Laos' capital eats like an oversized village: smoke off Khua Din's grill aisle at breakfast, kitchens that shut when the pot is empty, baguettes left behind by the French, and Beerlao poured over ice. Three days of markets, laap and lao-lao.
The working wet market behind the bus station, open roughly 05:00–17:00. Aisles of galangal, lemongrass, padaek fish sauce in reused bottles, banana-leaf mok pa parcels, live frogs, and a grill row selling ping sin skewers from 07:00.
A 30-year-old family kitchen on Khoun Boulom Road cooking the old Vientiane repertoire: or lam stewed with sakhaan pepperwood, mok pa steamed catfish, sai oua herb sausage and duck laap. Wood tables, ceiling fans, no English menu theatre.
Small-batch roaster near Nam Phou pulling shots from Bolaven Plateau arabica grown around Paksong. Filter, espresso and the local oliang-style iced coffee with condensed milk; beans are sold by the 250g bag with the farm cooperative named.
A two-street neighbourhood market near Wat Ong Teu that wakes up around 17:00: whole grilled ping kai chicken flattened on bamboo, tam mak hoong pounded to order, khao piak sen rice noodle soup and bags of fried pork rind.
The city's largest fresh market, north of the centre and far less touristed than Talat Sao. Mekong fish on ice, cages of songbirds, kaipen riverweed sheets pressed with sesame, and a covered food court doing khao poon noodles all morning.
Chef Nink's lunch-only kitchen in Ban Naxay writes a different menu every day from what the morning market had — fermented bamboo soups, ant-egg omelette in season, jeow dips. Opens 11:30 and closes when the food runs out.
French bakery on Nokeokoummane Road, a direct descendant of the colonial baguette that Laos kept. Proper croissants, pain au chocolat and crusty batons that street vendors turn into khao jee pâté sandwiches all over the city.
A 1930s colonial villa on Samsenthai Road serving the formal end of Lao cooking — banana-flower salad, steamed fish in banana leaf, sticky rice in woven tip khao — with live khene mouth-organ music and lam vong dancing from 19:00.
Half-day class on That Luang Road starting with a guided market shop, then hands-on laap, mok pa in banana leaf, jeow bong chilli paste and steaming sticky rice in the conical bamboo huad. You eat what you cook and take the recipes.
Samsenthai Road institution run by a Lao-Vietnamese family, famous for nem neuang — grilled pork sausage rolled at the table with rice paper, green banana, star fruit and a mountain of herbs — plus khao jee pâté baguettes to go.
The Thadeua Road brewery at km 12 makes the jasmine-rice lager that dominates the country. Tours cover the malting, the local rice adjunct and the Dark and Gold lines, ending in the tasting hall with unpasteurised draught you cannot buy in town.
An evening grill strip east of the centre where Vientiane actually eats: ping kai over coconut-husk charcoal, ping pa fish stuffed with lemongrass, sticky rice, and jars of lao-lao rice whisky sold by the shot at the drink stalls.