An Evening at NUAN, a Dim Sum Restaurant Across from Lao Plaza Hotel in Vientiane, Where We Stacked Twenty Bamboo Steamers

In Vientiane, Laos, there's a neighborhood where walking just one block in the wrong direction doubles your meal cost. The area around Lao Plaza Hotel is exactly like that. Walk ou…

Vientiane Capital · NUAN Asian Fusion Restaurant

In Vientiane, Laos, there's a neighborhood where walking just one block in the wrong direction doubles your meal cost. The area around Lao Plaza Hotel is exactly like that. Walk out of the hotel lobby and cross the street toward the alley, and you'll find a small shop with green shutters and a red sign. In Lao it's ນວນ, in Roman script NUAN — Home-Cooked Restaurant & Bar. Just from its location in front of the hotel, you'd expect tourist prices, but it's the complete opposite. As far as I know, this is the only place in the neighborhood where you can order this much dim sum at these prices.

If you look closely at the sandwich board in the bottom left of the photo, it says Open Monday–Saturday, closed every Tuesday. The closing time appears to be 11 p.m., but the opening time was obscured by a parasol pole. I've actually seen people walk up aiming to visit on a Tuesday evening, only to turn back when they saw the shutters down, so it's best to check the day beforehand.

Inside, It's More a Neighborhood Home-Cooking Place Than a Dim Sum Restaurant

Step inside and you'll find white-tiled walls, a green floor, and just a few dark brown wooden tables. Black-and-white photo frames hang on the wall, and you can see "…AI THEATER" written on one showing an old street lined with parasols. It's the kind of place where the sound of steamer lids opening and closing from the kitchen is louder than the air conditioning. If you see bamboo steamers stacked like a tower behind the counter to the right of the entrance, you've found the right place.

Orders Checked on Paper, Steamers Stacked Become the Bill

Dim sum comes in bamboo steamer units. The four of us visiting for the first time said, "Let's just try everything," and we ended up ordering almost all the steamer dishes on the menu. Har gow (shrimp dumplings), vegetable siu mai with green skin, yellow-skinned siu mai, shrimp-topped siu mai, even white dumplings—the moment five steamers arrive on the table at once is the highlight of this place.

The har gow has such thin skin that you can see through the filling when picked up with chopsticks, which is why it tears so easily. It's safer to use a spoon to support it as you move it. The green siu mai has vegetables added to the skin for color; it's not aromatic and tastes clean and mild. The yellow siu mai has a high pork ratio, giving it a distinct chewing texture. Chili paste comes as a side dish in a blue-patterned bowl, and in Laotian style, it's quite spicy. I recommend trying just a small amount at first and adjusting the quantity to your taste.

Pork Meatballs with Crab Roe — Simple Looking in Photos

These are steamed with a silver plate inside the steamer. As the meatballs steam, the meat juices collect on the plate, and the broth is surprisingly rich. Many people just eat the meatballs and leave the plate, which is wasteful. You need to ladle up the broth too to get your money's worth.

There's also a version with egg on top of the meatballs. The egg yolk flows slightly into the broth, rounding out the flavor, and some people prefer this version to the crab roe one. It's a matter of preference.

The spare ribs in the middle steamer are cut short, making them quite inconvenient to eat with chopsticks. It's meant to be picked up and eaten with your hands. The bowl in back contains rice topped with char siu and fried bits, while the black bowl on the left is the clear broth that comes as a standard side. This broth, garnished with scallions, does a great job of cleansing your palate between dim sum bites.

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Location — Saying It's in Front of the Hotel Is No Exaggeration

If you're staying at Lao Plaza Hotel, it's close enough to come out in slippers right after unpacking. The map coordinates below were taken in front of this restaurant. It's also within easy walking distance from Nam Phou Square or the Mekong River night market, though Vientiane's sidewalks in the evening are uneven and scooters ride on them too, so watch your step once it gets dark. Scooters are parked densely in the alley in front of the restaurant, so you might pass the entrance at first glance. The yellow lighting on the red sign is your landmark.

Two Must-Order Dishes Beyond Dim Sum

There are two dishes I always recommend to first-time visitors. One is rice topped with crispy pork (fried belly), and the other is shrimp wonton noodle soup. If you leave after just eating dim sum, you've only seen half of what this place has to offer.

As the pork belly skin fries, it puffs up and cracks like glass, and it crackles when you bite into it. The meat below is moist, and when you mix it with rice and a soft-boiled egg, the yolk coats the rice. One caveat, though — the skin quickly becomes soggy over time. It's best to tackle the skin within 5 minutes of it arriving. I missed the crispness on the last two pieces because I was busy taking photos.

There's also a version using the same pork belly but topped with ground peanuts, chili oil, and garlic over bok choy. The peanuts add an extra nutty flavor when you chew, but if you can't handle spice, just push the red oil to the side before eating. The red sauce in the small bowl on the right is separate, and even a drop packs quite a punch.

The shrimp wonton noodle soup is the most understated and well-made dish at this restaurant. The broth is clear, not cloudy, and when you drink it, the natural sweetness from the shrimp shells lingers at the end. The wontons aren't overstuffed; instead, the skin is stretched long and simmered, giving a nice fluttering texture in the broth. The noodles are thin and alkaline, and the bok choy is left whole instead of cut. After eating all the dim sum, finishing with this broth gives you a sense of everything settling nicely.

If eating only rich foods becomes heavy, add an order of stir-fried water spinach to the mix. The stems stay firm and bright green, showing it's stir-fried quickly over high heat. When you bite in, the stems snap crisply. Not many dim sum places do vegetable dishes this well.

Beverages — The Presence of a Can of Wong Lo Kat

The beverage cooler has a mix of local Laotian and Chinese drinks, and I chose a 310ml can of Wong Lo Kat (王老吉). It's a herbal tea drink made from Chinese medicinal ingredients, and first-time drinkers often find it tastes like "sweet herbal medicine," so it's polarizing. But paired with the rich fried pork belly, it somehow works perfectly. If it's not to your taste, the cooler also has strawberry-flavored Mirinda 320ml cans. That's the red can visible on the right in the photo below.

This is what it looks like when you're done eating. Only rib bones remain on the plate, and the two steamer towers rise high enough to obscure the black-and-white photos on the wall. Even after the four of us ate all that, my most accurate impression of this place was wondering if the bill was right when I received it. However, since prices change with each visit, I recommend checking the menu on-site — writing down the amount I paid would become outdated information in a few months.

Actually Useful Tips

• Avoid Tuesdays. The sign clearly states the restaurant is closed every Tuesday. This alone can save you a wasted trip.
• Don't order all the steamers at once. If five arrive simultaneously, the ones in back cool down first. It's much better to order two or three at a time and add more as you finish.
• Attack the crispy pork skin immediately. After 5 minutes, that crackle is gone.
• The clear broth comes as a standard side. A spoonful after eating something salty helps reset your palate.
• The restaurant is small, so seating is tight during dinner rush. There are outdoor tables under parasols available, but given Vientiane's evening humidity, indoor seating is more comfortable.
• Details like dim sum varieties, prices, and opening times are based on my visit and may have changed. The menu on-site is the authoritative source.

Vientiane is remembered for Laotian noodles (khao poon) or French baguette sandwiches, but after a few days, that combination starts to wear thin. Knowing that there's a dim sum place like this right in front of your hotel can transform your evening. The next time I'm in Vientiane, I'm sure I'll be stacking steamers here again.