For reasons which are self-evident given the name of this site, we typically focus our editorial attention on businesses and events in or directly around Lausanne.
However, from time to time there are places special enough that the mild inconvenience of driving or taking the train seem an easy trade off because they offer something extraordinary, transporting, and impossible to find in Lausanne itself.
That is precisely how we feel about the terrace at Mai Thai.
Is it the palm trees that line the walk along the Lake or the dramatic vantage point for gazing on the ephemeral blue and the imposing alps? Is it the smell of exotic spices or the 14 Gault&Millau points that promise a memorable meal?
It’s hard to pinpoint just one factor that makes us come back each year, but each time we step onto the terrace our senses buzz with expectation and delight. To put it simply, we absolutely LOVE eating here.
It’s so rare that we eat good Thai food in Switzerland that we struggle to venture away from the classics. We were a bit ashamed to order yet again entrecôte in red curry sauce and Thai basil beef, but then our gorgeous meal arrived and with smug contentedness we quipped, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
For our first course, we did try something new – edible leaves that you fill with an assortment of small bits of shrimp, lime, peanuts, shallots, dried fruit, coconut, and then douse in sauce before folding up to eat like a small spring roll. We highly recommend!
Mai Thai is open year round, but the terrace is only available during the warm season. We’ve never eaten inside, and while we know the food would be the same in either place, for us this restaurant is best savored where the fresh air and smell of spices can mingle and the view across the Lake leaves you with a distinct sense of perpetual summer.
Don’t you agree?
Mai Thai
Rue du Lac 40
1815 Clarens
And if you don’t trust us, check out Gault & Millau’s review.