By noon on Avenue d’Echallens, the room is already warm with spice. Curry perfumes the air, glasses clink, and strangers lean across long tables negotiating who’s stealing the last spoonful of sauce. YADA Thai Canteen doesn’t ease you in — it greets you head-on.
Installed in the former Lo Fi garage, the space trades industrial nostalgia for saturated colour and movement. It feels urban and slightly chaotic in the best way: a canteen built around flavour first, décor second.
At lunch, the focus is tight: house curries that deliver a direct hit of Bangkok. We ordered the Gaaeng Keow Wan - a green coconut curry layered with Thai eggplant and basil (available with tofu or chicken) and the Gaeng Phet Ped, a richer red curry with duck, pineapple and Thai aubergines, also offered in a vegetarian version. Both arrive with fragrant jasmine rice and a crisp salad that quietly tempers the heat.
Not in a curry mood? Two daily alternatives round out the midday offering. The Bamee Moo Dang – egg noodles topped with char siu pork – struck a careful balance between sweetness, salt and umami, the kind of dish you finish without quite noticing you’ve done so.
By evening, the structure loosens. The menu expands into smaller plates designed to be ordered in multiples and shared across the table. Dinner becomes less linear, more conversational. A sequence of bites rather than a single centrepiece.
Communal tables and a steady hum give YADA its energy. It works equally well for a quick lunch as it does for a longer, louder dinner with friends. What it delivers isn’t nostalgia or fusion – it’s confidence: bold Thai flavours served without apology, right here in Lausanne.
Yada Thai Canteen
Av. d'Echallens 48, 1004 Lausanne
021 525 57 30
Open Tuesday - Saturday for lunch and dinner services
