Asia Cafe

I came here for the first time today.
As I stuffed my face full of nem khao and sausage (five minutes after I should have stopped eating), I told my friend:
«If I ever get put on death row, I would ask them to give me THIS. Along with carne asada fries and kare-​kare and ice cream.»
Give them your business.

found a hair strand in my mediocre kao piek sen. brushed it off. then found a second long hair strand. seriously got too disgusted to finish

Food was delicious. Ordered papaya salad. Super spicy, just the way I like it. Nam kao. Crispy and yummy. Pad see you. Looked plain, but tasted awesome. Beef laarb. Good. Steak, not so good, but that’s not their specialty.

So good, so tasty, so spicy. I love the mom/​lady/​cook, you can tell she takes pride in her dishes. Family feel.
Order this:
Sai Oua — spicy sausages with crushed lemon grass, kafir leaves and cilantro
Tom Kheung Nai — Beef Organ Soup
Tam Mak Hoong — green papaya salad
Larb Sien — raw minced beef salad
Kaw Niaw –Sticky rice

Great variety of Lao food.
The outside and area might not be too appealing but their food is definitely worth it. Taste just like Mae’s (grandma) food! We got a lot of amazing dishes!

Was looking for the perfect place close to home to get some Phở. Thought because they had they would be great but I was completely wrong in so many ways. We were the only ones to be customers and it took 30 min to receive our food. Man if this wasn’t the WORST phở I ever had I don’t know if it can get any worse ! Taste like they boiled water with onions then forgot to add any kinds of seasonings. Man I could go on about how bad this experience was. Just know I won’t ever go back. Good luck, maybe your experience will be better than mine :(

I was skeptical about this place because it’s a hole in the wall. Boy, was I wrong! Their food is authentic, home made Lao cuisine. Egg rolls! Chicken wings! Fried rice! Oh my! Their chicken chow mein was delicious. I will definitely be returning and bringing everyone with me.

Wth! New ownership! Food is just not the same anymore & that’s a shame! Greasy & over cooked beef jerky, over seasoned papaya salad with too much msg & not enough sourness to it! Why oh why!!! I guess we are just gonna have to go to the Lao Community or Sang Dao from now on. Please fire the new chef & bring back the OGs!

I prefer home style Laotian food, but because I was craving Lao food I stopped here to give the new owners a shot. Everything I ordered was decent… I asked for no msg on my orders, but everything I had tasted like it had some. My friend ordered Thai tea and said it was too sugary! The pad-​sa-​ew was very greasy, I’d recommend the cooks to cook with less oil.
The ambiance is nothing fancy. Wouldn’t recommend this place for a first date.

Ehhh solely based on their beef jerky
Orders the Lao beef jerky, it was ok. Initially I was trying to get the beef jerky from Lao community but they ran out so I ended up here.
The beef jerky smelled really good and had good flavor but it didn’t hold a flame to Lao community’s.

I was really excited to try this Laotian-​Thai hole in the wall. The hubby and I stopped by for lunch on a Saturday, and we were the only customers. The restaurant is located in this small, run-​down complex with other Laotian businesses (and what we presumed to be a dispensary …). The area is a little hood and sketchy, so I would recommend taking your food to go or going there for lunch. We ordered the Thai-​style som tum (papaya salad), nam khao, Lao sausage, pork noodles, and sticky rice. The papaya salad was decent, but I have had better around town. I had high hopes for the nam khao but it was so-​so – the textures were off and the flavors were lacking. The pork noodles were a bit strange, oily rice noodles with pieces of pork and garlic. They advertise the fact that they do use «some» MSG, but I think they are really heavy handed with it. Overall, I honestly didn’t mind the location and the minimal service, but I was really disappointed with the food and will not be going back.

very scary area and place with bars on doors.
But this hole in the wall is ghetto fab because food is delicious.
Love their nam khao. Super crunchy and tasty. Pair with lao sausage and beef jerky. Or eat with sticky rice. Very authentic flavors.

So my co worker and I were wondering what to eat… We decided on Asia café, it has 4 stars so we couldn’t go wrong… WRONG!!! Called in to place an order and the menu online is not the same menu for them… After struggling to find something we wanted from their actual menu we order. I arrived 15min after I called and they haven’t even started on our order. What’s the point of a call in order? So I cancelled my order leaving them to only have to make chicken wings for my co worker… Mmmmmm 20 min later I get her order. I should of cancelled her order too since she hated the greasy plain wings.
The place: it’s dirty, they’re rude, the menu has marker over it either raising the price or lowering the amount of items you get. And a couple of tips: they will only use ur atm card on over 10 $, and they have a sign that says «we use some MSG» mmmmm no thank you. Save some time and go somewhere else.

this is the best Lao food spot in town. I’ve been looking for a good authentic Lao spot and this is the place you wanna go when wanting good authentic food.
papaya salad, beef jerky, fried meat balls, and sticky rice ALL DAY!
anyone complaining about service needs to learn how to order here, or be patient for «made from scratch» bomb Lao food. like Daniel said, this ain’t panda express! if you want fast food, you know where to go. if you want bomb authentic lao food, this is where you wanna go.

Me and my friends came here for brunch. So disappointing! We were super hungry and the service is horrible! Ordered right away, waited 45 minutes until any food started coming out one by one. They did not have rice porridge so i settled for rice noodle soup (Kao piek sen), my friend could not order the bbq pork on the menu and settled for chicken on a stick. All the food came out for a party of 7, all except papaya salad which came very very VERY late. My friend waited for rice for her and her daughter over 15 minutes. We finished eating and she NEVER got her rice it was still cooking. They were very apologetic but overall she did not eat her food (it became cold and never got rice). Very sad, we asked for water multiple times. There are flies flying around. Not to mention we were the ONLY ones eating there through our whole seating and they forgot a few dishes in the experience.
Pad Thai C– (very sweet)
Kao piek sen C (very plain)
Raw beef larb A (delish)
Papaya salad B– (kind of boring and sugary)
Keep in mind we are all asian and sympathetic to the old folks cooking. But it was a no-​no we all wished we went to Lao Community or Sang Dao :(

Soooo disappointed!!! You know when you really have a craving for something and it just doesn’t pan out? Well this was it:(I am Laotian so I have a high standard when it comes to Asian food. This is the second time I’ve been here, first time I ordered ka poon to go, it was eh. This time however I came with my whole family. We ordered about ⁷⁄₈ different dishes that came out one by one. The best dish was the first one, spicy noodles. It went downhill from there. I will say my dad liked the beef larb, just didn’t do it for me. The chicken stir fry was just ok, not bad but not great either. Egg rolls tasted like they dumped a whole bottle of black pepper in it, Laos papaya salad was sketchy, pretty sure something was expired in it cause it just didn’t taste right. The most disappointing was the rare beef served with a spicy dipping sauce. I know every family has their own recipe but the beef was definitely not made that day and the sauce was downright cringe worthy.
I forgot to mention that we were the first table in the restaurant, not busy so I expected at least to get our food in a timely manner. That was not the case, not only did the food take awhile but they didn’t even bring out 3 dishes!!! What!!! I know. I had to mention that we were missing a few items but at that time we were pretty much done eating. I just said bring out the egg rolls and call it a day.
Once we got the bill he was going through the check and low and behold there was another item that I forgot about that they didn’t bring out. He took it off the check and was apologetic but I’m pretty sure we still paid for items we didn’t get.

Definitely a hole in the wall, but that’s what makes it good! There’s not that many Laotian foods in San Diego, but we certainly love coming here. It’s hearty and feels like a home cooked meal.
Food: everything from the pictures below are good. The sausages are such a deal! A full plate for about $ 6! I’ve had their Khao Phoun, (pork vermicelli noodle soup) and some of their Thai style noodle dishes, and thought that they were just okay. I was disappointed that their Khoa Phoun wasn’t as good. That’s my all time favorite Lao soup. Aside from that, just know that this is not a Thai restaurant, so don’t order Thai food.
–papaya salad is a little fishy for some, but I like it. It’s nothing like the Thai version of papaya salad.
–chicken wings are tasty.
–Must try: Nem Cao and everything else below!
Location: in a sketchy shopping center off Market St.
Prices: $ 6 – 8 dishes, super inexpensive!
Service: they’re actually pretty nice there. The owners are also the cooks.

This is the hidden little gem in San Diego. Tiny Asian restaurant (served Vietnamese, Laos, Thai); the location does look like ghetto place; but the food definitely outweighs the location. I believe majority of foods are homemade at the location, so it cannot go fresher than that!!!
Recommend: Nem Khao, beef jerky w/​sticky (sweet) rice, Papaya salad (Laos or Thai styles), deep-​fried chicken wing (very normal cooking style, but it delivers best taste, crunchy outside, hot from the oven, and juicy inside). Then «Bánh Canh» is homemade noodle deliver best soupy taste…
Will stop by some more to try other stuff! If you like Asian food, this is the place to try out!!!
Be aware that this is casual services; but it is great and friendly!!!

Recommend: Nhem Kao
Avoid: Egg rolls and Chicken wings
This hole-​in-​the-​wall hidden gem is near my work, and may be one of my favorite Asian restaurants in San Diego, most definitely my favorite SE Asian restaurant. Though most people will mistake it for a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant, it is actually an authentic Laotian restaurant. You will find many familiar items such as phở or phad thai, but everything has a Laotian flare.
I go there at least twice a week for lunch, and almost always get their chicken pad-​see-​ew and/​or their nhem kao (Laotian crispy rice salad). I also love their beef or chicken Larb (which I recently found out is the national dish of Laos). If you do order this, make sure to order a side of sticky rice with it.
The shop is run by a nice family, who knows me by name by this point. Make sure to say hello to the younger guy named Johnny. Every time I leave he tells me, «See you tomorrow.» Which actually isn’t that far from the truth.
Oh yes, make sure to pick up some free lychee candys by the register when you pay.

As good as it gets! Why? They do it the way they do it. They dont water it down here. No need to compare. U wanna do that then let yo moms do the cookin. Run of the mill Viet/​Cam/​Lao restos. Been there & done that. This is in yo face Lao /​Viet cooking. They don’t give a F what the competition is doing. So what if ur moms made the dish w/​more fat, more lime, more chilis. Reality of the situation… this spot delivers flavor!!! Luv it !!! Sang whatever … I can get that anywhere. This is heirloom, tradition, family recipes, culture= luv!
My first visit:
Mixed Spicy Noodle– kicked up chow fun. Thai basil is pronounced. The Soy wok’d flavor w/​it’s chili punch duz justice & will knock u off ur seat if u ain’t used to eating fire.
Lao sausage– artisanal pork sausage laced w/​spicy secret citrus blend of herbs & spices. A dry sausage yes. Paired with the fermented fish sauce/​lime marinated papaya salad. Off the hook!!! I can see different variation of this sausage. But I really appreciate their version.
Can’t wait for my next visit!!!