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Lao Food

While Vietnam and Thailand certainly have good eats for cheap -- bowls of Phở or Kway Teow with beef or roast pork for a $1, Laos is the king of cheap eating in Southeast Asia.  In the night market we were able to get two bowls of noodle soup with beef and a 640mL bottle of beer (se BeerLao pictures below) for the grand sum of $3.

   

The food was so cheap and the restaurants so plentiful that we decided to do a restaurant crawl of sorts: we ordered a beer and appetizer (usually spring rolls or Lap, the Lao national dish which is a spiced ground meat -- chicken/beef/pork depending on the order -- with veggies mixed in, really quite tasty and worth a try) before moving on to the next restaurant.  We usually got by with a $2 bill at each place.

Most of the restaurants in Luang Prabang are along the main strip in town.  However, be sure to take a walk down along the Mekong River, where you will find many more places to eat overlooking the water.  These places will generally be cheaper (and in my opinion tastier) than those along the main strip.  The best meal I had in Luang Prabang was along this strip at a place featuring Southern Lao cuisine (I failed to write down the name of the specific restaurant, but the front of the menu states that they specialize in Southern Lao food and the menu items are different than at other places).  Just make sure you bring plenty of bug spray along with you: the area by the river has quite a few mosquitoes after dusk.

The restaurants in Luang Prabang are outdoor sidwalk-cafe style restaurants.  They consist of open rooms and veranda doors that open to open air tables on the sidewalk or on outdoor patios. 
many restaurants on main strip.  They generally will have ceiling fans, but no air conditioning.