Kualao occupies a beautifully restored French colonial mansion on Samsenthai Road and is the place to eat Lao food formally — white tablecloths, candlelight, traditional dancing in the evenings. It has hosted visiting prime ministers and presidents, and somehow still manages not to feel stuffy.
The menu covers the Lao classics: laap (minced meat salad with mint and roasted rice powder), or lam (a spicy stew thickened with sakhan vine), grilled Mekong fish, sticky rice. A meal for two with beer runs around 250,000–400,000 kip — pricey by Vientiane standards but cheap compared with anywhere else in the region. Reserve a table on the wooden veranda if you can.