From our personal experience, we would say that Luang Prabang is the most touristic city in Laos. You will see many tourists of all ages and different nationalities. It’s hardly surprising that many food stalls and restaurants offer western food in their menus to suit tourists’ preferences. In addition, even Laotian and other Asian food is adapted to the tourism. Not in every restaurant, but in many, since the tourism is an important source of income in the historical capital Luang Prabang. Most of the western food in Luang Prabang is good and you have quite some options. Among them burgers, pizzas and sandwiches. There’s a particularly large selection of the latter, as baguettes have a certain tradition in Laos.
Where to
find typical western food in Luang Prabang
In Luang Prabang you’ll hardly find any restaurant that exclusively offer Western food. Most restaurants have dishes from a variety of cuisines in their menus. The standard menu includes Laotian, Thai and Western food. In the less touristy restaurants it‘s usually only Lao food and probably burgers and fries. So if you want to eat some western food, just go to a place with a lot of tourists. You can assume that the restaurants there don’t only offer Asian cuisine since many people prefer food they’re used to. In addition, you should always keep an eye on the food stalls. At least a sandwich you can get almost everywhere on the street. You don‘t even have to sit down in a restaurant.
Prices for
western food
Most western food in Luang Prabang isn’t expensive, but it must be said that it really depends on the respective restaurant. Prices can vary and a steak can cost anywhere from 5 to 25 US dollars. However, the latter is rare. Usually you won’t have to pay more than 5 to 15 US dollar for a good steak, unless you go to one of the few high-class restaurants in town. In addition to steaks, there’s of course much more to eat. Burgers, fries, sandwiches and pasta are even cheaper than steaks. Just pizzas are a bit more expensive, since there aren’t many pizzerias in Luang Prabang.
Anyway, we think the prices for the pizzas are just fine. Of course, there’s also fine Italian and French cuisine, but you’ll have to dig deeper into your pocket and the choice of restaurants is limited. One option would be the Elephant Restaurant, which offers a great variety of French food.