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Open since late January in the former Camber Restaurant & Bar space in Oakland’s Montclair district, Lao Tae specializes in Laotian food, with an emphasis on stir fries, rice bowls, curries, noodle soups and unique appetizers with flavors that hit every part of your palate. You’ll recognize some dishes from the Camber days, but Lao Tae owner Andy Wong has revamped the menu, adding about 20 new items, including more Lao dishes. Overall, it’s a casual, affordable, family-friendly restaurant with a bar, flat-screen TVs for spying the game and a cavernous dining room.
A bit about Laotian food: It is often compared to northern Thai cuisine, but with a few differences. Most Laotian dishes are cooked and served immediately, fresh and family-style, with piles of herbs and other greens. A pungent, umami-bomb fish sauce, minced meats and sticky rice are among the building blocks of the flavor-packed cuisine. Laab, or larb, a type of meat salad, is often considered Lao’s national dish. Here are our impressions from a recent weekend visit.
THE VIBE: Laid back. You won’t find any on-trend decor or uncomfortable metal chairs here. Just that large dining room with booths, dark wood tables and chairs, and some gold accent pieces. We showed up to a near-empty dining room on Saturday at 6 p.m. By 8 p.m., the tables were full and most guests — a mix of multi-generational groups, couples and millennials photographing their noodle soups — had a beer or cocktail in hand. Because the dining room is large and the crowd mellow, noise level was not an issue.
THE FOOD: Exciting. Laotian cuisine wakes up the palate, and the dishes we tried were exceptional in flavor, balance and texture. Start with the Lao Sausage ($9), a housemade pork sausage with strong elements of lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime. It arrives sizzling hot and sliced accordion-style, with a side of peanuts, lettuce, lemon and dried red chiles. It makes a delightful little wrap, but beware — the chiles are hot.
Another palate party comes in the form of Nam Khao ($13), a crispy rice salad with fermented pork, mint, cilantro, green onion and lime. It’s got an addictive crunch and wonderful savory-sour elements. For a slightly sweeter flavor, order the Duck Noodle Soup ($14). This rich, dark broth is made fresh daily and impossibly flavorful, with spinach, mushroom caps, egg noodles and generous, tender slices of duck. Perfect for sharing.
Next time we’ll try the Lao Papaya Salad ($12) which features crab paste instead of the dried shrimp found in the Thai version.
PERFECT FOR … Taste bud thrills, your next noodle soup fix, large groups and anyone who wants to watch the latest sports spectacle while thrilling the taste buds.
DETAILS: Open from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. daily at 6516 Moraga Ave., Oakland; http://orderlaotae.com
