Lao Village, Fairfield
Kim’s Law of Hobo Restaurants: If a restaurant looks a bit hobo, then it is more likely to have uber delicious food.
This theory has been derived from a lifetime of “hobo restaurant” experience (aka. eating with my dad). I mean, if they don’t have any flash decor or any seating, the only thing they could rely upon to get people through the door is their food! (See also: Kim’s Law of Butter and Kim’s Law of Queues)
Looking around Lao Village (opposite Fairfield RSL), it seemed to be the perfect example of Kim’s Law of Hobo Restaurants. The outside of a restaurant makes you feel like you were walking into a milk bar and the only sign of decoration inside was a banner with some Asian dude smoking a bamboo bong (which I thought was hilarious). Although it was only 6:20pm, the restaurant was chockers and had a steady queue happening.
Complementary greens and sticky rice $2.50 per bamboo steamer.
Paw paw salad (Lao style) $8
At first we decided to go with a “medium” ranged spiciness for the salad but then our adventurous streak automatically switched back to choose a conservative “mild”. Thank goodness we chose mild, because even the mild salad tasted like it was hit by a chilli truck (seriously, how the fuck was that mild?!). Aside from the burning spiciness, the paw paw salad was quite fresh and the salad’s sauce was nice and strong because of the shrimp paste.
BBQ Ox Tongue $9.00
“A must order”, according to my friend’s partner. And oh yes, it was! If you haven’t had ox tongue, it’s quite chewy but quite nice to have with sticky rice. The only qualm was there was so much of it and normally restaurants give you a quarter of what is pictured (oh well, more to take home and have later :)!).
Lao Pork Sausages $9.00
The lao sausages were also quite nice with a kind of mooshy chicken-y texture and taste.
In summary, Lao Village is super simple, super tasty and provided super value for money. I have a feeling it’s going to become one of our regular defaults for dinner.
Lao Village
3 Anzac Avenue
Fairfield NSW 2165
(02) 9728 7136
