Lao Village — Restaurant in Sydney

I used to come here when I was younger, it was a big treat for the family and was the go to place for Thai / Lao food leading up to Covid.

This is my first time back since 2019 - and I was actually excited to visit it again for their crispy rice dish, however... I'm never coming back ever again.

When we were sat down and the cups came out with a jug of water, one of the cups was sticky.

This is my mistake, however I don't think I deserved to be treated the way I was. So the toilets used to be down this narrow walk way past the kitchen - I didn't know it had changed locations so proceeded to go down the walk way and use a toilet down their and returned back to my seat. I was then met with one of the staff members who in a very upset and rude way tell me not to use that toilet any more and use the other one. I was a bit taken aback, but was very apologetic. However, my apologies were met with continued rudeness and resentment. I wasn't sure why I deserved this level of treatment, it wasn't like I purposely went out of my way to use one of their pots as a urinal. However, this is how I was left feeling after this confrontation by one of the staff members. Maybe there is a backstory that I don't know about, so I will apologise again, however I don't feel like I deserved to be treated the way I did by this staff member.

Onto the food... we usually order this crispy rice dish and I was super excited about it, however it's no where near what I remember it used to be. The crispy was more a soft chewy, it was cold as opposed to warm and extremely salty. You know it's bad when you're constantly thirsty at night.

We also ordered ox tongue, which was never the best here, and was again nothing special this time round. So if you're after good BBQ ox tongue, this isn't the place for it. There are far superior places for it elsewhere in Fairfield and also Bonnyrigg.

One of the dishes we were really keen for was the Lao Sausage, but this time it was so fatty and powdery.. they're normally not firm like a normal western sausage anyway, but good ones are usually balanced and these were definitely not. I think they may have been a bit old.

The place was dirty. Our table was smelly and it was sticky. I know there is a level of this in most places like this, but this time round it was pungent and really off-putting. It's as if the staff don't care and just wanted us in and out. Their service and quality has really gone down hill.

Finally, and if you've gotten this far, this is the real reason why I am leaving this negative review. Around 5 hours after the meal, I was extremely thirst and I was feeling sick, the sick you feel when you know you've consumed something you shouldn't have. It's now around 18 hours later and both my wife and I are experiencing you-know-what in the toilets... I'm Vietnamese, my stomach can take a bit of damage before things go wrong. My wife has an iron stomach and for us to both be having the runs after this meal, then you can bet whatever we ate much had been dirty. Real dirty.

We're never...

I have been coming here ever since before I was 6 years old going back to as early if not earlier than 1990! This is truely a unique restaurant serving traditional Lao food and there is no other that comes even close to it. Which is why it pains me to say that it has gone down hill.

A few years has passed since I have moved out of the area now, so it’s a bit of a trek for me to get to this area to visit this little gem in the south western suburb of Sydney. No longer a hole in the wall opposite the RSL club, I was surprised to see that not only has it expanded to the front of the street where it is now completely visible opposite the station, it has also taken over the takeaway/milk bar on the corner. After over 25 years this little business has finally revamped with fresh paint, floor tiles, tables, chairs, even the 100 year old plates and chop sticks were thrown out and new ones were provided. Quite a pleasant surprise on arrival, and the menu is still exactly the same! A laminated A4 size piece of paper with poorly taken photos and a short description. Doing the bare minimum cause you don’t fix something that works!

Anyways ordered the usual:

Papaya Salad - Lao Style, Dried beef, Ox Tongue, Duck Eggs, and Raw beef salad.

Food came out quick as usual. Duck eggs were good as always, but I am very sad to say that upon the first taste of the papaya salad I could instantly tell they used bottle lemon/lime juice and not fresh lime. It left me in complete despair. Instead of getting a sweet, salty and sour taste, I was left with crunchy bitterness. This disappointment lead to the disappointment of the other dishes. The papaya salad is the hero which ties everything together. Without it, the ox tongue is just chewy beef with fish sauce, the dried beef is just a sweet and sticky jerky. I like to wrap the raw beef salad in a piece of lettuce and some papaya salad for some crunch, with no papaya salad my 20+ year old eating tradition was incomplete. The prices has also increased, but that’s to be expected since they have had ridiculously cheap prices for many moons, but raising prices should have no compromises on...

TOTAL RIP-OFF & DISHONEST RESTAURANT!!! All be warned. I TOTALLY GOT SCAMMED😡🤬😡on my meals order!!!

I paid full price more than $200+ worth of meals & drinks as takeaway orders, due to the restaurant was busy at the time & was extremely shocked that all my large size meals order portions was halved to small size meal's portions! 🤯 not only that my seafood Pad Thai noodles only had noodles, 2-3 strands of eggs & half a bupchoy leaf!! 😱Where's my seafood & other veggies!??? I even paid extra surcharges for my 2nd Pad Thai dish with 3x lots of meats (Beef, Pork & Chicken) & only received 1-2 pieces of beef...Where's the pork & chicken pieces that I paid extras for???

All meals ordered was drastically reduced. The taste quality was extremely below average (very bland & lots of soya sauce..my instant noodles taste better quality than these meals & I only paid $1.30-$2 each or $25-$30/bx.20-30). I thought it being a restaurant to be of high quality & high value for your bucks, but I was wrong for this restaurant.

I was charged at a high value price for what??..quality of service??? If so...from my experience this restaurant definitely DID NOT DELIVERS.

I am very sadden & disappointed by the amount of customers comming into eat/dine here unaware of how they're being SCAMMED OFF their hard earn money to enjoy a decent meal with their families & friends to a respectful restaurant but instead received their meals portions being deceptive from the big plates & bowls the restaurant put the foods onto display & get charged for large portions, high value quality food services when in fact received a low value quality food services with small size portions fit for single person meal.

I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL AGAIN!!! This is my first & last visit to this...