There are 2 jQuery datatables packages for Laravel (that i know of) which handle this kind of thing for you. No need for HTML in AJAX responses. Im using the one by Chumper and it makes things a lot easier. You just need to provide the data in your controller or route, and add the helper to your view.
https://github.com/Chumper/Datatable
https://github.com/bllim/laravel4-datatables-package << (haven't worked with this one)