Laab Nuea Restaurant

For our trip to Khao Yai, my travel mate did all the research on where to eat and stay as I followed along and this restaurant was well recommended by locals and other tourists for those travelling to Khao Kho

There is no English name of the restaurant on Google Maps but you can refer to this link to find the exact location of the restaurant

There is limited parking which is the unpathed area right in front of the restaurant so if you are visiting during peak hours, it might be tough to get parking

The restaurant itself is traditionally a Thai setup with zinc roofing and an open-air concept with fans to circulate the air. As Khao Kho was cooling in December, there was no need for air conditioning. The restaurant uses traditional wood dining tables and chairs with some of the tables overlooking the mountain

The menu was a mix between the Northern Thai style and some central Thai dishes as Khao Kho is located in the northern district. The menu is also priced at very pocket-friendly prices, we tried using Google translate on the menu as the English menu passed to us by the staff did not have the full menu. We also depended on our driver to help us with the order

We ordered some very simple and safe dishes since this was our first meal in Khao Kho so the first dish served was the fried omelette. While it is an extremely simple dish, the Thai omelette is extremely crispy and fluffy but yet not dipping with oil. It had the perfect crisp on the outside and the egg was still soft and fluffy inside

This dish looks simple but yet it was extremely delicious as they used the local cabbage grown on the Khao Kho hills. The cabbage itself was stir-fried in light soy which complements the natural sweetness of the cabbage itself. The vegetables were cooked perfectly as there was still a light crunchy texture without the raw vegetable taste

We tried to order stir fry morning glory but after a long struggle of explanation, the staff explained that their supply of morning glory ran out and they only had the stems left and asked if we still wanted to order this vegetable. We did and was served this simple plate of vegetable which is crunchy to the bite and very light in flavours. There was nothing too extraordinary about the vegetables

The only meat dish we had was this pork curry which is cooked in Northern Thai style and has a clear gravy without coconut milk. Called Kaeng Hang Le, it is a dish which is influenced by Burmese cuisine. Made with pork belly and a curry paste of ginger, turmeric, garlic, shrimp paste, tamarind and more, the dish is simmered under tender and flavourful. The pork was very soft and falls off the bone and the gravy was perfect with rice as it was savoury and mildly sweet and spicy

I have always loved having sticky rice as my main carb when having Thai food and the sticky rice here was hot and soft and was perfect with the curry chicken gravy

Overall, the dishes here have a nice homecooked comforting flavour and are very local to the Khao Kho area which is a perfect way to flavour the taste of the area. I liked that the staff is very friendly regardless of the language barrier and there were no frills in their dishes but simple delicious meals cooked with sincerity. I will definitely recommend them if anyone like an authentic meal bursting with flavours unique to Khao Kho

Address: Khao Kho, Khao Kho District, Phetchabun 67270, Thailand

Google Map link

Operating hours: Mon 7 am–10 pm. Tue – Wed 8 am–10 pm. Thur to Sat 7:30 am–9 pm. Sun 8 am–10 pm