Orlando’s newest, hottest restaurant is Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen (https://www.mtskitchen.com/). Located in the food court of Lotte Plaza Market, the sprawling Asian supermarket at 3191 West Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32808 (on the corner of John Young Parkway), this venture from married couple Brittney Keophoxay-Lam and Dan Lam serves Laotian and Cambodian (Khmer) cuisines. Orlando has had one Laotian restaurant for many years (Sticky Rice, which I haven’t been back to in far too long, come to think of it), but this is the first-ever Cambodian restaurant to open here, and it started out as a food truck before moving into its permanent location in the Lotte food court. They were in a soft opening phase for the past week, and they had their grand opening yesterday. Now that Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen is officially open, the hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 8 PM. 
The menu is on the website, as well as on the illuminated big screens above the booth, and believe me, my wife and I studied it in advance. I got there shortly after it opened today, and I ordered a bunch of food to bring home to share with her. I always keep a big “heat bag” in my car for bringing takeout food home, and everything was still hot when I got back home.
We started out with an order of roti, those crispy, flaky fried flatbreads that came with pickled cabbage (more about this later) and a creamy, mildly spicy house-made curry dipping sauce. If you’ve ever been to Hawkers, you probably know and love roti, and I’ve even bought very similar frozen ones, but these tasted freshly made. 
We were both intrigued by this cured salmon laap salad. I am never a fan of cooked salmon, but I love raw salmon (one more reason I may be a bear, besides looking like one), and one of my favorite foods is cold-smoked, thin-sliced nova salmon, so I was curious about this version of cured salmon. The website says the slices of cured salmon are tossed with herbs (there was a lot of fresh mint, in addition to crunchy red and green onions), toasted rice powder, lime, and traditional Lao seasonings. It was served with some sliced cucumbers and a nice-sized portion of sticky rice, which I thought my wife would love, even if she wasn’t into the salmon. 
Well, she loved the sticky rice (she had only ever had sweet sticky rice before, in Thai desserts), and she surprised me by not only liking the cured salmon, but liking it more than I did. I generally love tangy, sour, acidic flavors, and I fell in love with the Thai “meat salad” larb when I first discovered it last year (at Isan Zaap Thai Cafe). I wondered if this “laap” salad would be similar to larb, especially with the toasted rice powder and lime juice, but this particular recipe had a fermented funkiness I wasn’t expecting, which made me wonder if fish sauce was one of those traditional Lao seasonings. I did appreciate that the salmon still had that nice raw texture and wasn’t “cooked” by the lime juice, the way salmon comes in ceviche. That said, I don’t regret ordering or trying it!
This was kuy teav, a Cambodian noodle soup made with a Wagyu beef broth, tender (and chewy!) beef meatballs, and flat rice noodles, topped with fresh herbs, shallots, and crispy fried garlic. I also paid small upcharges to have quail eggs, beef tripe, and a braised boneless beef rib added to the soup. My wife and I both love Vietnamese pho, that ubiquitous beef noodle soup that maybe should become the official dish of Orlando (hey, it makes more sense than honey nougat glacé!), and I really wanted to compare and contrast this new soup to pho, since they sounded similar at the most surface level. Like all the best pho spots, Mae Tao and Son’s packaged the broth on the side, so it wouldn’t turn the tender noodles to mush on my drive home. 
I liked all the ingredients in this kuy teav soup, even the addition of beef tripe, despite not always enjoying the texture of it in pho. I thought the broth was more delicately flavored than the stronger flavor of pho broth, but maybe it’s because I’ve only tried it this one time, and it didn’t come with any additional condiments or seasonings that way every Vietnamese restaurant allows diners to customize their pho. I loved the meatballs and quail eggs, though. (I keep a few cans of quail eggs in the pantry at home because I like to pickle them in the fridge for quick protein snacks. Yes, you can buy peeled, hard-boiled quail eggs in cans at Asian markets!)
Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen is definitely a fusion restaurant, devoted to winning over new fans who are unfamiliar with Laotian and Cambodian flavors. In addition to everything else we tried, we got two of their sandwiches, which are huge and beautiful and served on toasted brioche buns, served with the cut side up because they are so photogenic. Longtime readers and anyone who knows me in real life know how much I love a good sandwich, and these sandwiches are designed to be perfect gateways to introduce those unfamiliar eaters to these two new cuisines. (I still have fond memories of my first introduction to Filipino cuisine, which I now love, from the fusion dishes at the long-gone Taglish, a former tenant of the Lotte Plaza Market food court.)
This was the BBQ tiger beef “sando,” smoked beef in a crying tiger Lao-style barbecue glaze, layered with delicious black garlic aioli, jeow som cabbage, and fresh greens. I was completely unfamiliar with jeow som, but I did a bit of research, and it is a Lao dipping sauce made with fish sauce (A-HA!), herbs, fresh lime juice, garlic, sugar, chopped cilantro, and peppers. So the finely shredded red cabbage was tossed in this dipping sauce, making it like a sweet, sour, funky, crunchy slaw.
One thing my wife and I were surprised to discover on this sandwich that wasn’t listed in the ingredients was a large hash brown potato patty, which was a really nice touch. I don’t know why more places don’t put those into sandwiches! Anyway, this was a huge hit with both of us.
And this was maybe my favorite thing of all, the sweet and sour tamarind “sando,” with crispy panko-breaded and fried chicken thigh cutlets tossed in a sweet and sour tamarind glaze, topped with more of that black garlic aioli, jeow som cabbage, and fresh greens. There is A LOT going on in both of these sandwiches, but in a good way. 
Over the past three months, my wife has suddenly become a far more adventurous eater. I’ve always loved trying new things, but she has started sharing my enthusiasm for food, even as I’ve been slowly eating less, eating healthier, and losing weight since the start of this year. (Today was a bit of an exception, obviously.) She never even cared for sandwiches before, mostly because she doesn’t like different food touching and usually tries to avoid bread, but she gave both of these sandwiches a fair chance and ended up liking the BBQ tiger beef more. I was happy that she was all in on this new alimentary adventure with me.
So even though you’re probably going to be seeing these stunning sandwich cross-sections in your socials a lot over the next few weeks, I wanted to publish this review ASAP, while the details were still fresh in my head and the flavors were still dancing on my tongue and in my memory. You should make your way to Lotte Plaza Market ASAP, because it’s still a super-nice Asian supermarket with something for everyone, and it’s still a lot less crowded and chaotic than H-Mart, a year after the latter opened. And while you’re picking up your staples, sauces, seafood, and snacks, stop by the food court and give Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen a try. If you’re still on the fence, you would probably love Laotian and Cambodian food if you like Thai flavors. It’s not a fully accurate comparison, but it might be the most familiar to the uninitiated. The sandwiches were my favorite by far, but you really can’t go wrong. I didn’t get to meet Brittany or Dan (and they would have no idea who I am anyway), but they’re off to an amazing start with Orlando’s hottest restaurant. And as you can tell, this place has everything.
The Saboscrivner 