Lao & Thai Food in Philadelphia at Vientiane Cafe

Gwen Blackshear is a big fan of the Lao and Thai cuisine served at her recommended spot. For great portions and top-notch papaya salad, she heads to Vientiane Café. My name is Sunny Panthavong and I'm a general manager for Vientiane Café. Vientiane Café is a family-run business that serves authentic Lao and Thai cuisine. So Vientiane actually started in 2002 at this location, but prior to that we actually ran a small underground family business in our home in the backyard of our house serving Lao food to the community and it's been going on ever since. So what drew me to cooking is just carrying on my family heritage and family recipes. These are recipes that have been passed down for right now the third generation so it's a it means a lot to me to keep going and keep sharing the recipe and the food to everyone. I want guests to feel full and happy leaving here and then creating memories. I know a lot of people come here to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, also exploring new cuisine they've never had before. So coming here and leaving that knowing that they travel to Laos basically. Gwen, Vientiane Café is one of your go-to spots. Why did you pick it? I like Vientiane because I guess I like how they started out back in 2000 under a blue tarp tent. They opened the restaurant, they expanded over to under the L in Kensington. So I think that's why I like it. And do you have any go-to dishes that you would recommend to people? Really the papaya salad with the salted crabs, that's really good. Really fishy and pungent, spicy, garlicky, it's great. It just packs a punch. Tony, you had a few appetizers as well. You got the spring rolls, some dumplings, and then there was a chicken satay. I think we were all fighting over but we have the two other couples. I think we're all fighting over who get the last piece of each one because everything was just so tasty. So what were in the spring rolls? Mostly vegetables for the most part, yeah. And how about the dumplings? Probably I think either pork or vegetables. I can't remember exactly but very light wrapper, really, really tasty. And the satay, was it chicken satay? Yeah, chicken satay. Yeah, peanut sauce, yeah, on a skewer. Was it spicy? No, no, it was just the perfect blend of spices. Very real, real tasty. The first thing you notice when you walk in that place, it just smells good. Like when you walk in someone's house and they're cooking, it wasn't garlic or ginger, just you walk in and go, hmm, it smells really good in here. I'm expecting a good meal and it panned out to be. Bart, how were your appetizers? They were great. I would second what Tony said. We had the tofu satay and one of my friends admitted he doesn't really like tofu but he tried these and they were great. They're really crispy on the outside, they're marinated so they're really flavorful. My favorite was something I didn't order, my friend did, the naan salad, which actually was more of lettuce wraps, which had this sort of really nice umami flavor with a mix of textures, you know, kind of fun to eat. You just pick up, you know, a little lettuce. Do you know what were in the lettuce wraps? So there was a mix of grains, a little bit of, there was some carrot in there, it had kind of a peanut dressing on it as well, which was really good. It reminded me of sort of that, you know, when you eat Korean barbecue, kind of that sort of thing. So it was unexpected there. We also had the spring rolls, which I thought were really good as well. Gwen, how was your tamarind tilapia? It was okay. When I ordered it, I did specify and I kind of asked if it was going to be sweet or if it was going to be salty, and I was told sweet, and it was salty. So, you know, either way though, it was still good. Is there another entree that you usually go with? I think my friend ordered the pad kee mao, but that's something that I usually get, or like the drunken noodles. What's the pad kee mao? If I remember correctly, it was, because I feel like places do it different, but what he had, it was like the drunken noodles, those big flat noodles, right? They kind of like ribbon all over the place. They're great. And then he had like shrimp and chicken with it and vegetables, and his sauce was actually more sweeter, more sweet than mine was. It was like a red, almost like a red paste, but it was sweeter and it was spicy. Yeah. Tony, how were your entrees? Mine was delicious. I had the shrimp with the sweet basil eggplant sauce. Really good. The eggplant was fantastic. Cooked nice and soft and flavorful, very garlicky, really good. Shrimps were cooked perfectly, you know, because the shrimp can be very temperamental. It can be overcooked or undercooked, and they cooked them just right. Really good combination. And it was funny, we looked around the table when we were done and every plate was empty. Wonderful. Well, Bart, how was the penang curry? It was delicious. I always enjoy a good peanut sauce, so I thought, well, I'll try something different, and it was delicious. Really creamy, had that kind of peanut, kind of a savory peanut taste to it. This also had tofu, more silken tofu, which really absorbed the sauce very well. There was so much sauce at the end, we were sort of stirring around the rice and just trying to, you know, get up everything. But the same thing, our plates, my plate was clean, and so were all my dining partners, but it was delicious. I loved it. And a classic dessert at Vientiane Café, that sticky mango rice. That was phenomenal. Was that your first time trying it? At first, I'm fairly sure. I don't remember ever having sticky rice, and I would come back just for that. I would, you know, take the train out to West Philly just to get that sticky rice. It was so good. This was just a perfect mix of savory and sweet, so I really enjoyed the sticky rice. Gwen, you had a Thai tea. Yeah, how was it? It was actually pretty good. They make it really sweet and kind of creamy, but it still has a tea flavor to it. What other desserts did you try? So we also tried the pudding, which came in really small dishes. There were four of them, and it was great. It was hot, so it came sort of right out of the oven, and it had sort of a syrup on the bottom. So the pudding itself was more savory, but when you scooped in, you got a little bit of that sweetness of the syrup. It was really unique. So everything was really good, but the desserts just were really notable. Tony, you talked about when you walked in, you could just smell the food immediately. It's like when you walk into someone's house who's making dinner, it's not one specific smell. It just smells good, and I walk in and I'm like, wow, this smells really good. I hope the dinner lives up to the taste and the smell, and it really did. Gwen, this is your spot. What do you think about the decor? Does it add to the experience? It does, because I feel like they have a lot of wood, like bamboo, and they have elephants, elephant carvings all over the walls. Right in kind of almost a quintessential West Philly place. It was unpretentious, BYO, cash only, and just really good food. Really, really simple, good food. Did you think that the prices were fair, Bart? Yeah, yeah. I think it was for all the food we had, and had a lot of food for the price. And what did you think about the prices, Tony? Very reasonably priced. I think it was like $60 a couple, and we were there for three couples, and the appetite is very, very good price. Well, Gwen, this was your pick. Sum it up for us. Authentic Thai slash Laos food in Southwest Philadelphia. And Bart, what did you think? I'd say great, simple, delicious food. And Tony, sum it up for us. Exactly. Great, great value, great food, great opportunity to try something different in West Philly. Check out Vientiane Cafe at 4728 Baltimore Ave in Philadelphia, 215-726-1095. Reservations are not accepted, and the average tab per person without drinks is $25.