Description: We had asked our guide about which restaurant he could recommend to us for good quality local food. He didn’t have to think long and suggested that we try the Tamnak Lao Restaurant which he said was only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. That estimate proved to be a little bit on the ambitious side as I reckon it was more than double the time. It was straightforward as we only needed to walk along the main road, through the Night Market (see separate review) and then on to the last block of restaurants on the edge of the town.
We were well ready for a sit down when we got there and there seemed to be a surplus of staffing to greet us. Two young girls at the entrance smiled and I paused expecting them to guide us in to the restaurant. Clearly this was not their job as they, with the tiniest of gestures, handed us over to one of the three receptionists who led us up the steep staircase to the first floor and guided us to a balcony table overlooking Luang Prabang’s main thoroughfare. Here the chairs were placed for us to sit down, a serviette was delicately placed on our lap and the very full menus placed before us.
We knew we wanted to eat Lao food but as we had not experienced it before we were going to be ordering blind. Unfortunately our choice was made even more difficult because the menu was so extensive. There must have been upward of 30 dishes to choose from!
The restaurant specialises in Luang Prabang cookery and is run by a local family who also look after a daily cookery school and a book exchange to support health and education for Lao children. The building itself is an old colonial building that has been carefully restored and its period features make for an interesting dining experience.
Whilst we struggled to make our food of choice we opted for four large Lao beers and these were promptly brought to the table with ice chilled glasses. It made for a very tasty and thirst quenching drink. The waiters were keen to help us improve our Laos language and bombarded us with day to day phrases. Thank you was easily mastered with "kop Chai", but we struggled to retain the pronunciation of the others. Although "Bar" (meaning no) was going to be useful and "kop chai lie lie" gave an additional emphasis to thanks.
Finally we selected four meals and it was just as well that we had decided to share them as they all arrived at different times, complying with the far eastern philosophy of serving the food when its ready. I’d chosen the local dish of "Orlam" and awaited the local delicacy of Buffalo skin that was added as a flavouring of this chicken dish (although you can choose pork or beef). Well I found the buffalo skin and pretty awful it was too. I’m assuming that you’re not meant to eat it and I quickly removed it from my mouth and deposited on the side of the plate. My friend wanted a tasting so dug deep into the bowl and found at least one "local delicacy". He smiled bravely, went to chew it and then, like me decided that it was for leaving and not for eating.
We enjoyed our first meal out in Luang Prabang and were very well looked after by all of the staff at the restaurant.
I’d certainly recommend the place.
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