Vientiane Palace Restaurant in Madison

Honestly the biggest hole in a wall in Madison. But golly are there gems in this cave. By far my favorite restaurant in Dane County!

I love coming here, it’s always so empty, which makes no sense to me. But their Tom yum soup and pad Thai is to die for. Their hot tea is my favorite and the service is excellent.

The service was tv comedy level bad, but the food was amazing. I would suggest take-out over dine-in. Very worth it!! Very fair prices for the quality of food.

Decent pricing and they give you so much food its amazing. Unsure when/if management changed, but rice didnt automatically come with the pad Thai like it used to. Still a wonderful place and asking for some rice on the side is easy enough!

Had been really looking forward initially to the food - but was so super disappointed in the end. The Phở (e.g. phowas unlike any other pho that Ive had the pleasure of enjoying through the years from other Vietnamese restaurants ala New York City, Boston, Bali & San Francisco. The broth so tasteless and supporting seasoning and meat accompaniments of such poor & bland quality. The service itself is also in need of much grooming & polishing. My friend inquiring about a specific dish received as part of the response from the waitress "I myself do not that dish... ". So disheartening.

You have to try the Pad Lao. Its amazing. Similar to Pad Thai, but different enough to be really interesting, and I havent seen it offered anywhere else. Carry out is fast and easy, and Ive never seen the dining room too full to get a seat. I love this place.

Back in the 90s this was the most amazing place ever, every dish on the menu was good! Now even though the menu is the same the food is disgusting. I dont know what happened, but whoever wrecked the best Thai/Lao restaurant Madison ever had should be ashamed. I really enjoy Ha Long Bay now, but they dont hold a candle to what this place used to be. Sadly I will never go back.

ok its not much to look at but who cares. have served up some awesome dishes for 20 years. curry dish and spicy plate (er something close to thatare awesome.

I ordered food to go as I was heading into the hospital. We ordered a fair amount of food, over $50 worth. After picking up the food and arriving to the hospital, we found that the rice was old. Im Asian, I know what fresh cooked rice is supposed to look like. This rice looked like it had been sitting in a cooker for days. It was partially brown and soggy. The spring rolls were falling apart before we had the chance to eat them. Took one bite and noticed the brown lettuce, clearly not fresh spring rolls. The curry was packed into a small box instead of plastic container with lid, so of course it leaked everywhere and onto other food. The fried rice, just like the white rice was soggy on some parts and hard on the other, as if it was reheated. Ive never had such a horrible experience with Lao/Thai/Vietnamese food as I have today. The only thing that looked and smelled decent enough to eat was beef (rubberyand vegetables and maybe ONE eggroll, although the outer wrap was stale. So disappointed, will never order from here again!

This place doesnt look like much from the outside, but it is a hidden gem. It was quiet when I went, but the service was friendly and prompt, and the food was incredible! Would highly recommend if youre looking for tasty Thai food in Madison.

Food is delicious, but dont forget to ask for a plate and fork/spoon if you do a takeout. I noticed only after I came back to my hotel room, that they did moot provide plate, and it was difficult to eat from the boxes.

The food was good but the service was horrible. None of us got any good vibes from the lady that was working there. There was only other table with people there and the way she was treating them was different than the way she treated us. Sorry to say this but that was the first and last time I will go there.

This place set the standard for spicy curry dishes in Madison, but those days are past. Recent curry orders have been mostly onions and potatoes with a small amount of tough, unappealing beef. Vientiane was so good 20 years ago, but after a couple of recent orders we realize that its just not worth it. Food is too expensive and not that good. Delivery is too expensive with the multiple charges (just like everywhere else). Uber and EatStreet are making money while we pay more for smaller portions. Just get carryout from Ha Long Bay instead.

Very disappointing in the quality of the food. The taste is very bland. Food doesnt seem fresh.

Great authentic Asian food, some of the best weve had! The portion sizes were huge and the waitress was super nice. Definitely going to come back again. Tasted just like home 😁

Ive only ever eaten two things here, Singapore Noodles (medium spiceand fresh spring rolls. Ive been eating these two dishes here for over a decade, and have never had them be anything but delicious. Its cozy and the service is quick. If youre just looking for decor and hip ambiance, go elsewhere.

I dont usually give reviews - and never leave bad reviews, but this place is an exception. Since the place had 4 stars, I picked it over others.The food was the worst Asian food I have ever had. I ordered the coconut soup - it was mostly onions and what chicken was in the soup was gristle/scraps.I also had the Pad Thai. The noodles were mush. Total mush. Have you ever had overcooked macaroni and cheese that has zero texture? That is exactly what the texture was - but with long noodles with Pad Thai flavoring in it.

I was not excited walking into this place at first but my boyfriend reassured me it would be great. It was. The dishes we both ordered for lunch was delicious. Bonus: leftovers for the next day.

I havent eaten here myself, but my boyfriend swears by this place. He was even willing to go here a couple days in a row, just for their chicken pad thai. Apparently its really good.Theyre very open to modifications, and made one of my friends a vegetarian fried rice without onion, garlic, and a lot of the popular vegetables due to his allergies.Would not recommend the vegetarian spring rolls. Its a cold dish that seemed to be just a bunch of lettuce and other cold vegetables in the wrapper, and had no taste at all.Huge portion sizes!

The portion of the pho was humongous! I dont know if its authentic but I was happy with my food. My friends said the quality of the food can be inconsistent sometimes tho.

This was literally the worse (so calledLaotian/Thai food that I have ever had in my life!! First time here and was already not impressed by how dirty the place was!Ordered spring rolls and a few other dishes to go. The spring rolls were so gross, I threw it out after one bite! Ordered the beef salad & when I opened the container, the dish already had a bad smell to it! Tried a small bite and sure enough, the beef was overdue!!I thought, ok, we have 3 other dishes to try, they can’t all be nasty? Was I wrong!! Every single appetizer & dish we got from this place was horribly disgusting!!! Stay far away and find a different place to eat!!!

Dont go for the decor... go to make your taste buds very happy. Both our dishes were delicious. Slight twist on Thai and /or Chinese.

Gross. I ordered from here on a whim and didn’t even get what I ordered. Literally took two bites and threw the entire thing in the trash. Then to top it off there was something hard and nasty inside my egg roll. I couldn’t tell you what it was. I tried to figure it out, which makes it even nastier. DONT EAT HERE!!!

I have been to Vientiane Palace several times and it has never disappointed. Delicious, authentic food in large quantities and at very reasonable prices. They are also extremely accommodating to vegetarian and/or vegan diners as well as carnivores. Vientiane has quickly become a staple for me in Madison.

Their food matched their service, they didn’t give a s***. At least they were consistent “15% gratuity appreciated” was written at the front where you pay. Should have tipped less. Do yourself a favor and judge a book by its cover.

Lunch specials are a good value. We enjoyed the pad thai more than the curry, which is unusual for a place like this.

One of the best Laos food I have ever had. And my son has been eating there some he was a year old!

Im not picky, I just want decent food at a reasonable price. This place has issues with sanitation and general uncleanness. We were there for about 1hr from ordering to paying after eating and there were multiple tables with used plates and other utensils that were not cleared all through our stay there. And, it was not busy at all, it looked like they just did not care. There was a fly darting around too. We ordered 4 plates and only one - the Pad Thai was o.k. One of the curry plates had a distinct rancid taste like it contained uncooked palm oil. I requested the check when we finished dinning but finally had to get up to pick it up at the front desk after waiting a considerable time in vain.Very reasonable prices for the menu items but not worth it considering the ambience and quality of service/food.

Best curry squash or noodle dishes in Madison. Although certainly not all their dishes are good. But Ive come here once a month on average for the last 15 years because the flavors of certain dishes are just unbeatable.The negative side: (1Non-American service. This is a family-run restaurant and the Aunties dont make small talk and they dont smile if they dont feel like smiling. (2Only about half of the dishes are good. (3This place is straight up dirty. The carpet should have been replaced decades ago. The whole place needs a makeover.In conclusion, if you want a sterile experience go to Chilis, Dennys, TGIF, or any number of the chemical wastebaskets currently suffocating the nation. If you want authentic food at a decent price, this is your spot.

When we entered, there was barely anyone here. The parking is quite small and scary so we just parked at the multi-space meter nearby.Serving:Water tasted like sink water and was warm--little ice and melted 5mins into seating.The appetizers we got were spring rolls and meat balls. Meat balls were a 4/5. Spring rolls had a lot of veggies and a couple of shrimps 2/5. Didnt really taste that great.Pho: portion was good. They served us a lot of good, tender meat. Noodles could be boiled a little bit longer but the pho was still good.Veggies were clean. The broth is clean but not as much as Viet pho and very good. If you have ever ate Hmong Pho, they are very similar. 4/5Honestly Im surprised that these people dont have more customers.Heads up! If you are paying with card, there is a small processing fee. Cash is preferred here.

Delicious, authentic Thai food. Good portions. Good prices. Good beer!

If I could give it zero stars I would. Worst ‘curry’ I’ve ever had. More like gravy. Really, really gross gravy. The restaurant is also filthy, and the service is bad. Don’t waste your time or money eating here.

Tasty food at a reasonable price. Be careful with the spiciness of your food. Medium heat papaya salad led to my mouth and lips being on fire for 20 minutes.

This place serves up some really amazing Vietnamese food! Loved their spicy seafood curry. Prices are very reasonable considering the quantity. Would definitely visit again :)

This was the worst Thai food Ive had. We left after just a few bites. Our lettuce rolls were brown and everything was honestly inedible. I wish I could leave a better review but I want to spare others the experience.

I lived in Madison for well over 15yrs, and a trip back I finally visited.Quiet and decent sit-down service.The food was excellent!Madison is changing, newer and flashier food establishments, its important for quality places that have been around, stick around, and keep Madison grounded.

Madisons hidden gem. This place is often empty despite excellent food and great service. Dishes come out quickly and are delicious. Lunch specials make for an excellent bargain and are very filling. Food is never too spicy (medium is perfect for me). Seafood, including scallops and squid is nicely cooked always. A fairly regular stop for me always!

Service was prompt, but food was pretty lacking. The pad Thai had a strange BBQ taste, the laab was unmemorable, and the pho was average at best. "Very hot" was also mild for someone who enjoys spicy food.

Frequented this establishment for the last ~15 years. The food has never disappointed! Environment is casual and quiet with dated decor. The restaurant is family-owned by wonderful humans and their emphais is focused on good eats. Portions are large and reasonably priced. Highly recommend the curry squash, pad lao, pad thai, spicy plate, & drunken noodles.

I was really excited about trying this place, until I actually did. And I feel bad about bashing a seemingly family run business but I just need to express our disatisfaction with our meal.I had the tofu fried rice, my sister had the "curry dishes" option, and my boyfriend had the pad thai I believe. None of the ingredients tasted fresh and I could tell very much that the carrots in my dish were from a frozen package (they were perfectly cut squares). The overall color that overcame our meal was brown.The scenery was fine, nothing special.Overall we all left the restaurant feeling dirty. Which sucks because I was really looking forward to trying this place!

pad thai with tofu: wonderfulcurry dish tofu: wonderfulhilariously grumpy hostess*: wonderfulive been going for many years and will be going many more.*apparently the owners child/ren is/are old enough to work at the restaurant now, which means the same lady isnt working every single day open-close. as a result she is noticeably more chipper these days. better for her, but still... the end of an era.

The food was good, the service was fine.... it seemed like a home business, and may have been understaffed - or at least, appeared so. The impression was that the sole visible staff person served the role of waitress, hostess, cashier, and also refilled the water as well. The environment was clean but without extravagant splendor.The food was good, and did not take overly long to arrive. The staffperson (waitress?was quiet and not overly outgoing - but not rude or unkind at all.I cant speak to the authenticity of the food - but it tasted good and I liked it. Id go again.

Let me start off with the host. She really needs to learn how to deal with costumers. When I walked in, she was sitting by the waiting area so I thought she was a costumer as well. And she also did not greet me so I walked right pass her and went to the counter. When she saw me looking around in confusion (because not only was the restaurant empty, the front counter was also empty), she then got up to hand me the menu. I asked her a few questions about the food and as I stood there waiting for an answer, she stared at me for a few seconds and her reply was huh? (So basically, she wasnt listening to me the whole time? I thought maybe I was just in a rare case of bad customer service but boy was I wrong.While waiting for my carry-out order, 2 customers came in but the hostess was not at the front. She was in the back socializing (Im assuming). Im not sure what she was doing; i just heard her talking really loudly. They stood there for 5 minutes until they finally seated themselves. Then waited another 5 minutes before the husband decided to walk to the back to announce his presence. The hostess came out to hand them menus and quickly ran back to the kitchen as the husband proceed to say he wanted a lemonade. Minutes later I got my food and left. The food was okay but Definitely not going back. I would rather travel further for thai/lao food eventhough this place is closer.

First of all, I cant believe how this place is highly praised! Lets start with the positive: I didnt get a grumpy waitress or a bad service like many had mentioned. Our waitress was actually friendly. Now, the bad: the food tasted horribly bad. It is by far the worst Laos/Thai food EVER! Lets just sum up what others have said: 85% are white onions and only a few pieces of meat - true!; all their dishes have white onions - true!; no matter what dishes you ordered they all taste the same - true! Their meat/veggies are spoiled - true!; the food is cold/room temperature - true! I was so tempted to ask the waitress if I could speak to the cook and or owner and ask them know what kind of stuffs they serve their customers because IT IS NOT LAO/THAI food! Im Lao/Thai/Chinese mixed. For all those people that rave about this place, people that said this food is mediocre, and people thats looking to try authentic Lao/Thai food, heres word of advice: If you dont ever see any Laos people in a Laos restaurant or Thai people in a Thai restaurant or Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant that all claimed to be authentic - kindly walk out of the place. Go buy a cup of instant noodle for $0.50 and Ill guarantee itll taste better than this crap they put out!

The hostess/waitress is quiet/grumpy. I have gotten to know her a little through the years and she is nice to me. I can understand the comments about the service. I do like the food here. I get the Pad Lao with tofu-hot and the curry squash with beef-hot. Both are quite good. The Pad Lao can be too oily sometimes depending upon who is cooking. My wife and I stopped eating there because the dining room tends to be dirty. They do need to clean the carpeting and the condiments on the table. I like the food for carryout only.

Worst Thai food ever.85% onion, that was old and saggy.1 meager slice of tofu in my tofu dish.Tasted like watered down spaghetti sauce.horrible rice.Dont even consider it.

Read a lot of bad reviews about this place, so I was nervous going in, but I thought the food was fine. The comments about the hostess are spot on though: not the most friendly, but that might just be a language/cultural thing. Price was good for the quality. Awesome spring rolls!

My girlfriend and I decided to try this godforsaken place, since the reviews here on Urbanspoon were better than average, but much to our chagrin, this was the worst experience either of us had ever encountered. We went at 6:30 on a Monday night and we didnt expect it to be too busy, but we pulled in to an empty parking lot (and it stayed that wayand reluctantly decided to go in anyway. We opened the door to a frumpy middle-aged woman looked at us (but never said a word), vigorously scratched her nose, and angrily shoved two menus into our hands. After that, she pointed her finger at all of the open tables, as if to say go sit down. The room was dimly-lit with dirty looking carpet. The woman came over with a pen and pad, once again never saying a word, and waited for us to tell her what we wanted to order. We were polite, yet our thank yous were met with a smug look of indifference. We waited 20+ minutes before the horrible woman threw down our plates as if feeding pigs at the trough. The only thing positive I can say about this restaurant is that the portions were generous. The Pad Thai was mediocre, at best; nowhere near the best. We ate relatively quickly, as we just wanted to hurry and get away from this place as soon as possible. Our "waitress" soon threw down two carryout boxes and a ticket and quickly went back to her perch at the counter where she was reading. A man had come in to dine in while we were eating, and she might have treated him even worse than she was treating us. We saw her literally stick the to go box in his face, as well as admiring him having to ask for any water at all (halfway through his meal). When we went to the counter to go pay, she snatched the ticket (without saying a wordand gave us the receipt to sign. She immediately went back to her reading with the ever-present scowl. We left the restaurant--stunned that the service we just experienced had actually happened.The food here was mediocre, but the service is inexplicably poor. The "waitress" always gave off the vibe that you were SERIOUSLY inconveniencing her and that you were the sole source of her lifes unhappiness, even as she might have attended to us for a total of 30 seconds before she would slink back to her counter.We will never go back here, and neither should you. Dont waste your hard-earned dollars on sub-par food and ghastly appalling service.

Food was very tasty and the spiciness options were selectable on a per user basis. Service was so so but hostess was very polite. Extra rice was provided for free when we took out our food after eating indoors

Bad food. Dont go. The oil was rancid and the soup lukewarm with rubbery bits with the look of onions. That soups (Tom Yumonly taste was of salty stock blessed with a bit of chili oil--something like a consommé of dirty plate.We stopped eating after a few bites. The sour oil left a horrendous pasty, coating on the tongue. Yuk!Overall, imagine a Thai truck stop where last weeks food goes to be reheated on its way to having a flu named after it.By far, the worst meal Ive ever had in Madison.