You basically can’t walk more than 30 meters in Luang Prabang without passing a café. It would take weeks to to try them all. Luckily we spent several weeks in the city! And while we didn’t quite try all of them, we did try a heck of a lot of them (life is very hard) so we have a pretty good idea as to which is the Best Cafe in Luang Prabang.
As two food and coffee nerds, we look for more than just a cute aesthetic. So we’ve split it out into 2 categories. First, are our favourites for coffee alone and second are the best overall settings (think decent coffee, a nice place to sit, and a good food menu too). Because great coffee deserves to be recognized.
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Best Coffee Quality in Luang Prabang
LuLaLao Coffee
Located near Wat Xiengthong, at first glance LuLaLao Coffee doesn’t have much to encourage you through the door. They’ve taken an extreme minimalist approach to décor and seating. But don’t let that put you off as they serve the absolute best coffee you will find in Luang Prabang.
For pour over, they have a choice of beans from across Laos with different varietals, processing methods, and roasts (roasted in house).
Their espresso is pulled manually – I generally always trust a nerd with a manual espresso machine to make a great coffee. With LuLaLao, that trust is not misplaced! The depth of flavour and balance is top notch. Perfect milk frothing too, if that’s your thing, and there’s also some fun local drinks options too.
Food? Not so much. Comfy seating? Perhaps not. Air con? Nope, though they do have some fans. But I’d sit on the side of a motorway if it meant great coffee and this is A LOT better than that.
They also have coffee beans for sale if you fancy taking some top tier Laos coffee home with you.
Comma Coffee
This is an extremely different vibe.
Comma Coffee is down the far side of Phousi, next to the Nam Khan river. Initially it seems quite small but then you walk through the garden at the back and they have a huge air conditioned room that gets loads of natural light. It also has a bookshelf packed with random books – we found the Laos Lonely Planet guide from the 1990s which was a fun read to see how much it’s changed!
They also roast their own coffee and coax the sweet notes from the espresso really impressively. The espresso here wasn’t quite at LuLaLao standards but we thought the balance of flavour was still amazing. Katie’s flat white came with perfect milk texture too.
They have a good food menu and some nice looking cakes if you’re in the mood for more. But the coffee quality alone is worth the trip.
Saffron Coffee
Like many businesses in Luang Prabang, Saffron Coffee is a social enterprise that ensures the coffee farmers of Laos are well paid for their work. You’ll find them down by the Mekong River and the cafe has 2 floors (the upper one air conditioned). Plus a few tables across the street, set along the riverside.
The coffee here is really excellent and their breakfast bagels are amazing.
It always helps when you feel like your money is going to the right place too. Though all the cafes in Luang Prabang work closely with local farmers so there’s no Starbucks-style evil going on.
You can also contribute to the expansion of high quality coffee growing in Laos by paying $1 to buy a coffee tree for the farmers.
Café Laolu
In the heart of the morning market, Café Laolu makes excellent coffee and has a nice space to relax amongst the sellers. They also offer breakfast and lunch dishes and are helpfully open at 6am for your caffeine hit after watching the alms giving.
While they may be 4th on our list, the coffee is still superb and they do it with very minimal equipment, which is extremely impressive. The first time we visited Luang Prabang, we went here nearly every day.
You can also grab an amazing freshly squeezed orange juice from them to set you up for the rest of your morning.
Best Cafes in Luang Prabang for Vibes/Aesthetic
Le Banneton
It’s not all about coffee, sometimes it’s about great bread and pastries too.
Le Banneton has the best baguettes in Laos. Possibly even in the whole of SE Asia – an extremely bold claim, we know! Their pastries are good too and very reasonably priced.
They have some streetside tables and the main café is nicely air conditioned. The service gets a bit suspect when they’re busy but its Laos so just relax and they’ll get to you.
Joma
Lowkey obsessed with the glazed donuts and lemon tarts from Joma, they also do a tremendous lemonade.
With 2 locations at either end of the main street in the old town, you’re never too far from one. We’ve not tried their “proper food” and don’t particularly rate their coffee, but they have amazing baked goods that make them worth a visit.
Plus they have air conditioning and space to relax. We often see people on laptops working or travel planning and they have lots of plug points. So it could be a good place to do a little work or life admin if you need.
Zurich Bread Factory and Cafe
Another café with 2 locations in Luang Prabang, Zurich Bread Factory started in Thailand and is slowly spreading across SE Asia. With great quality bread, bagels, pastries, and cakes its easy to see why they’re doing so well.
At both their cafes in Luang Prabang, they have a wood fired oven for bread and pizza making too. Adding that extra depth of flavour that only comes from the blistering in wood ovens.
They don’t include the tax on their menus, a practice that really annoys me in general, but we won’t hold that against them as everything tastes really good.
Sunset 360 Café
This is the best café for sunset in Luang Prabang, certainly in December-February when the angle of the sun makes for the most incredible sunsets.
It might not be the most “aesthetic” setting – think wooden chairs on a wooden platform by the edge of the river. But don’t let that put you off!
Smoothie bowls, Lao and Italian style coffees, and all sorts of mixed drinks or Beer Lao make for a perfect sunset companion. There’s usually also a few cats running around your feet which makes it an instant winner in our book!
They have a little cabinet of cakes too but we didn’t try any as we usually went pre-dinner to watch the sunset and didn’t want to fill up on pastries.
Silk Road Café, Ock Pop Tok
This is hands-down the best café in Luang Prabang for views of the Mekong. Though you need to head out of Old Town a little to get it.
Ock Pop Tok is a fantastic textiles shop and craft centre dedicated to boosting the profile of traditional Laos artisans. They do all sorts of classes and workshops as well as having multiple shops for you to browse (one at the cafe and one in town). If you’re looking for a unique thing to do in Luang Prabang, you should definitely check out their craft workshops – Katie did their silk weaving one and loved it.
The café is on a stunning terrace overlooking the Mekong river. While we felt the food was a little expensive by Laos standards, the drinks are very reasonable. It’s just such a beautiful place to sit with a coffee, juice, beer, whatever you want.
Final Thoughts
There’s just an obscene number of places to choose from when it comes to choosing the best cafe in Luang Prabang. We are unashamedly coffee nerds so the coffee quality is everything to us, and puts LuLaLao top of our list. But if you want a crepe and a smoothie in a nice setting you won’t struggle to find that either.
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