A Baltimore couple has quietly turned home cooking into a delivery-first hustle that is trying to put Laotian food on a lot more local plates. Khamhou Thepsouvanh and her husband, Saroj Sharma, poured their life savings into Baltimore Lao Eats, a takeaway-and-delivery concept that started service in December. The menu is small but unmistakable, built around Lao staples like nam khao and laap rather than watered-down crowd-pleasers.
According to The Baltimore Banner, the pair runs Baltimore Lao Eats out of the Charm City Food Co. commissary kitchen in the Abell neighborhood, a setup that keeps them off the hook for a full dining room and all the overhead that comes with it. They first tested the waters at the Baltimore Book Festival in Waverly in 2025, where their plates drew early interest. The Banner notes that instead of chasing a big storefront, they chose a lean delivery model to slowly build a following for Lao flavors across the city.
A listing on DoorDash shows Baltimore Lao Eats operating as a delivery-and-pickup kitchen, with a pickup point at 416 E. 30th St. The page lays out menus and hours and makes it clear the business is hitching its fortunes to third-party platforms to reach diners beyond Abell. For most Baltimore customers right now, Lao food arrives in a clamshell container via an app, or at the occasional pop-up when the couple takes their food out into the neighborhood.
Cooking the recipes they grew up with
Thepsouvanh immigrated to Baltimore at 17 and joined her father here in 1995, bringing the cooking she grew up with along for the ride. She keeps traditional techniques front and center, right down to boiling sticky rice in bamboo baskets whenever she can. The Baltimore Banner notes that she is firm about authenticity, choosing ingredients and methods that preserve Lao flavor rather than nudging dishes toward an Americanized middle ground.
That shows up in the classics on the menu. Nam khao is a fried-rice-ball salad tossed with fermented pork sausage, herbs, and chiles, the kind of dish that starts mild and then sneaks up on you. Laap, made with minced chicken, kaffir lime, and toasted rice powder, leans bright and aromatic instead of heavy. It is home cooking, just routed through a commissary kitchen and a delivery app instead of a family table.
Delivery fees tighten margins
Running a micro operation through delivery apps comes with a harsh catch: the platforms take a serious cut. Restaurant Dive reports that marketplace fees can reach about 30 percent, a chunk that can eat straight through the thin margins of a small kitchen. On top of that, Restaurant Business Online recently reported that Uber Eats is increasing certain marketplace fees by roughly 5 percent in some tiers. For operators, the size of Baltimore Lao Eats, those numbers are not abstract. They help explain why Thepsouvanh and Sharma chose a commissary-based, delivery-first setup instead of signing a lease on a full restaurant.
At the same time, the landscape for Lao food in Baltimore is shifting. Canton’s Charming Elephant, long a go-to for Lao flavors, beloved Canton Lao spot goes dark after closing its dining room, leaving fewer brick-and-mortar options for diners chasing sticky rice and laap. Hoodline reported the Canton restaurant is transitioning to new management, which creates a bit of an opening for delivery-only concepts to introduce or reintroduce the cuisine citywide. For customers who used to rely on Charming Elephant, Baltimore Lao Eats offers a way to keep Lao dishes in the rotation while storefronts change hands.
For now, Thepsouvanh and Sharma are walking a tightrope between tradition and the realities of app-era dining, using delivery platforms and pop-ups to build a loyal base while keeping their food firmly rooted in Laotian technique. Diners can find Baltimore Lao Eats on major delivery apps or catch them at local events as the couple works to grow the business without sanding off the flavors that make it stand out.
