Baan Lao Fine Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Richmond

This review is on the Thai High Tea at this restaurant in June. I have included photos of menu which includes information on the tea pairing that are included. High tea online reservations require pre-payment and tips are added to price before you check out.

FYI, the set high tea menu includes tea pairings with food so you don't have to order the tea separately. However, if you want to upgrade your tea, you can do so online when making reservation (see photo of menu attached for the teas & prices.

Our group was fine with the tea pairings that were included in set menu. When you use the online reservation (select # of people on first page), and you have to select '1" to acknowledge allergies and "1" for timely arrival. There are pages to upgrade to more specialty teas but you can skip these pages.

When you arrive, they will show you a drinks menu as well, which includes cocktails and mocktails but it's up to you if you wanted something from it. We asked for hot water with lemon slices ($5 pp)

The high tea set menu consists of 3 courses: Course 1 called "Arun" (means Dawn) and consists of savory, sour & spicy delicacies. Course 2 is called "AThit" (means Sun) and consists of salty, savoury & spicy delicacies. Course 3 is called "Bulan" (means Moon) and consists of sweet & sour. They start you off with a small cold drink (in tiny cup) known as a palate activator to stimulate your taste buds called "Lemongrass Pandan Elixer" - very nice and refreshing.

Included tea pairings: Course 1 includes Chiran Fukamushi Sencha Tea, from Kagoshima, Japan (type of green tea). Course 2 includes Pu'er tea, from Yunnan, China Course 3 includes Dong Ding Oolong tea, from Frozen Summit, Nantou, Taiwan

After the meal, the final tea (also included) is called "Tropical Sunset", a blend of green & black tea flavored with flowers, infused with passionfruit, mango, lychee and papaya (Northern Thai tea).

Unique features: each item is exquisitely prepare to the finest details....each tea is served in unique pots and cups. My favourite was the dark tea cup. I enjoyed watching the image of a dragon or phoenix materialize when hot tea is added to the cup.

Parking: It was only street parking (as far as I know) so on a busy day, I am not sure how easy it would be to find parking. We didn't see any open parking lots or parkades (but you can research that on your own).. The area is very residential next to a river walk , very scenic along the river which appears newly developed with many townhouses and also where there is a Steveston Waterfront Hotel (which looks like townhouse complex). We were lucky to find parking across the restaurant.

They have nice window seating but it might be a bit bright (eg glare from outside). Restaurant faces southwest.

The place was very nicely decorated and included paintings by a Thai elephant called Suda (see photos). They look like kids paintings but considering it was done by an elephant that's pretty amazing.

Washrooms: There is one male washroom stall and one female washroom stall (eg. only for 1 person each). It has a heated toilet (like the Japanese type but it is not a bidet toilet, just heated as far as I can tell) and each stall is equipped with a sink and electric hand dryer. Very clean. I believe there is also a third washroom which is likely a handicap stall.

Service was great, friendly staff.

Accessibility: I believe there was a handicap stall (normally required these days) I think I saw 3 washrooms (1 male, 1 female) so maybe the 3rd one was for wheelchair - please ask beforehand. There is a outside ramp for wheelchairs going to restaurant front doors.

The interior seating is reasonably welled spaced between tables so someone in a wheelchair can be accommodated.

The restaurant is medium sized. I would suggest making a reservation.

(I was informed that on BC day (July 1st long weekend) , they will open their (garage like) window doors and serve take out.

I hope to come back to try their dinner menu. Give this place a try - it is a unique food...

I had a tough time thinking about how I’d review this place. It is unlike anything in the Lower Mainland, the service is extremely friendly and personable and the food is good, but it (and it sounds kind of funny considering the price) felt like it was trying too hard.

I made a reservation well in advance and received a couple of reminder emails in addition to questions of whether there were any food restrictions or if we wanted to add the tea or wine pairing. Upon arriving, we were seated and were greeted by first name with a personalized write up about the restaurant. Inside, the restaurant is beautiful (with the exception of what looked like empty seafood tanks near the bar). There are two huge chandeliers, multiple plants and interesting furniture pieces and views of the open kitchen. The staff were all extremely friendly and down to earth, but need a little more experience. A quick verbal description of each dish as it came would be helpful and a little bit more of an organic/authentic interaction would improve the service. At times it almost seemed like they were unconfident and they had to oversell what they were doing.

On to the food. As I mentioned, earlier, Baan Lao is trying to be different than other restaurants in the Lower Mainland. Each course utilizes some sort of interactive presentation (smoke, siphon, dry ice) which might show up individually at other restaurants, but not all in one tasting menu. The food was clean, well executed and tasty. The egg lattice phat Thai goong was a highlight for me, along with the flavourful broth of the dthom yam goong laai seuua. The menu progressed well, and I was full by the end of the night, but I feel like the protein portion sizes could have been a little more substantial considering the price point. The Tea pairing was a nice addition and all the teas were good, but again, the price point leads you to expect something a little more special.

It’s hard to compare this to other Thai restaurants as most in Vancouver are low-cost, big flavour eat-in/takeout joints. Maenam is the only one that comes to mind, but they are still miles apart. Maenam plays around with flavours and takes more risks in a casual modern dining room whereas Baan Lao attempts to elevate Thai food and create a dining experience in unique setting. It’s important to point out that, at $62, you could enjoy Maenam’s tasting menu three times for the price of Baan Lao’s.

Although it’s been three weeks since I dined at Baan Lao, I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole experience. I appreciated it and enjoyed the food, but at $190 per person, I think I expected more. More originality without feeling forced, higher value ingredients and one of a kind service.

I’m curious how it will do in the long-term. Steveston is out of the way for a lot of people and I don’t know if the price will have people coming back for a second or third time, even if they change the menu. I read that their ambition is to be like the Michelin starred restaurants of the world, but I don’t think they are there yet and with so many other restaurants closing during Covid, I hope they...

What an incredible experience! Baan Lao truly took us through a culinary tour of Thailand.

Fine Dining in Vancouver hasn’t looked this good in a long long time! So much thought went into every detail, right down to the rice which comes from the chefs family organic rice farm in Thailand.

We had their signature 9 course menu which consisted of about 13 dishes.

We first enjoythe Amuse Bouche which was called Maa Haaw. It was presented to us in the most beautiful of ways. You'll have to see it for yourself.

Next we were given an array of Appetizers. Each one was simple and can be enjoyed in a bite or 2.

We finished the appetizer portion of the meal with a palette cleanser they called Naam Dta Khrai Baitoey. It is basically an elixir but the flavours absolutely blew my mind. It's rare for me to be stopped in my tracks. From the first sip, to the last, all I can think of was literally "Oh My God!" It's odd for me to say this, but I would come back alone just for this.

The mains were all outstanding. The one that I keep thinking back to is the Phat Thai Goong aka "Pad Thai." Their version doesn't have peanuts in it and I still can't believe this is the case. They wanted to accommodate those with peanut allergies and to be truly honest, I couldn't tell that this was peanutless. It is without a doubt, hands down the best Pad Thai I have ever had. I am officially ruined for Pad Thai because I will be thinking about this one for years to come. The presentation was beautiful, and the portion size was much larger than I expected. This is the other dish I will think about every time I come back, and believe me, we will 1000% be back soon, this time with friends in tow.

The presentation of the dishes are beautiful, as you'll see in the images I've provided. The service was also excellent and the atmosphere felt exactly what I expect from a Michelin quality establishment. Of which, we have frequented many.

One of the things I learned that I appreciated the most was that the Chef/Owner Nutcha Phanthoupheng imports her Thai rice from her families organic rice farm in Thailand. They have been making rice for over 100 years. The rice was outstanding! My wife is a chocolate fanatic, so usually desserts aren't her thing if they aren't using chocolate, but that said, she couldn't stop talking about the Glutenous rice dessert. I loved it too, but 1 day later, my wife is still talking about the dessert.

At the end, the Chef came out and spoke to us and we had a pleasant chat. I always enjoy the moments I get to speak one on one with the chef.

Baan Lao has been receiving rave reviews across the board from major publications to our regular locals. Please add mine to the growing number of people who have discovered this gem of a restaurant.

We can’t wait to come back soon for the new menu! Congrats to the chef and the rest of your...