The Story of HOME: A French Restaurant in a 1960s Vientiane Villa

Tucked into the quiet village of Ban Wat Nak, in the heart of Vientiane, HOME occupies a house built in the 1960s, the kind of home with high ceilings, shuttered windows and a garden that has had decades to grow in. Rather than gut it into something new, HOME kept the character of the house and simply opened its doors: a restaurant that still feels like somebody's home, because that is exactly what it is.

The idea behind HOME is in the name. This is French cuisine de maison, cooking meant to be shared around a table, not fussy plating for its own sake. Our chefs work with the best produce Laos has to offer to build a refined French menu: tasting menus, soups, salads, tartares and carpaccios, hearty meat and fish mains, and a short list of Lao-inspired dishes alongside them. Every meal ends the way a French meal should, with homemade desserts and a curated wine and cocktail list.

What makes the house special is that the food is only part of it. Guests can eat in one of the indoor dining rooms, at a table by the pool, or under the shade of the sala in the garden. The pool itself is open to guests from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the garden has its own life outside of dinner service: a ping-pong table, table football, and a playground for children, plus an air-conditioned playroom indoors. Families are not an afterthought here. A dedicated kids menu, with dishes like chicken nuggets, pasta and fried rice, means everyone at the table gets to enjoy the visit.

The same qualities that make HOME a good place for a quiet dinner also make it a natural venue for celebrating something bigger. The house can be privatized in full or in part for birthdays, corporate dinners, weddings, workshops or themed evenings, with the team handling catering and menus built around the occasion. Children can privatize the space too, for birthdays of their own.

HOME is at Hom 10, Ban Watnak, Sisattanak District, Vientiane, Laos. Our full food menu, with prices in Lao Kip, is online at home-vte.com/menu, and reservations can be made directly on the site or by phone and WhatsApp at +856 20 56 326 515. If you have questions before you visit, our FAQ page covers the most common ones, from private events to what is on the kids menu.

Sixty years on, the house is still doing what a good house should: making people feel at home.