Khop Chai Deu is the closest thing Vientiane has to a public living room. The building, a creaking French colonial townhouse facing the Nam Phu fountain, has been a restaurant-bar since the late 1990s and now sprawls across two floors, a courtyard, and a wraparound veranda. The pan-Asian menu covers Lao, Thai, Indian, and the usual Western suspects — none of it perfect, but the breadth is the point.
Come for dinner and stay for drinks. Live bands play most nights on the courtyard stage; the crowd is a mix of NGO workers, diplomats, travellers, and well-off Lao students. Cocktails are cheap by regional standards. A reliable first or last stop on a night out in town.