Best Lao Khao Soi in Luang Prabang – Footpath Feasting in Laos. Lao Khao Soi in Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Best Lao Khao Soi in Luang Prabang – Footpath Feasting in Laos

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Best Lao khao soi in Luang Prabang is to be found in a simple, squat, open-fronted timber and corrugated iron shed, with a handful of wooden tables inside. There’s no sign and nothing whatsoever to identify the dilapidated eatery as Luang Prabang’s best Lao khao soi place but trust us, it’s worth the trouble to find it.

“The best Lao khao soi in Luang Prabang is over there,” our guide Bounmee informed us proudly, pointing across the road, soon after we began our temple tour in languid Luang Prabang – which seemed to be starting out as a foodie walk.

A few minutes earlier Bounmee had been introducing us to kee meow or ‘cat poo’ biscuits, which we watched a woman making in the shop-front bakery of her home, and minutes later he was telling us about a terrific duck noodle soup joint down the street.

Now, we were strolling along Manomai Road and Bounmee was directing our attention to a simple, squat, open-fronted timber and corrugated iron shed, with a handful of wooden tables inside. There was no sign and nothing whatsoever to identify the dilapidated eatery as Luang Prabang’s best Lao khao soi place.

Nothing except the silhouette of a woman stirring what must have been the city’s famous soup in massive pots at the back of the dimly lit restaurant-cum-grocery shop. I marked the spot on my Luang Prabang map and made a few notes.

Best Lao Khao Soi in Luang Prabang – Footpath Feasting in Laos

“Khao soi?” I double-checked. I knew the Thai version, with its rich, creamy, coconut curry base with crispy noodles on top, but at that point on our Luang Prabang trip, I knew little about Lao food and had no idea if this ‘best Lao khao soi’ was similar.

The cuisine of Laos is all at once distinct from and similar to that of its neighbours. It has been influenced by, and has in turn occasionally influenced, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and various Chinese regional cuisines, and we had already enjoyed a few Lao plates that were similar to Thai dishes, such as larb, the spicy minced salads.

“So what’s this ‘best Lao khao soi’ like?” I asked.

“Yummy!” Bounmee responded, grinning. “It’s flat rice noodle soup with pork. Lao people love it. The khao piak sen is good too.”

Several hours later, famished after half a day walking the length and breadth of Luang Prabang swooning over shimmering temples in the sweltering heat, we bid goodbye to Bounmee, found a tuk-tuk, and made a beeline for that spot on the map to sample Luang Prabang’s best Lao khao soi.

It was mid-afternoon and the place was almost empty of diners. There were just two local men – one loudly slurping a bowl of soup, another leaving with a plastic bag of take-away. While khao soi is now eaten at any time of the day, it had traditionally been a breakfast soup according to Bounmee, as had the khao piak sen he mentioned, so we didn’t jump to conclusions.

Besides, the soup pots were colossal – they were cauldrons! – and there was no shortage of women pottering about the place, which meant it must get busy at some stage.

One woman wandered about with a baby. Another woman dried wet dishes while sitting down at a table. And yet another appeared to be responsible for selling the dry goods and snack foods from an area in the corner of the shack. A further woman sat counting the day’s takings. And then there was the girl who watched over the soups.

All women appeared bemused by our presence. Despite Bounmee proclaiming this the home of Luang Prabang’s best Lao khao soi their soup joint was obviously not in the guidebooks.

“Sabaidee! Khao soi, khawp jai,” I said cheerily, holding up two fingers and pointing at each pot, hoping my smile communicated the rest. My Lao vocabulary consisted of a whopping four phrases our guide taught us on the Mekong River cruise – sabaidee (hello), laa gawn (goodbye), khawp jai (thank you), and bo pen nyang (it’s nothing/no problem; always comes in handy). Our stay in Luang Prabang was short so I hadn’t learnt any numbers.

Fortunately the soup girl read my mind even if she had no clue what I was saying, and, after shyly returning the smile, she reached for two large plastic bowls into which she placed the cooked flat rice noodles and a scoop of pork, before ladling a broth from each pot into the bowls.

Next, she generously sprinkled slices of finely chopped spring onions onto both soups, but to the slightly darker soup (the khao soi), she added a big dollop of a rich, red, ragu-like relish of minced pork, fermented soy bean, tomato, and chilli.

One of the women followed me to our table with a plate of fresh greens – crisp snake beans, fragrant mint, aromatic Lao basil or pak i tou, which has smaller leaves and is more lemony than the Thai basils, and halves of lime – and a container of shrimp paste.

Rice cakes in plastic bags hung, along with other snacks, from a wooden pole beside our table. The local bloke who was packing his take-away soups on the back of his motorbike soon after we arrived took a bag or rice cakes with him while the guy at the next table was dipping his rice crackers into his soup. After a taste of Bounmee’s best Lao khao soi, I didn’t think I needed them.

On the table was a selection of the ubiquitous condiments found across Southeast Asia – dried chilli flakes, sugar, chilli sauce, fish sauce, and so on – a selection of which Terence added to the khao piak sen, which he opted to test out. Terence is a fan of Vietnamese pho, and the kao piak sen, a lighter albeit slightly spicy and peppery Laotian noodle soup is of a similar consistency to pho.

I gently stirred my mountain of relish into the khao soi, turning the solid broth into a rich, hearty soup. I tasted it again and it was perfect. It was a little sour, it was a little sweet, but most of all it was full of the wonderful flavour of the pork meat and that fantastic fermented relish. To me, it needed no accompaniments.

The porky relish was similar to one of our Thai favourites, nam prik ong, and it gave the soup all the depth of flavour and complexity it needed. It was sublime. Terence agreed. There was little conversation for the next 15 minutes as we worked our way through a couple of the best dishes we’d ever tasted.

That was our first taste of Luang Prabang’s best Lao khao soi and although we don’t usually like to make sweeping statements about anything being the best of such and such a place until we’ve been able to do the rounds and compare, we could easily see how our guide considered it to be the best Lao khao soi in Luang Prabang. So much so that we resisted trying the soup anywhere else again during our stay.

Our reasoning? If there was a soup better than Luang Prabang’s best Lao khao soi, we might never have left the city.

If You’re Heading to Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang has an abundance of atmospheric boutique hotels that ooze history, including splendid colonial-era residences of late kings, a former royal summer house, and lodgings located in the old French Governor’s residence, including the 3 NagasMaison Souvannaphoum, Belmond La Residence Phou Vao, and Satri House. For more, see our guide to Luang Prabang’s best boutique hotels. Luang Prabang is also home to luxury hotels such as Luang Say Residence and Amantaka, which offers a cooking class on an organic farm. And when you’re back home, try our Lao khao soi recipe and let us know you think.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

5 thoughts on “Best Lao Khao Soi in Luang Prabang – Footpath Feasting in Laos”

  1. We intentionally didn’t include the precise address as we wanted to keep it something of a secret. We figured that the foodies who are really keen to find it will :)

    It’s on Manomai Road and if you started at its intersection with Kitsalat Road and walked away from the old town in the direction of Phu Vao Road you’ll see it a couple of blocks on your right. There is no sign but you should recognise it from my description and the photo above.

    If you see this in time and try it, let us know how you liked it.

  2. Hi Lara, thank you for sharing this. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it and believe me, I looked! I suppose it could have closed down since you were last there. I guess if you want to keep it a secret, it’s important to think about that stuff too because if not it’s an inconvenience to look for a place that might be anywhere within a kilometre but also may not even be there anymore and there’s no definitive way to check. Anyway, hopefully other people have had more luck!

  3. Hi Moira – such a shame you couldn’t find it – a local source tells me it’s most definitely still there and still in the place I describe, and I’ve also just identified it on Google Street View (the image dates to January 2016). On Google Maps it’s very close to Le Sens Hotel. Other readers have found it and eaten there also and I hear it’s as wonderful as ever. We’ll be getting back there soon, so I’ll check with the women and see if we can include the address and I’ll that or a map here. I hope you still ate well in Luang Prabang and got to try the dish elsewhere?

  4. Hi Lara, thanks for getting back to me! I will be going back to Luang Prabang in a couple of weeks so will definitely have to have another search! Thank you for the additional description, I’ll let you know how it goes :). Yes, I tried it elsewhere and it was absolutely delicious, so I’m keen to try the best one.

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