegetables will cost you no more than LAK10,000-LAK15,000 (about USD2).

Local Food

If you are craving good Laotian food, try Dyen Sabai or Manda de Laos. The former has the outdoor jungle setting, and the latter sits by the pond with lots of waterlilies. Both offer a gorgeous ambiance if you are willing to pay the price. A typical meal at Manda de Laos will run at about LAK530,000 for 2 (USD64).

In general, it’s good to note that the Laotians don’t really eat sweet desserts, but if you have a strong sweet tooth you’ll find many western adaptations around the city.

Western and International Food

There is a lot of western influence in Luang Prabang, and it is exactly why you will find quite a few European restaurants in the area. For fine dining, many recommend Blue Lagoon Restaurant, L’Elephant Restaurant or Phou Savanh, which offer either French or German food with a twist on traditional Asian cuisine. A meal at Blue Lagoon will cost less than LAK300,000 (USD36) per person and will include wine.

Still on the backpackers’ budget, many expats love to eat at Nisha, an Indian curry house. Here you can get veggie curry with naan bread for under LAK30,000 (about USD4).

Bars and cafes

Many restaurants offer generous happy hours which actually last up to 6 or 7 hours, so you can actually dine and have a drink at half the usual price.

As everywhere around Laos, coffee addicts won’t have any problems to find a good cup of coffee in Luang Prabang. Cafe de Laos is always our prime choice for a decent cup of a flavoursome brew. While we definitely enjoy shabby chic small coffee joints with a typical Asian fleur, sometimes a modern city cafe with air-con fits just right. Try Joma Bakery Cafe – they have a wide variety of dishes on menu, too, so if you stay longer than for a cup of coffee, you will have a lot of choices (from LAK24,000).