Café de Laos open

[cinghiale]

Café de Laos is finally open. It’s located at 11/Washington, across from Nam Phuong and next to the wonderfully named but yet-to-open Porkie & Porky (with the pink sign). Decided to give it a go on Hurricane Night, so we had the place to ourselves.

The restaurant bills itself as Laotian and Thai, and the menu offers ample selections from both cuisines. I’m no Thai expert, and this was my first Laotian meal, so I’ll leave it to others to debate the merits. (Dannyboy: You out there?) The decor is warm – lots of wood and several gold-leaf mosaics featuring warriors, goddesses, elephants and famous battles. We met owner/chef Michael, who said (memory got foggy at end of meal) that they have a place in Media (Noodles?) and one in West Philly – don’t quote me, but I think Vientiane.

One of our party, Chef Tom from The Abbaye, grabbed control of the apps, which included:

• Sai Krong-Issan Yang: terrific little pork sausage balls, served with peanuts, cashews, dried shrimp, and lemon grass

• Mu Daed Diew: sun-dried pork jerky (there’s also a beef variety), some of which were really dry and others nice and chewy

• Tub Kwan: spicy char-grilled pork liver (they were out of ox liver), which was not really my thing but well prepared

• Thot Mun Pla: Thai fish patties with curry and herbs, very good

• Crispy rolls: good, Vietnamese-like

For mains, Tom and I went with the laab (seasonings: dried chili (whole pods), shallot, lime, rice powder, mint, cilantro, and scallion), served on romaine lettuce. Looks sorta like peasant food. Tom’s pork laab was bland and disappointing. My duck laab, on the other hand, was well seasoned, though some thought too salty. Served with choice of jasmine or sticky rice.

The other three of us had pads: one beef, one pork, one shrimp. All were quite good, and the saucing was distinctly different for each.

For those of you who know your way around Thai/Laotian menus (I don’t), there are also Tom Yums (hot/sour soups, including one with snakehead fish), Yams, two Nam Toks (beef and pork), a number of Kaengs (Thai-Laotian curries), and a few noodle dishes.

Apps are in the $5-8 range. Mains are $8-11 mostly, topping out at $15 for mixed seafood.

Edited to add: BYO

Edited September 30, 2004 by cinghiale (log)

[dannyboy]

Café de Laos is finally open.  I’m no Thai expert, and this was my first Laotian meal, so I’ll leave it to others to debate the merits.  (Dannyboy: You out there?) 

I'm stoked that it's finally open. I have been eyeing these 2 places up for what seems to be a small eternity. Can't wait to try Laos, especially if it is owned by the Vientiane folks. Wonder who the Porky&Porkie owners are. I vote for their big outdoor sign as one of the coolest in Philly.

Thanks for the review, cinghiale

[KatieLoeb]

I'm stoked that it's finally open. I have been eyeing these 2 places up for what seems to be a small eternity. Can't wait to try Laos, especially if it is owned by the Vientiane folks. Wonder who the Porky&Porkie owners are. I vote for their big outdoor sign as one of the coolest in Philly.

Thanks for the review, cinghiale

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The Vientiane folks are the people that used to own the infamous "Blue Tent" in West Philly. Health Department shut them down for running an unlicensed restaurant and they got all kinds of community support and guidance to help them open and legally license Cafe Vientiane. CV is the only place in Philly that I'm aware of that bills itself as Laotian cusine. Except when you look at the menu there's only ONE Laotian dish on it! The rest is pure Thai. Pffft!

[brescd01]

Katie,

I think the situation is more complex. There is a substantial Laotian population in Thailand, and they have their own cuisine, heavily influenced by Thai food obviously. The lines between the two are not so distinct, at least from the standpoint of these monikers "Laotion" and "Thai."

[Richard Kilgore]

My understanding of part of the blur between Thai and Laotian food, is that the northern highlands of Thailand were once part of Laos.

[KatieLoeb]

OK - the geography and multi-ethnic confusion makes sense. But isn't this a golden opportunity for the Cafe de Laos folks to show us the differences, however subtle, and teach us a thing or two about their nation's cuisine, geography and politics? I, for one, would find it fascinating, and I find that having the native dishes along as the teaching tools makes it all stick a little better in my head.

[KatieLoeb]

In the interest of getting the answer to this burning question (and 'cuz I was hungry) I decided to stop over and check out Café de Laos for lunch today. It was a bit "fancier" than I had expected, white tablecloths and all, but since I'd already walked in the door I figured what the heck, and sat down and ordered a plate of Beef Laab and a side of sticky rice. The Laab was tasty, but the dried chiles that were laying on top of the dish didn't seem to have any spiciness to the dish at all. These were the same kind of dried chiles that I've accidentally ingested while eating certain Chinese dishes so I plucked them out, but they definitely didn't seem to have had any seasoning effect on the dish. There weren't any condiments on the table so I ate the dish as is. It was good, but pretty mild compared to Laab I've had in other restaurants.

Service was quite attentive (an easy feat since I was the only customer) and very pleasant although I had a bit of a misunderstanding with my waiter regarding my beverage. I'd wanted Thai Iced tea with the condensed milk but without any extra half and half in addition. He brought it over "unlightened" in any way, so had to go and fix it. It was also very tasty.

Turns out that the owners are the same folks that own the various outposts of Thai Orchid, Royal Thai Orchid, etc. At least I assume so since there's a framed review of the other restaurants in the vestibule. I think the Laotian implications of the name of this new restaurant are indeed in name only. Perhaps they want to distinguish it from the other restaurants but it seems the previously postulated theory about Thai and Loatian cuisines being pretty similar are echoed in the name of this new place and it's menu which seem to be pretty standard issue Thai.

[cinghiale]

Perhaps they want to distinguish it from the other restaurants but it seems the previously postulated theory about Thai and Loatian cuisines being pretty similar are echoed in the name of this new place and it's menu which seem to be pretty standard issue Thai.

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Reading this thread, I wondered whether there is in fact any difference between Thai and Lao food. A bit of research revealed that both cuisines have laab, tom, yam, kaeng. But according to this author (scroll down a bit) "true" Lao food is hard to find outside the country, since much indigenous cuisine is served raw . Other marks distinguishing Lao from Thai, according to the author, include (i) sticky rice, (ii) the fermented fish sauce called pa daek, (iii) laab (also Thai, no?), and (iv) less-refined kaeng than Thai. The jerky also seems more Lao than Thai, but I could be wrong. So but for the apparent absence of pa daek from the menu, might not "standard issue Thai" be a bit harsh?

[KatieLoeb]

I didn't mean "standard issue Thai" as an insult, just a statement that this menu doesn't seem too different from the ones I've seen in other Thai places around town and in other cities. In fact, this menu is probably more limited, if anything. Nothing wrong with standard issue Thai, just perhaps not what I was expecting. If there are menu items that are more Laotian than Thai, it's certainly not pointed out in any way on the menu, or by the waitstaff. And being that I was the only one there, the waiter could have lectured me about the Laotian dishes on the menu if they were emphasizing it in any way. Seems they aren't.

My conclusion is that the place was named Cafe de Laos only to distinguish it from their other "Thai-is-in-the-name" restaurants. I'd be curious to see a menu from Thai Orchid side by side with the new Cafe de Laos menu for comparison's sake.

[cinghiale]

Ooops: Didn't mean to sound like I was impugning your comments -- I certainly don't know much about one of the cuisines involved here, and nothing about the other.

I can't remember if the in-house menu distinguishes between the two cuisines. Having of course promptly forgotten what we'd ordered, I asked Chef "Michael" if he could give me a menu to take with me to assist in the write-up for this thread, and he gave me a take-out menu, circling what he'd cooked for us. The take-out menu does have categories: For apps, "Thai-Laos Bridge", "Vientiane Kitchen", "Bangkok Kitchen". The laab I understood to be "typical Lao", as it was recommended in response to my query. There is also a "Thai-Laotian curry" heading that we were told has Lao influences, particularly snakehead fish.

[Just Googled "Thai Orchid" and came up with a City Paper review of CdL from last month. May help in sorting some of this out.]

Edited October 4, 2004 by cinghiale (log)

[SG-]

I didn't mean "standard issue Thai" as an insult, just a statement that this menu doesn't seem too different from the ones I've seen in other Thai places around town and in other cities. 

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Darn, I was getting a little excited after reading the initial post.

IMO "Standard issue Thai" should be meant as an insult since all these new places are adopting the hopeless renditions of americanized items like those princess curries, rain dance salads etc. bleah... and sadly this is what people have come to expect these items on the menu in any new thai restaurant that open around the area.