Laos Kitchen — Restaurant in San Rafael

We had a family lunch at Laos Kitchen. We enjoyed a mix of the signature dishes. We got the Lao sausage which is paired with Romain lettuce, mint, cilantro, and another fresh herb. This dish has a spicy dipping sauce that is delicious. We also got the fresh spring rolls with shrimp. They were huge and came with a peanut dipping sauce. I adored the Nam Khao Todd. It's a crispy marinated rice with pork, peanuts, and herbs. Served with a bed of Romain lettuce and fresh herbs. It's very crispy and tasty. I got a Khao Soi for my husband which is a yellow curry soup with shrimp, chicken, and vegetables that covers a bowl full of fresh egg noodles. Then it's topped with fried noodles and a dash of red onion and greens. If you've never had Khao Soi - it's very good. We got Phad Kee Mao with shrimp. Always a good choice. It was huge. It's also known as Drunken Noodles. Very good. Another dish that was incredible was the fried spring rolls. They are different from the ones you are familiar with. These are fried rice paper spring rolls that come with a special dipping sauce and Romain lettuce herbs. These are my favorite kind of spring rolls. This place is highly recommended and has excellent service. Mango sticky rice for...

There are no Laos restaurants in Marin County.

Love their fried chicken appetizers and Laos jerked beef with sticky rice and dipping sauce.

Started with the Lemon tea which was awesome, and the passion fruit drink was amazing. They serve Lao Beer, you should try it. Taste like Corona.

Their papaya salad was a perfect blend of sweet/sour/spicy. As a Laos/ Chinese American, it was the closest you can get without going to Laos. I encourage you to visit Laos.

Their sticky rice wasn't dried at all even when cooled which tells me it was steamed fresh. We also had the Pad Se Ew with Shrimp, which was moist, and the shrimp was cooked just right. The texture was the same as the noodle, soft and moist.

We also had their Larb, just like the salad was the perfect blend of spices. The vegetable garnishes were perfect and crunchy. There were a couple of dishes like the bamboo salad also good with sticky rice and a steamed pork sausage also went well with sticky rice.

After our meal, we ordered sticky rice with ice cream topped with a coconut sauce that was drizzled on top that married the two very well.

I encouraged anyone to try it. The place is spacious, well-decorated, and chill. The bathrooms are very clean...

What a great addition to downtown San Rafael! We had never been to a Laos restaurant before but couldn't wait to try it after seeing the dining room from the sidewalk. They have an elevated vibe and offer an incredible value for the money.

We brought our own wine because we didn't know that they had a wine program ($15 corkage), but they do have some good value bottles on the list.

Appetizer - Spring Rolls w Chicken Satay - massive portion, 4-full rolls, full flavored satay and fresh crunchy veggies. For us this is huge because fresh spring rolls are a frequent craving.

Entrees - Basil Chicken and Pad Thai - We went with what we knew and they nailed it. We are coming back to explore next time.

Dessert - Mango Sticky Rice + Coconut Ice cream - the latter was complimentary and delicious. The sticky rice is made with black rice and had a really unique texture, mangos perfectly ripe.

This all came out to under $80. We only finished half of each dish and had enough leftovers for lunch the next day. The staff was attentive, full water and wine glasses all evening, and the food service was well paced. Will...