Although their rule lasted in Laos for under a hundred years, many legacies from the French still exist today. French style baguette bread is universal, croissants and patisseries are available, most bars stock Pastis and Pernod, even the word used for the capital Vientiane is a French adaptation of the Lao name Wien Chiang. Shuttered French colonial buildings are dotted around the shady streets and a handful of French restaurants can still be found. Vientiane is a pleasant city, unspoiled by the twin metropolitan curses of urban sprawl or horrendous traffic density.

Investigations at the Australian Embassy, and amongst ex-pat and local gourmets led me to sample the fare at four French restaurants in the capital: Le Souriya, the Arawan, Le Vendome, and the Nam Phu. This is not to say that other French restaurants do not exist in Vientiane, (they do: the dining room at the Liang Xane Hotel, for example) but in the limited time I had available, these four were the ones I visited.

Arawan Restaurant
476 Samsenthai Road,
Tel:2 15373

This establishment has an unprepossessing red brick exterior on one of Vientiane’s main roads. Interestingly, part of the building is a separate charcuterie and delicatessen, owned by the same family. Here imported French cheeses, pates, and wines are available, including French Champagne at US$11 to US$28 per bottle.

Inside the adjoining two-room, family-run restaurant, the decor tends towards Asian kitsch, but is nevertheless cool and peaceful. Moving coloured fairy lights outline an arch leading to the second room where some authentic antique porcelain jars, and a large piece of recent wooden statuary provide the ornamentation.

The menu offers a range of standard, traditional French dishes: coq au yin, langoustine (lobster) thermidore, crab farcie (stuffed crab), filet mignon, as well as appetisers, soups, omelettes, salades, and cheese. The dearest wine was a Chateauneufdu Pape at US$20 with Rose, Beaujolais, and Blancs all available, down to a perfectly acceptable Cores du Luberon by the glass at US$2.50.

I ordered Steak au Poivre Vert (US$4.50) and French beans (US$1.00). The beef was tender and the sauce had a good basic flavour. The Arawan reminded me of one of those basic level cafes one finds in France serving plain, hearty food.

Le Souriya
Thanon Pang Khan
(near the Fountain Circle)

There is an identifiably French colonial atmosphere here, noticeable as soon as you enter the intimate interior with its plaited palm leaf ceiling and small bar, with an armchaired lounge area decorated with pot plants, and French and Asian prints.

Off to the right is the larger dining room, again with abundant greenery and small, framed fin de siecle Parisian posters.

The menu featured most of the same dishes as the Arawan, with a few more imaginative items: courgetre veloute with cheese, stuffed green peppers, green asparagus souffle, venison fillet in whisky, duck in pineapple.

I chose a traditional French onion soup to start and it came scalding hot, nicely served in a terra cotta bowl. The accompanying bread was deliciously fresh and crusty as it was at all four of the restaurants I tried. For the main course, I ordered cote du porc with pureed olives which was an enjoyable dish. The two very tender pork chops were baked, and accompanied by sauteed potatoes. The green olive sauce was a piquant accompaniment.

Nam Phu
20 Place Nam Phu
(Fountain Circle)
Tel: 216248

This restaurant has a considerable reputation built up over its twelve-year history. The proprietor, a charming Lao lady named Mekhala Inthavong lived in France for many years and speaks fluent English, as well as French and Lao. She trains all of her staff, supervises the kitchen, waits on tables herself, and told me she prefers to keep the restaurant "low key".

Madame Inthavong’s establishment has a very restful atmosphere featuring whitewashed walls and dark timber giving a Mediterranean, almost Spanish feel. Multi-panelled windows allow some light and views of the lush greenery surrounding the building. Tasteful pieces of ornamentation include mounted pieces of Lao silverwork and traditional woven materials.

Tables of smoked glass with varnished rattan each have a single long stemmed pink rose, and a huge bowl of pink orchids sits on the bar counter. Designer rattan chairs have ochre-coloured seats, and matching orange and terra cotta-coloured tablecloths and place mats complete a delightful interior.

Many of the dishes from the Arawan and Le Souriya also appear on the menu here with the addition of frog’s legs Provoncale, various brochettes, and fish dishes available either meuniere, sauce moutarde, or poivre verte. The Nam Phu has a more extensive menu with seventeen snack dishes, twenty eight main courses, eleven Thai/Lao dishes, six each of entrees, soups and salades, and nine desserts.

I started with French onion soup which was very good; the right intensity of flavour, cheese just right; this dish could have come straight from the Blvde. St. Germain in Paris.

Tournedos with sauce Roquefort were tender, bacon wrapped, on a bed of sauteed onion on squares of toasted bread, served with pommes frites. The sauce, served with a separate bowl, featured a well-balanced Roquefort cheese flavour.

Dessert of crepes aux pommes fouree (crepes with pureed baked apple) was enjoyable if unremarkable and the coffee ,as usual in Laos, was of good quality. Lao people enjoy their coffee roasted to coal black and very strong indeed, so that most westerners who drink it black need to order hot water (nam hawn, pronounced as "numb horn") with which to dilute the brew a little. At the Nam Phu, the strength was just right without the need of nam hawn.

Le Vendome
Soi In Peng
Tel: 216402

Situated in a renovated French colonial villa and established for two years, this restaurant has a charming ambience. There are tables both on a shaded verandah, and inside where the atmosphere is delightfully soothing. There are Lao antiques, large puppets from Thailand, drawings, framed tapestries, a few plants set on a subdued, tiled floor, offset by tablecloths of a pale, dusky pink.

The menu is two small boards, leather-hinged, and with the restaurant’s motif inlaid in silver; it offers eleven hot entrees, numerous salades and mains, with nine desserts, as well as Thai and Lao dishes, and somewhat incongruously, a range of Pizzas from a wood-fired oven. Daily specials are regularly available and I just missed out on Roast Duckling with a coulis of Red Dates from North Africa (the French colonial connection).

The wine list was very similar to the others I’d seen, leading me to suspect that all of the restaurants I visited obtain their wines from the Arawan charcuterie.

I commenced with a bacon and onion tarte paysanne en souffle, a self-contained short pastry tarte of ample proportions, nicely presented with a carved carrot rosette and decoratively shredded cucumber. The souffle filling was the right creamy consistency, but perhaps just a little bland considering the relatively strong flavours of bacon and onion.

The main dish, however, more than compensated - filet grille ala Vigneronne. A 10cm length of fillet barbecued to medium rare, tender perfection, was accompanied by a veloute, white wine sauce, and the fillet topped with halved white grapes. The slightly smoky flavour of the barbecued meat was counter-balanced beautifully by the faint astringency of the wine/grape combination.

For dessert, mousse au chocolat et glace vanille was served in a large coupe. A good basic mousse, at the bottom of which nestled a ball of vanilla ice cream rolled in dark chocolate shavings.

Staff are smart, unintrusive and plentiful; mostly young men in brown patterned shirts, black trousers, and ankle length black aprons. Some were tri-lingual.

A nice touch was the hollow, carved wooden dusk in which the bill was presented; also a miniature basket of peanuts that arrived with my pre-dinner drink.

Le Vandome has a true French ambience and features good quality cuisine familial with some imaginative dishes. Chef/proprietor Jean Pierre Destribois-Coudroy is of course French, evidently takes great care in supervising his charming restaurant, does his own marketing daily, and has obviously devoted much time to the training of his staff.