Spicy Lao

The place is jam packed during peak hours so we usually call our orders in and pick up. Good cheap place!

Great flavors and good portions. I requested spicy for the papaya salad and to my surprise it was extremely hot… Will have to be careful next time! Server was very courteous and offered a Free tea while we waited for the food… Great service!

The food here is on point! Everything I’ve ordered so far have tasted great. When you ask for spicy it’s actually SPICY unlike most Asian restaurants around the OC area. If you’re looking for some tasty authentic Lao food, look no further. Spicy Lao is it! I would highly recommend the papaya salad and beef larb. The wait time for the food to come out is a bit long, but it’s worth the wait as each item is made to order. Overall, the service and food is awesome! Don’t forget to hit that check in button to receive your free Thai iced tea.

Been craving authentic Laos food for the longest. Finally driving down here from Long Beach and ordered the Pa Koon (secret menu) and the curry ribs was the bomb diggity. Will mos def come back!

We came in during off-​hours around 3pm and it was pretty quiet, but this place seems it could be pretty busy during meal hours. The server was very friendly and informative about the menu items, and we ended up getting the Lao Sausage ($ 9.95) and the Green Papaya Salad ($ 8.95). Also a free Thai tea when you check-​in to Unilocal :)
Both took a little while to come out but I’m going to attribute that to the fact that they’re both made in-​house and fresh; and also because it wasn’t during lunch hour so might not have been fully staffed. Also, while we were waiting, the server asked if we wanted to try a sample of a new soup the chef was experimenting with — it was good! Brothy with onions and some veggies to add a tang to it. Anyways… the Lao Sausage was superrr tasty. Really juicy and full of flavor and content. The Green Papaya Salad was also really good and came with some derishious chicharron on the side (haven’t seen that pairing before ever, but not complaining!). We got mild but was still a little too spicy though… or I’m just a wimp.
I think I would come back again to try some of their other menu items which looked pretty tasty, like the chicken wings. Good stuff Spicy Lao, 5-​stars for you.

50 mins wait after we ordered the food, and now still waiting as I’m writing this review. I seriously hope the food worth the wait and I will bump the my review. If you hungry, don’t come here, not sure if the business owner here really care to survive or not.

Happy to see a new Laos restaurant in the area and excited to finally make my way in to try the food.
Here’s what we got:
L A R B:
Although this dish was pretty good, it was less than warm temp. when it came out. It would have been one thing if it came out immediately after we ordered, but it came to us about 10 minutes after ordering. Naturally, we expected the dish to be served at least warm.
K O W. P I E K. S I E N:
I absolutely loooove kow piek! For viets, its a dish comparable to Banh Canh. Sadly, this was a let down for me. I typically have no complaints with any kind of porridge, as I can usually tweak it to my liking (thats what sauces are for), but the broth was sooo greasy and was heavy-​handed in white pepper, which I suggest they leave out for the customer to add in if they wish. Although the noodles were made from scratch, they were old. The noodle dough was breaking up in the broth and the satisying toothsome gumminess you get from noodles made with tapioca flour just wasn’t there. Greasy broth & old noodles.
I had to add in about 2 whole limes to break through the greasiness of the broth, but I was thankful that they offer you fried chopped garlic, maggi sauce, and msg so that you can adjust the soup to your liking.
L A O. S A U S A G E.
I’m not even a fan of sausage, but this was the best dish out of all 3! Meat was flavorful, casing had enough bite, and the char made the sausage even more flavorful! The Jeow (Sauce) thats served with it was the perfect pairing! A little sweet, sour and spicy! I wanted to take a large container of it home!
Service was attentive, but I was just a little disappointed with the food.
Spicy Lao is fairly new, so I’ll probably be back to give this place a 2^nd shot with hopes for some improvement.
Check in on Unilocal for free thai iced tea.
(10÷100, 2016)

Wow this place is bomb!
I was really surprised it was empty!
Can’t wait for them to get a liquor license this will be my go to spot.
Even the free Thai tea when you check in was great.
They give you fried wonton skins w sauce as you wait for the food to come out.
Food was on point!
And I’m not even into spicy food.
I’d recommend getting the first combo, the steak was well worth it.
The service was awesome!

Let me start by saying that I REALLY hate writing 3 star reviews. But this is with hopes that they will take my tips/​constructive criticism kindly and will implement maybe part or some of what I (and other Unilocalers) suggest to them. I found this new restaurant on Unilocal because I was looking for some Lao food — it’s especially hard to find because it isn’t as «popular» as thai food. But when it’s done right. It can be just as good, if not better!
FOOD–
Crying Tiger — thinly cut slices of beef served with a sweet/​sour fish sauce & spicy fish sauce. Presentation of this product is EXCELLENT and boy does it LOOK good. The problem is that it just doesn’t taste great at all. The main complaint I have is If I’m going to be paying $ 10-​$ 11 for a dish such as this, I expect the meat to be somewhat tender and chewable. About half of the meat that I had was way too hard to chew so I had to spit it out (TMI Sorry!). There were also pieces of fat on the meat that could not be chewed. While the sauces are good, I can’t even enjoy it because I can’t chew the meat. Sad part is, a few times I had to just stomach it because I didn’t want to waste my meal. Portion could have been bigger — it’s not like the food is cheap here either.
Spicy Lao Papaya Salad — similar to a thai papaya salad but more salty and less sweet/​sour. If you’re trying to understand the difference between a Lao and Thai papaya salad… The lao version stinks more and it tastes more «herby». Even the color of the dish is more «green» as opposed to the thai version. While this dish wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great. It was overly salty and their mild tasted like a medium at some places. Portion was decent.
Beef Larb — I enjoyed this dish despite the fact that once again, it was too salty! Even when I ate it with rice it was still too salty. The sauce is DELICIOUS but too salty even for someone who tends to have a liking to salty food. Portion was decent.
Basil Chicken — similar to the thai version once again but not as much emphasis on the «mint» flavoring from the basil. What I liked about this dish was it had mushrooms inside! It made the dish taste a bit different but I still really enjoyed it. If you’re a fan of thai mint basil chicken, this might be a good choice (although different!) Portion was not reasonable and could have been a bit bigger IMO.
SERVICE —
Waitress was very friendly and even honored two check-​ins for the free thai iced tea! She made recommendations, explained the menu, but also said the menu items for the afternoon had been reduced due to unexpected restaurant traffic (ran out of certain items) and would only be available during dinner. Once they get in the «groove» of things, I’m sure everything will be alright!
In a few months, I’ll be back to give them another try. I know they are experiencing some growing pains and success as a new business and hope my next experience will be even better.

My mom usually doesn’t like Lao food (she thinks it’s SoOoo spicy) but I think I converted her with Spicy Lao.
While browsing through Unilocal to find a Thai restaurant, I came upon this newly opened gem. It’s located in a small plaza near Ktown so parking might suck on a good day.
The place is pretty small but looks very authentic inside. Lots of art and there are curtains at the door so you’re shielded from the outside lol.
Menu is very short, but I guess that gives them an opportunity to specialize? Unfortunately by the time we came, a lot of the ingredients were gone (sad face). No more minced pork or Laos sausages. LAO SAUSAGES ARE BAE. We ordered one Thai ice tea (check in offer), one Larb and curry ribs.
# Thai tea
Nothing too special here. It came in a mason jar which is always a nice sight.
# Curry ribs
These were really good! Perfect amount of crunch with nice lime paste dressing. The only critique would be that there was a bit too much seasoning. Tasted great with rice though
# Larb
Though my mom might disagree, I thought Larb was fantastic. There was the right blend of lime, chilies, cilantro, and meat. And speaking about the carnage, I’m glad they ran out of minced pork because the beef was PERFECT! Soft, tender, and juicy. Though the salad was a bit salty. Get it spicy.
Overall, I loved this place. Yes, service is slow (only two people working?) and the food will take forever to come out but keep an open mind and you’ll love this joint.
Eat well and prosper,

We wanted a curry dish, but upon ordering we were informed that we can not order anything soup base. This eliminated half of their menu. So with very few options we ordered spicy Lao wings and papaya salad. The spicy wings were delicious. I will definitely come back for them. However, the papaya salad was disappointing. The papaya was soft. There’s no fixing soft papaya.
Service was friendly.

The service is impeccable. The server was cheerful, informative, and very friendly. I haven’t had that good of service in a long time.
I got the chicken wing and crying tiger with an additional order of rice. The chicken wings were crispy with a light seasoning. Accompanying the dish was a sweet and sour dipping sauce.
I really enjoyed the crying tiger, it’s basically steak cooked to medium/​medium rare. There was a sweet cucumber dipping sauce and a spicy super flavorful sauce. It was delicious! Meat was flavorful, well seasoned, and tender.
In addition they have a check-​in offer for free Thai tea. Which I thought wasn’t half bad.
Overall, I really like the Spicy Lao. It’s hard to find good Laotian food. Not only is the food made to order, it embodies a home cooking feel.
The only cons I can think of is the restaurant isn’t located in the best location. I didn’t even know the plaza existed! And it would be nice to include rice with the dishes instead of having to order rice additionally. Above are only minor criticisms, I really enjoy the place and would recommend it to anyone who wants to try good family style food with a kick.

I was a draw between 3 and 4 stars.
Between the time we came in and getting our food, it was give or take about 40 minutes before we were able to start eating. There were 3 other tables already eating by the time we got there. Some were still waiting on their food, but had other items out already. Took the waitress about 10 minutes to get our menu, I guess she forgot to give us menus when we sat down cause she walked over and was «oh, you guys don’t have menus.» Took out order a couple minutes later.
Before getting our food, the table next to us finished eating their items. But was still missing one dish: Lao sausage. Apparently it’s been 40 minutes.
Papaya salad: not the traditional shrimp or crab that you would normally have, just shrimp paste. It was good but there are better places out there. Good thing is they met the spicy standards.
Lao sausage: listen to the reviews: get them! Amazing and good portion. I think the lemon grass and perfect spices sold me.
Crying tiger: comes with 2 dipping sauces. An orange/​grapefruit sweeter one and an overly salty sauce fish sauce like. Cooked well and tender so it could’ve been eaten by itself. It was fatty but the way it was good.
Good food, but not the best, it wouldn’t be my go to, and that’s why I decided on the 3.

3 stars
We sat down and waited for 5 mins for menus. Placed our order and waited 30 – 40 mins for dishes to come out. Good thing I was in the mood of talking or else I would’ve left! The Lao sausage is good but I have no idea why it takes so long to come out. There was a customer next to us that said she waited 40 mins for the sausages! Awww hellz no! They had better be stuffing the casing fresh per an order! Also, I’ve had better Lao style papaya salad. The crying tiger was good, but nothing spectacular from the other places that serve this dish. Overall, the food was good and satisfying. They just need to find a more efficient way of getting orders out quicker.

Give the 2 stars for excellent service and very clean, friendly looking restaurant.
The food however, not exactly mouth watering at all. Pictures posted on Unilocal is very tempting but the taste isn’t that great. And honestly, with the name Spicy Lao, you would expect the food to be half spicy. But their food is all very American friendly, which mean very plain, bland and not spicy at all. Their spicy wings is just salty. Their spicy curry noodle soup is not only NOT spicy but also very diluted. Curry soup is supposed to be creamy, with strong curry flavor. This is not curry soup, more like super diluted curry soup!
Anyway, not exactly terrible experience but wouldn’t compel me to come back again…

The food is delicious, way under price! My boyfriend and I eat for only $ 15! We are full!
The young lady was super lovely, really good service! We will be coming back.

What can I say? I didn’t know what to expect when my friend and I decided to check out Spicy Lao. The restaurant is really cute and has a very small yet simple menu. It’s like an introduction to Laos cuisine pretty much with appetizers, noodle soups and rice plates. There is no more than maybe 10 items on the menu with some specials on the chalkboard. My friend and I tried the mee-​ka tee which is the curry noodle soup. The soup is loaded with meats, veggies, rice noodles and packed with great flavor with a spicy kick! The soup also comes with extra condiments on the side which you can toss into the soup to your desire. I really enjoyed the soup a lot and found myself licking every last bit of broth.
Some other things we tried included the pork belly and egg stew which seems like it was braised in soy sauce and other flavors. It’s a simple dish and I enjoyed the fact that the pork belly was tender and sweet. The spicy lao wings are really good! I squeezed some lime on it to give it a bit of an acidic kick to it and it just added an extra touch to the flavor. Service was extremely friendly and I would definitely come back to try the rest of the menu. If it’s cold outside and you need a pick-​me-​up, definitely order the mee-​ka tee and it will definitely clear your nose and wake you up while making you feel warm and hearty inside.

This place is located in a tiny plaza I have never noticed right next to the H-​Mart, Kaju Tofu, Jack in the Box plaza. My google maps took me to some random back alley, but if you just go down Garden Grove Blvd, you’ll see it in the adjacent plaza.
My bf and I actually intended to go to some phở place in this plaza, but saw this Lao place and it piqued our interest since we’ve never had Lao food before. We came to learn that it’s pretty similar to stuff you’d see in a Thai restaurant, but with minor differences.
We tried the Crying Tiger dish and the Spicy Lao Wings.
Crying Tiger — absolutely delicious. Tender pieces of perfectly seasoned beef, cooked with a pinch of pink. Served with 2 dipping sauces — one a bit too fishy for us, but the other was this spicy, garlic-​y sauce that we mopped up.
Spicy lao wings — plump, juicy wings with a crispy exterior, sauteed with scallions, garlic, and shallots — a winning combination that never fails. These were a tad on the oily side, and weren’t very spicy, but still delicious.
They have a limited menu, and the price points are somewhere around $ 7-​$ 12/​dish; jasmine rice or sticky rice can be ordered separately for an additional charge. I actually like that the menu is limited because I feel like they’ve probably got these dishes perfected.
Got a free Thai tea for checking in, but it was really watered down. Service was good, there were 2 friendly girls working when we were there Friday night — both very attentive and sweet. We left stuffed and satisfied with our food, and will definitely be back!

Hungry and craving for some Thai food but end up coming by here instead. Even though it’s Lao’s foods, it’s quit flavorful and decent portion. Some cons and pros about this new place
Pros:
–good portion
–moderate pricing for dinner entrees
–decent atmosphere and décor
–friendly waitress
–very accommodating towards customers
–a lot for the carnivores out there
Cons:
–good music but a little loud
–thankful for the free Thai tea but the flavor is not as strong like the usual Thai tea I normally have.
–not many seafood for pescatarian like myself
All in all, we’ll come back to this place.

I saw some of my friends liked Spicy Lao on instagram and decided to give it a try. There’s only one lao food spot here in Orange County and it’s not just Lao food, it’s a Thai/​Lao fusion, Vientiane.
The server was very friendly and explained why they had opened up this restaurant. She said there isn’t as many Lao restaurants around and everyone and their mom knows about Thai food. They want to start a movement and inform people about the country and their food. I respect that, it’s true. Whenever I tell people I’m Lao, they have no idea what that is and ask if it’s like Cambodian.
On to the food.
Papaya salad: I asked for very spicy, the server said «oh ok, so Lao spicy?!», I agreed. I was salivating waiting for it to come out and have that first bite. Eh, it was super mild, actually, no spice at all. We told the server and she was willing to take it back and remake it, but I didn’t want to bother. I also think it needed more limes and fish sauce.
Sai gok: My husband wanted to order this. He liked it, but I took a bite and I thought it needed more flavor, maybe some fish sauce?
Khao piek sen: The flavor was there, but I didn’t like the noodles. It was very smushy, maybe old?
Curried pork ribs: My favorite dish here, the best with some sticky rice.
Overall the food was good, it just needed that wow factor.
Btw, free Thai iced tea with check in!
3.5 stars for food & 4 stars for service.