Vanxai’s Laos Thai Restaurant
79-B St. Anne’s Rd.
996-9994

• Client negotiations: Yes
• Social lunch: Yes
• Licensed: No
• Price range: $5.50 – $10
• Rating: 4 out of 5

For months, I’ve been driving past Vanxai’s Laos Thai Restaurant on the way to work.

Its purple exterior promised something simple, good and authentic.

The interior was clean, unadorned and ordinary ‘ but who cares. I was here to eat.

For me, to judge a good Thai restaurant is to taste its Pad Thai and this one, at $9.75, blew my socks off. Twisting rice noodles, tender chicken, fresh sprouts, green onion and toasted peanuts made me want to sing Getting To Know You.

The restaurant boosted 42 authentic Thai and Laos dishes, such as the Papaya Salad ($7.50) with its long crisp tendrils of papaya, carrot, and green beans; Seen Sawan ($7.50), a sweet and savory Thai beef jerky; and the Lad Nah ($9.50), rice noodles, vegetables and meat in a silken oyster sauce. All were delicious.

It was clear that this restaurant didn’t need flashy decor to sell itself: The food did that.