5 Restaurants to try in Vang Vieng – Laos – TREKwithBECK
Vang Vieng has so many restaurants and cafes, it can be a bit overwhelming. While all of them do sell delicious meals from traditional Lao to western, I have created a list of some of my favourites. This blog post is going to be short and sweet, here are 5 restaurants you should visit in Vang Vieng.
If you are interested in things to do in Vang Vieng, you can read my blog post here.
1. Happy Mango
If you are a backpacker heading to Vang Vieng, you have most likely heard of the Happy Mango restaurant. Happy Mango is an authentic Thai restaurant, with specialities in their mango shakes and mango sticky rice. Every time I walked past this restaurant after 6pm, it was packed! I would recommend getting here early for dinner or you may be waiting a while.
Although I didn’t try any of their Thai food for this reason, I did try their signature mango sticky rice and it was delicious! I wouldn’t say it’s the best mango sticky rice I have ever had, but it was delicious. You can get shakes and their sticky rice to go if you don’t want to wait.
Open Everyday from 12pm to 10pm.
2. We Knead Pizza
I personally thought this was pretty good pizza, especially for Southeast Asia! They only have a few pizzas on the menu, but each has been carefully crafted. I had the meat lovers, and it was loaded up with all different types of meat (worth my money). The base was crispy the cheese had an impressive cheese pull.
The atmosphere is very laid back and relaxed, and the service is remarkable. You have a few different sauces you can have with your pizza too, which I thought was a nice touch. This spot is directly next to Happy Mango, so it’s the perfect way to tick two places off at once! Pizzas start at 85,000 Kip.
3. Naked Expresso
This is the place to go if you are looking for some strong coffee! Naked Expresso is a little cafe, with indoor and outdoor seating offering a mixture of Western and Asian dishes. I went here for breakfast because I was craving some avocado on toast, and this place delivered! They have quite a few different ‘egg on toast’ dishes, I can recommend the Eggs Benedict.
The serving sizes are on the smaller side, but the food is delicious. The coffee is excellent too and you can pick your own brew if you fancy! It’s a nice little breakfast spot in Vang Vieng, it is a bit on the higher price range though (compared to other Lao restaurants).
Open Everyday, 7am to 6pm.
4. Vela Café
This is a family run cafe located on the main street in Vang Vieng. It serves authentic Lao food, along with Western dishes. I loved how many options they had on their menu and they have heaps of vegetarian options! The dishes are all very reasonable in price and have pretty decent portions.
The food is full of flavour and this place fills up from 7pm onwards! When I was there in the space of 10mins it went from just being me to being completely full. As its a family run restaurant, each dish is made to order – so your order make take a little longer than usual. Never the less, it’s worth coming here for a meal!
Open Everyday, 7.30am to 2pm, 6pm to 9.30pm.
5. Green Restaurant
Green Restaurant serves up local Lao dishes along with other Asian dishes, the menu is quite extensive. The meals are very well prices and are delicious in taste! This restaurant doesn’t only have good food, but has some beautiful views over Vang Vieng. From the outdoor seating you can see the mountains in the distance, which makes it a great place to come for sunset dinner or drinks.
The service is excellent and very quick! I had the satay tofu sticks and the satay sauce was nutty and flavourful. This restaurant is also pretty popular, so it may fill up during peak times quickly.
Open Everyday, 6.30am to 11pm.
