Located within Vientiane\s only 5***** star Lao Plaza Hotel, this beautiful Japanese restaurant situated on the hotel\s lower ground floor (basement) offers excellent standards of Japanese cuisine. Service from the Lao wait staff was hesitant, awkward and totally untrained by management in what is required in any kind of restaurant let alone a sophisticated Japanese eatery. Staff were always polite but clueless with regard to the very basics of restaurant service. On more than one occasion the staff were no where to be seen in this empty restaurant (we were the only customers). Staff were skiving somewhere else. They had very few English skills and even though my Western guests are fluent Lao speakers, we were unable to impress upon the staff the need to offer any appropriate restaurant service. The seriousness of the situation is underlined by front-of-house staff in the hotel\s Reception and their main restaurant who did not know of the existence of the hotel\s Japanese restaurant. Management is failing its own staff and customers. The restaurant is very expensive.