7 minute read
BAAN LAO FINE THAI CUISINE
Stroll along Steveston’s scenic boardwalk and you’ll spot an eye-catching red building with intricately carved wooden door handles. Inside is Baan Lao Fine Thai Cuisine, hailed as one of Canada’s top destination restaurants. The accolades speak for themselves; Baan Lao was named Best Restaurant by the 2024 World Culinary Awards and Best Destination by Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants in 2025.
Baan Lao delivers an exceptional fine dining experience. Each beautifully plated dish is made with fresh, organic ingredients, crafted to showcase balanced Thai flavours. From the moment guests arrive to the final course, white-glove service and meticulous attention to detail are at the heart of the experience.
Guests are treated like royalty while enjoying award-winning dishes and taking in stunning views of the Fraser River.
Chef Nutcha Phanthoupheng and her husband and business partner, John Phanthoupheng, opened Baan Lao in 2021. In just four years, the restaurant has built a reputation for authenticity, sustainability and heartfelt hospitality.
Trained privately by Michelin-starred chefs in Thailand, Chef Nutcha holds a Thai Cuisine diploma from The Blue Elephant in Bangkok, as well as certification from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Bangkok Cooking School and Bussaracum Royal Thai Cuisine.
Before launching her culinary career, Chef Nutcha worked as a registered nurse and cancer researcher, providing her with a deep understanding of how food impacts health and wellness.
Born in the rural Isaan region of Thailand, she grew up with an authentic ‘farm to table’ lifestyle, cooking with fresh, local, organic ingredients long before it became a culinary trend. Her upbringing, along with her formal training and passion for Thai food, shapes a dining experience that is as nourishing as it is memorable.
One of Baan Lao’s unique offerings is the Afternoon Tea Thai Experience—a creative blend of Chinese dim sum, British afternoon tea, and Royal Thai cuisine. Guided by a certified Tea Association of Canada (TAC) tea sommelier, this experience features 12 finely crafted dishes served over three courses, each paired with teas sourced from across Asia.
After six months of research, she concluded that traditional Chinese dim sum and British afternoon tea didn’t fully capture the five taste qualities: umami, salty, sour, bitter, and sweet. She created twelve canapés that reflect these flavours, each with a hint of Thai spice.
“We wanted to create something truly unique and unprecedented,” says John. “While there are many fusion concepts, we noticed a lack of purely Thai afternoon teas led by a tea sommelier.”
“Since it’s an afternoon ‘tea,’ we aimed to highlight and celebrate this element to its fullest potential. We believe a tea sommelier should select the teas, ensuring a perfect pairing,” John explains. “We offer both caffeinated Gong Fu Cha and caffeinefree teas, including rare teas from Laos and Bhutan.”
The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I feel proud,” Chef Nutcha says. “I created something new. I’m happy for our customers when they’re eating something new. It’s hard work for the kitchen, compared to different afternoon teas with cookies and sandwiches. For us, each piece is fresh that day. We have new customers every weekend. Many come back with friends and family.”
Another signature experience is From Thailand with Love, an 18-item tasting menu with seven curated beverage pairings by Master Sommelier Pier-Alexis Soulière. Offered Wednesday through Sunday evenings, this leisurely meal is a journey through Thailand’s four culinary regions. Each course—many rooted in rustic traditions—is elevated to the regal standards of Royal Thai cuisine, a refined subset of Central Thai cooking reserved for royalty.
This deeply personal menu is inspired by Chef Nutcha’s cherished memories of home.
“In my hometown, we have a lot of catfish raised in lakes and rivers,” says Chef Nutcha. “The sour mangos we grow in our backyard. As a child, I would grab the catfish and put it together with mango and traditional Thai herbs. It’s very simple but delicious. This is a dish that stimulates your appetite. We also have sour mango sorbet on the menu, as a palate cleanser with anchovy sauce. At home, we would eat the sour mango with shrimp paste. I made it more beautiful and fitting for fine dining.”
Another memorable dish is her coconut galangal soup with truffle pearls.
“At home, we eat the coconut soup with regular mushrooms. I wanted to make it different. I wanted it to stand out, so I added truffle. How do you make truffles interesting? You can just slice them, but that’s not challenging for me. I wanted something beautiful and elegant, so I put the truffle in coconut pearls.”
One of the most distinctive and meaningful dishes is braised water buffalo, served with Massaman curry and basilinfused jasmine rice grown on her family’s farm. Traditionally, a work animal in Thailand, water buffalo is rarely seen on fine-dining menus. Chef Nutcha was inspired after discovering that some B.C. farmers humanely raise grassfed water buffalo as a lean and sustainable alternative to red meat. This unsung protein resonated with her background in healthcare and belief that good food is the best medicine.
“Water buffalo were part of our daily life,” she says. “We used them to plough the fields and plant the rice. They lived under our house, built on stilts. This dish is my way of honouring them—and my roots.”
Baan Lao continues to receive major awards and international attention, but Chef Nutcha is most proud of helping to put Richmond and Steveston on the map.
“We receive a lot of awards, but the World Culinary Awards’ Best Restaurant in Canada is very powerful. The judges came to taste our food, but we didn’t know who they were. To be honest, I chose to open our restaurant in Steveston because it’s a very charming area on the waterfront. I wanted to raise my kids here, in a place that’s not too busy. I’m proud because we’re helping other people discover what a beautiful place it is,” says Chef Nutcha.
In recognition of her dedication to authenticity, sustainability, and culinary excellence, Chef Nutcha was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for elevating Royal Thai Cuisine in Canada.
Giving back is central to the Phanthoupheng’s mission. Chef Nutcha and John continue to support local health care causes.
“We donated a dinner for eight, including wine pairings, to the Richmond Hospital Foundation’s 2024 Starlight Gala,” John says. “It raised $4,500. We also gave $22,000 to the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation through our Legends Dinner.”
“Healthcare fundraising is important to me because I’m a nurse,” Chef Nutcha adds. “I told John when we opened the restaurant that my dream was to deliver meals to people who are sick in the hospital and suffering from cancer. I realize now that is very difficult to do. The Legends Dinner was something we could do—bring three other famous chefs to our restaurant and raise money. John is very smart; he executes my ideas in ways that are more realistic.”
With all the accolades, local fame has followed.
“People recognize me in Steveston,” she laughs. “Now I put on a little bit of makeup before we go out. Recently, my kids came home from school asking, ‘Mom, are you a superstar?’ Even their teacher said, ‘I saw you on Instagram and YouTube. Thank you for opening a restaurant here—you’ve brought more people to Steveston.’”
Baan Lao Fine Thai Cuisine
4100 Bayview Street Richmond, BC V7E 0B3
Phone 778-839-5711
Article by Sarah Gordon (August 2025) @PallaMedia
