VancouverMETRO VANCOUVER NEWS
B.C. Thai restaurant named North America’s best
Baan Lao, a 20-seat Thai fine dining restaurant in Richmond’s Steveston waterfront, won the World Culinary Awards’ top North American restaurant honour and was named Canada’s best for a third straight year. Its owners say reservations are already about two weeks out.
Chef Nutcha Phanthoupheng and her husband, John, a co-owner of Baan Lao, recently returned to Metro Vancouver from Jamaica with a major honour and a long list of reservations. The 20-seat Thai fine dining restaurant on the Steveston waterfront in Richmond was named the best restaurant in North America by a global hospitality and culinary group.
Baan Lao topped the World Culinary Awards field, which included 22 Canadian nominees and 18 from the United States. It was also named Canada’s best restaurant for the third year in a row. Established in 2020, the awards use online voting by members of the culinary community, industry experts and customers.
“We’re thrilled, we’re excited, and we’re tired,” John Phanthoupheng told CTV Your Morning on Friday, shortly after the couple returned from the ceremony. “And very so happy,” Nutcha added.
The restaurant offers tasting menus. Its website describes them as reflecting the “warmth, elegance and extraordinary attention to detail” of Royal Thai cuisine. John said the restaurant’s vision has always been to create exceptional Thai fine dining, with varied details and authentic ingredients, including ingredients from local suppliers.
Nutcha was born in the countryside of northern Thailand. She worked as a nurse in her home country, then as a cancer researcher. After moving to Canada, she decided to open a restaurant. She said her nursing background and wish to create something natural and healthy for people informed the concept she and John developed together.
Nutcha later returned to Thailand to train with several prominent chefs, including one who cooked for the Thai royal family. She said she wanted to learn royal techniques and bring Royal Thai cuisine to Canada so everyone could experience Thai food. She described it as a dream to introduce another side of the country’s cuisine, saying Thai food is “not about only street food.”
John said the restaurant is currently fully booked about two weeks in advance. As news of the award spreads, the wait could grow longer. The team is also expanding: Baan Lao has just announced plans to open two new dining concepts on Granville Island sometime next year.