Wednesday 10 July 2013

Across the sea: Halal food in Vientiane, Laos

Assalamu'alaikum everybodehhhh! First and foremost, I would like to thank each and every one of you for visiting this humble food blog of mine despite my less frequent updates nowadays. Thank you! :)

Okay so as I promised, here is a post regarding several halal food outlets in Laos that my team went during our trip recently. These halal restaurants are located in Vientiane which is the capital and largest city of Laos.

First up (and my most favourite actually heehee) is......

Nazim Restaurant









The egg thosai is soooo good! (This very unprofessional photo does no justice)
Delicious Fish Fillet; made of fish and perhaps some mashed potatoes with spices added on the inside but crispy on the outside!

Nazim Restaurant is actually recommended by a Pakistani who have been living in Vientiane for decades. We met him after our visit to the mosque since he lived right in front of Vientiane Jamia Mosque. And well, his taste buds are awesome :) This restaurant is, hands down, my favourite halal restaurant in Vientiane. The Indian food is really the best food I tasted during the trip! Nazim Restaurant offers a vast menu of Indian cuisine. So for all you curry lovers, this restaurant is definitely for you!

Check out their website for details of their four outlets all across Laos: http://www.nazim.laopdr.com/

P.S. It is known fact that most halal restaurants in Laos serve beer (especially locals' favourite Lao Beer) and wine in their outlets to attract both tourists and locals alike, but other than that, the food and drinks they serve are halal and alcohol-free. So no worries! :)


Review of food

The Mutton Briyani is great! The mutton was soft and tender while the rice is perfectly cooked as well. Oh, the curry adds ooommph to the briyani taste! I LOVE IT :) Other than the briyani, the naan is awesome! If I remember correctly, it was Butter Naan with Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Shai Korma (as shown in the photos above) and they are heavenly! What I like and miss most is their Fish Fillet actually. Unique fried food with a typical Indian taste in it :)

Other than the food, the drinks menu is extensive as well. You'll be spoilt for choice!


Ambience & Service

Clean, neat and air-conditioned place. Alternatively, you can choose to dine outdoors too! Service wise was fine too. A bit slow to me, but perhaps I was getting impatient since I was starving! ._. HEH. But well you know what they say.... Good things (food) come to those who wait! ;)


Budget (for each person)

50 000 kip is enough I guess. But if you wish to order more dishes, of course you need more kips!


Must-try

Seriously everything aforementioned :)


Recommended for

Hungry Muslim travelers in Laos, definitely! And those who love uniquely Indian spices ;)


Nearby praying area(s)

Vientiane Jamia Mosque which is of walking distance. Alternatively, you should pray at your place of stay and plan your timing well! We were at Sinnakhone hotel which is quite near to the restaurant. There are a plethora of hotels in the area too so praying locations will not be a hassle!

So my verdict for Nazim Restaurant is....... 5 ice creams! Yayyyyy!



Next up is:

Vieng Restaurant







 Cool spiral staircase to go to the prayer area at second level!









 They have soft drinks in these classic glass bottles!
Oh and say hi to my friends :D

From India to Thailand! Vieng Restaurant offers Thai food and the place is owned by an Indonesian imam who resides in Vientiane. Vieng Resturant serves no beers/wines/alcohol etc at all and is strictly alcohol-free and of course, halal in the right way! :D


Review of food

Their specialty is none other than Tom Yam! I ordered Tom Yam Noodles with Seafood for myself while my teammates ordered Tom Yam Fried Rice or just the soup itself to go along with white rice. The Tom Yam is hot and spicy but can be very addictive! (That's the thing about myself; I really love spicy food but sadly I do not have a high tolerance for it. It is like a love-hate relationship with chillies!) The Green Curry tastes exceptionally good too! Sorry I do not have a photo of it T-T Other than Tom Yam-related dishes, they also have dishes to choose from which is served together with plain rice. I actually took photos of some of the food that my friends ordered but I do not exactly know what is the name of the dish. Sorry again :( I hope the pictures do the talking! The food they have look good but personally I feel that the portion they serve is a tad too small for this tummy ._. Or maybe I was just too famished idk!


Ambience & Service

Beautiful ambience with this vintage feel to it which is really up to my liking! And not forgetting the place is sparkly clean too :) the service, however, is pretty horrible. Well maybe it is our fault for not being able to effectively communicate in the local language so the staffs ended up confused with our orders. Hence all the wrong  orders came (or came in lesser quantities than what we ordered) so there was a slight delirium for a moment. Minus the poor service, the place is not so bad :)


Budget (for each person)

50 000 kip is more than enough!


Must-try

Tom Yam Noodles/Soup/Fried Rice and Green Curry! The drinks are not bad too especially the Iced Tea, Iced Milk Tea and Iced Cocoa :) perfect thirst quenchers in the humid city!


Recommended for

Hungry Muslim travelers and Thai food lovers (erm I seem to be repeating the same thing for this portion hahahahaha)


Nearby praying area(s)

There is a prayer area at level 2 with a fan and some praying mats! Telekungs, kains etc are not provided though.

Okie dokie, so here's 4 ice creams for Vieng restaurant! :D



Next up....................

Aashifa Restaurant








Okay first I apologise for the unclear photos. It was during our first dinner in Vientiane and I actually forgot to snap photos! MEH T-T So I stole some photos from the team's facebook page. Heehee anyway, aren't my teammates adorable! :D

Okay now we are back in India (and lil bit of Malaysia) again! Haha! So Aashifa serves Indian food and also Malay food as well such as Nasi Goreng Kampung, Nasi Goreng Ayam, Mee Goreng Udang etc. My apologies if my memory fails me on this one haha as we were here only during the first few days of the trip so it was weeks ago already. I am cracking my brain right now to recall! HEH......


Review of food

The girls at my table ordered naan and several chicken dishes! The naan serving is however rather small for each person. If I remember correctly, we ordered Buttered Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Hyderabad Chicken etc. Hyderabad Chicken is quite cool to me, it's dark green in colour and is a mixture of Indian herbs and spices which is a lil bit spicy. Tandoori is nice although it is rather dry as compared to other chicken dishes that has gravy on it. I like my naan to be served with a variety of chicken dishes actually :D


Ambience & Service

Ambience is pretty simple. We ate outside in the evening! Service wise, it was rather hard to ask questions about the food but thank goodness for Baddy who can speak Tamil to the staffs! :D the staff who ordered our food did not seem to understand us when we posed questions in English but Baddy came to the rescue! Hoooooray!


Budget

40 000 kip (the Indian food here is definitely cheaper than the ones at Nazim's!)


Must-try

Naan and the several chicken dishes that I mentioned! But do order more naan if you're really hungry!


Recommended for

Hungry Muslim travelers finding cheap yet simple Indian food :)


Nearby praying area(s)

Pardon me as I am not sure of any mosque/praying area nearby :/ But this restaurant is the nearest to the hotel that we stayed and I saw many many hotels nearby too! So do stay at these hotels nearby so that it will be convenient for you to perform your prayers before/after heading out for food :)

Okay so here's 4 ice creams for Aashifa Restaurant!



Alright, that's the end of my post on halal food overseas! Hope you enjoyed reading the post and hopefully it will be helpful if you happen to be traveling in Laos :)

Oh and for all my Muslim friends, Ramadan Mubarak! May this month of Ramadan be full of blessings and spiritual purification for you and for me, insyaAllah :)

Till the next post! Heehee toodles!

2 comments:

  1. Salam Sis,

    Saya plan nak ke sana Feb ni. Lokasi Nazim saya dah jumpa. Boleh bagitau lokasi Vieng dgn Ashifa tu tak? Kalau dekat dengan Nizam saya boleh cari bila dah ke sana nanti. Terima kasih.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Salam sis,

    I was wondering if you could share the name of the hotel you lived in while in Vientinne. I am currently planning a trip there. Hope to be staying close to the halal food places for convenience.

    Thanks in advance.

    parvin.yoosuff@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete