Lao Laan-Xang, Madison, WI

I'd hoped to give a bit more description of exactly what I had up at Lao Laan-Xang, but I can't find my menus, dammit. Suffice to say that I had two veg rice paper rolls with omelet and lots of herbs, served with a nice sweet-hot (but not cloying) dipping sauce, followed by a broth based tofu soup with chopped veggies, including cherry tomatoes and squash. The larp I had was pork (sans tripe), and it had a wonderful and complex sour, hot, and herbal flavor that combined beautifully with the perfectly cooked sticky rice. I had a Lao beer with my dinner; it was very tasty, somewhat reminiscent of Singha, but less fizzy. I finished with a great big iced coffee - also very nice, and not overly sweet. Really good service, too - informed, solicitous, and accomodating.

BTW, this place is really, really small, so if you're in Mad City, and you want to try it, go early, since there's literally no place to hang around if the place is full. As noted, they have a liquor license, and carry a well-selected variety of beers; in addition to the Asian beers, they carry a couple of different Sprecher brews, and some wines by the glass as well as bottles.

My only regret is that I didn't have a chance to go twice...


Lao Laan-Xang
1146 Williamson St.
Madison, WI
608-280-0104

They added a second, larger location a few months ago - it's less than a 5 minute drive from the Willy St. locale:

Lao Laan-Xang, 2098 Atwood Ave., Madison, WI, 819-0140.

Peg,

We were at Lao Laan-Xang last August and we also had a wonderful meal. Here is a copy of my post about Lao Laan-Xang and a link to a Madison report.

Best,
Al

<< We went to Lao Laan-Xang on Friday. The small (twenty-some seats) storefront Laotian/Thai spot on Willy Street could probably hold its own in the company of the high quality Chicago Thai restaurants. We only ordered three dishes, but what we had was really good. Even though I really love the texture of the toasted rice in larp, the pork larp was great without it; beautifully seasoned, including a generous amount of great basil and served with sticky rice. I questioned the waiter about the red curry, mainly because it was served with Thai eggplants, but he thought the Panang curry was a better choice. Deeply flavored and rich, without being very sweet, it was served over a really generous amount of very good beef. The only just OK dish was Khua Mee, a Laotian version of Pad Thai. Our waiter, who was one of the owners couldn't have been nicer. He was very receptive to allowing BYO'ing (a nominal $15 corkage), since they only have a few 'supermarket' options. An added bonus is that the room was a warm and welcoming (again, for a storefront Thai) as the owners. >>

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1282

I was disappointed to miss Lao Laan Xang on a recent fishing weekend in the area. Our all-male group's lone visit to town was prompted not by culinary adventuring but by the need to socialize with people who didn't smell of bait fish. We wound up at State Street Brats on...State Street. For a Monday night between semesters, the place was jumping. Washed down a very good beer-simmered (but not subsequently grilled) white brat with a Gray's Honey Ale brewed in nearby Janesville. So Wisconsin, and the perfect antidote for an overdose of line-caught fried fish and tequila.

State Street Brats
603 State Street
Madison
(608) 255-5544[/img]