Eating out in Phnom Penh

[bumblebee]

A cool quiet place to lunch is called Leafage. A small cafe with a few indoor tables and an L shaped outside area (it's on a corner) with tables accompanied by more of the grandiose PP wicker chairs.

Location is down in the Rainbow Bar area, but as I failed to take exact notes, and it's not in my eating guide, I can't be sure. Help, you local guys. It's on one of the streets parallel to the RB street, which from memory makes it a 160-something street. It's at the corner with 19 St, or one of those teen streets anyhow.

It's on the corner of 172 and 19 Ken. It's the place in the distance on the right with the red and white Angkor sign.

[KenW]

It's on the corner of 172 and 19 Ken. It's the place in the distance on the right with the red and white Angkor sign.

OK Bb, thanks. I got it half right.

So that view of your pic is looking down 19 St from up towards the femboy barbers, yes?

[KenW]

Nordic House on 136 St.

Does a good variety of breakfasts, mostly in the Southeast Asian Western fare range: bacon/ham, sausages, eggs any style, baked beans, tomato, toast, etc. But you can mix and match according to the day's whim.

They also have quite an extensive main meal menu, and I can recommend both their Khmer ginger chicken, which is a dish highly reminiscent of a similar VNese one, and their bangers & mash, which is superb.

Not expensive, standard sort of prices. They also do a beer happy hour for later in the day.

It is, as so many of these joints are, a guesthouse as well.

[bumblebee]

OK Bb, thanks. I got it half right.

So that view of your pic is looking down 19 St from up towards the femboy barbers, yes?

Yep it would be behind me.

[KenW]

Based on only a small sample as yet, I reckon my favourite Indian eatery in PP is Sher-e-Punjab, at # 16, 130 St.

I have eaten there about 3 times now, and each time the food has been excellent, the service good, but the clientele small and surely disappointing for the owners. I can't figure why, as the prices are far from outrageous.

Most recently bubba & I ate there one evening, taking a chicken curry and a mutton curry with delicious naan breads, rice and a bottle of Chilean white. The curries are excellent and the breads big and delicious. (I ordered 2 while bubba was suggesting one might be enough. He was right. Never mind.)

My one gripe is that for some weird reason they don't chill their white wines. When you order they hurriedly arrange an ice bucket and expect it to be drinkable by the time your meal arrives. On my last visit there, must have been a 2010 or 2011 trip, I pointed this out to the man. Do one favour for me, I said gently and kindly, store some whites in your fridge. Lots of head shaking and yes sir yes sirs.

This most recent visit I had to go through the whole rigmarole once more. More head shaking and yes sir yes sirs. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Drinking warmish half chilled white with a delicious curry certainly detracts from it being a top shelf meal; which it otherwise would be.

I have to sample more Indian restaurants. I have been pleasantly surprised to note in my walks and tuk tuk rides that PP seems to have about as many Indian nosheries as Saigon; the latter being about 5 or 6 times the size (population). So plenty to choose from.

That might be taken down as one of my November missions.

[pdogg]

A cool quiet place to lunch is called Leafage. A small cafe with a few indoor tables and an L shaped outside area (it's on a corner) with tables accompanied by more of the grandiose PP wicker chairs.

Nice place to chill.........far enough from the Riverside that you can enjoy a nice cheap meal without having to deal with booksellers and other assorted vendors. Had a couple nice meals there with BB.

[PPBoy]

KenW

I couldn't agree more with your Sher-e-Punjab review. They do the best naans in town and as they have a proper tandoori over (most Indian restaurants here don't) the tandoori dishes are perfect too. There also one the very few budget restaurants in town that have a generator for when there are power cuts.

Incidentally, I went for a sniff around St 104 tonight. There wasn't much going on in terms of LBs but I had a decent plate of meatballs at the Velkomm Inn - a Norwegian eaterie at the Post Office Sq end. Worth a punt if you want to try something different.

[dixon cox]

Based on only a small sample as yet, I reckon my favourite Indian eatery in PP is Sher-e-Punjab, at # 16, 130 St.

I have eaten there about 3 times now, and each time the food has been excellent, the service good, but the clientele small and surely disappointing for the owners. I can't figure why, as the prices are far from outrageous.

Thanks for that one Ken, Indian food is one of my favourites too and I will be seeking out the Sher-e-Punjab.

130 is a reasonably long street, give me an idea of where it's located please.

[bumblebee]

Thanks for that one Ken, Indian food is one of my favourites too and I will be seeking out the Sher-e-Punjab.

130 is a reasonably long street, give me an idea of where it's located please.

It's on the left as you enter 130 from Riverfront DC. A few doors before Indochine2.

[KenW]

Thanks for that one Ken, Indian food is one of my favourites too and I will be seeking out the Sher-e-Punjab.

130 is a reasonably long street, give me an idea of where it's located please.

It's on the left as you enter 130 from Riverfront DC. A few doors before Indochine2.

Yes dc, it's as bb says. When you enter 130 St from Sisowath, it's on your left about 10 shop houses in.

[KenW]

I have been pleasantly surprised to note in my walks and tuk tuk rides that PP seems to have about as many Indian nosheries as Saigon; the latter being about 5 or 6 times the size (population). So plenty to choose from.

Thinking about this last evening I realised what a silly and irrelevant claim I made here.

Outside the sub-continent the population of any given city is virtually of no relevance at all to the number of Indian eateries. I mean, Saigon has 10 to 12 million people, but 90% of those, the Vietnamese, are never going to eat Indian as long as the sun continues to rise.

According to various websites, including Wikipedia, the population of PP is about 2.3 million. So about a fifth or sixth of SG.

Both, by my rough surveys, have about 10 to a dozen Indian restaurants.

If you graph this - admittedly only 2 data points, with population on x axis and Indian restaurants on y, you see a flat graph emphasising how irrelevant that above quote is.

It was fun then to think about what might be relevant in determining this discrepancy. (Yes, I do do weird things in the evening.)

I guess the number of resident Indians or of Indian descent would be important. SG has about 30,000 of them. On the 3 websites I looked at for PP, Indians were not even mentioned. So I suppose they fit in the "5% other" category.

Even more relevant would be the number of Indians wanting to eat out at Indian eateries, and the number of cooks & managers willing to risk it by opening & running a noshery.

Also relevant I suppose, is the throughput of cosmopolitan travellers and expats who enjoy all sorts of food variety.

What else? I have no idea at this stage.

But I do know I find it disappointing that SG has relatively so few Indian eateries (though at the top end the ones they have are superb); while PP has I guess relatively quite a few (for a small city), and I'm pleased about this.

All you curry eaters: get out there and support them!

[KenW]

Sisowath Quay is one continuous feast of eateries and drinkeries, punctuated by the occasional travel agent, bank or souvenir shop. I don't have any particular favourite place in the area, for there are so many.

Having said that, there are a few places whose names I remember. One is La Croisette, at #241.

I have been there several times. Once I recall eating a terrific steak with mushroom sauce. Outstanding. Other times in late afternoon I merely sucked caraffes of vin before adjourning to eat elsewhere. The usual wicker chairs and river breezes. Watching the world go by.

They have an upstairs Living Room, available for hire. Intriguing to know what that's about...Probably just functions. I can't imagine they have a gimp they release to the right kind of party, or anything like that.

[williethepimp]

The problem I found eating on sisowath quay area is the endless stream of hawkers and boksellers.These booksellers are invariably young kids 9,10-15 yr old.Even if you go inside they will come in and try and sell you stuff even while youre eating,without hardly a word from the staff to get them out of there.

Whats worse if some fucking backpacker couple encourage them and have them laying books out everywhere.These same fuckin backpackers will go home and tell everyone how horrible it is in Cambo,with young children being out at all hours ,prey to paedos etc.....A grumpy ole cunt I may be,but I always tell them to fuck off,in as nice a way as I possibly can.....RANT OVER....

Eating places?...well I got so fond of Dolce Vita (introduced to me by BB)that I went back again and again.......

[SiamSam]

.....A grumpy ole cunt I may be,...

Point taken.

[KenW]

I got so fond of Dolce Vita (introduced to me by BB)that I went back again and again.......

Same same me.

[KenW]

I love fish & chips eat in, take away, home delivery.

I gotta find that place come October-November, and give it a try.

Any recall on where bb?

[Pic courtesy of bumblebee from his Scenes from PP thread]

[bumblebee]

I love fish & chips eat in, take away, home delivery.

I gotta find that place come October-November, and give it a try.

Any recall on where bb?

[Pic courtesy of bumblebee from his Scenes from PP thread]

Yea it's over at the lake side backpacker area. Took a stroll over there one afternoon but not much of a view now that the lake has been filled in.

[KenW]

I suppose it's as worthy in a thread like this to inform potential PP visitors of places or things not to eat as well.

The old Isaana Mart on 136 St which some of us knew and loved so well (pic below shows a view of the world passing by taken from a seat at the mart)

has become Neil's Minimart. Addled brain meant that I forgot to take a photo of the new incarnation. Never mind, same setup, same address.

But now the new owner (Mr Neil?) has a hot food warmer in which he places locally made pies that have a seabird starting with P brand name (either Pelican Pies or Penguin Pies or ...). They are shit.

Sample size only 1 admittedly, but who would want to go back for more. Sometimes when it comes to nosh, a sample size of 1 has to suffice.

The pastry was a centimetre & a half thick, I swear. And stiff glugy pastry at that, not puff or anything approaching flavoursome. The innards consisted of a couple little tough lumps of meat in a very watery thin fluid I am reluctant to call gravy. Cost me USD 3.50, left me hungry but not for more of them.

Distasteful.

[KenW]

As all of you old Asia hands know well, we should not restrict our thinking to formal restaurants and eating establishments. The street is alive with yummy possibilities.

From the old Isaana Mart (now Neil's Minimart) on 136 St for example [see the pic in above post] it is so easy to nibble away from purchases made nearby. In that photo, a vacant table & chairs sit in front of me as I take the pic, then a couple of shrines by a tree, and at street's edge a structure like a cart with a blue rain shade. At about 5 in the afternoon that structure becomes a stall where a couple women cook noodles and rice, with all sorts of add-ons from fried eggs to chicken drumsticks to goodness knows what.

On the left in the pic is a lady with her pushcart, that one most likely selling fresh fruit. You can buy a slice of papaya or watermelon or pineapple for something outrageous like 1,000 reil (USD 0.25). She chops it for you into bite size chunks, gives you toothpicks to stab it with as an eating implement, and it all goes into a plastic bag. Back to the table and the beers.

As in Pattaya or BKK or VN or all over, PP has good healthy cheap street eating opportunities.

[KenW]

Tom Yum Kung Restaurant

Thai & Khmer food.

#10 Street 278

between streets 57 & 63, a block from Monivong

Not bad. A cool quiet airy space, at least at the hour I was there.

I went with Lily for a brunch. She knew folks there, and apparently went there regularly.

We ate fairly straightforward rice+ dishes while she nattered in Khmer to her friends.

At that time of the morning we were the only customers. A couple of orange robed freeloaders came by to collect gimmies however.

[Guest JustSumGai]

I've found online reviews for you of all three places.

http://www.khmer440....reviews-beirut/

http://www.khmer440....indian-delight/

http://www.khmer440....can-restaurant/

Go back a block (a two minute walk) and there's also a very comfortable sit down Khmer place

http://www.khmer440....hys-restaurant/

ok, I must say this, Khmer440 is a wealth of PP info, and ya might stop by the Garage as the guy that owns it has all the music you might want to hear, or will find it, AND he's a food nut. The cuban sandwich seems to go over well and has an interesting mix of other edibles. PLUS my fav bourbon Dickel, don't think it's the 90 proof aged version but it's GOOD stuff and a surpise to see it.

https://www.facebook.com/GarageBarPhnomPenh

[KenW]

Re-visit to Nordic House for lunch (see post #28, page 4 of this thread for pic and details).

I chose a yellow Khmer curry. USD 3.50.

Fair.

Tender chicken pieces with lumps of potato, slices of carrot and white onion.

Set in a big bowl of watery broth.

Very mild. I had a mini bowl of freshly chopped birdseye chilli to rev it up a bit, but as you can imagine that merely added hotness while doing nothing for real spicey flavour. Broth far too watery for a curry.

Possibly - quite possibly - my first disappointing meal at Nordic. O well, there had to be one.

[KenW]

Redemption for Nordic House. I knew that one-off yesterday was all it was.

Today I was lusting after a bangers & mash, a dish I tried and salivated over back in June. It never let me down. My guess is the snags were fried, but gosh, they had a crispy exterior, just to my tastes, as if they'd been grilled. Delicious. Mash, green peas and onion with gravy.

A top lunch. USD 4.50.

[KenW]

Lunch at a new Italian venue, Bar Italia.

At 8a 278 St, between Norodom and Monivong, not far from Independence Monument.

I ate a small Nepolitana pizza for USD 4.50, and drank a juice. The pizza was quite filling for a small; mind you, I'm not a big lunch eater. Very nice, loaded with black olive and anchovies just as I like. Looks like the place has either just been opened, or if not, then recently re-fitted. Modern light airy.

A row of pot plants at front and side give it a green gentle feel. A.Customer looks reasonably content to be there.

[KenW]

Evening meal at Fish Cafe Restaurant Bar corner of Riverfront & 108 St (opposite the night market).

Dinner for 2, steaks all round, with 2 wines for me, 40 USD. Expensive.

The term wine glass applies only to the vessel it comes in, for each normal glass was less than half filled with beverage. At USD 3.50 a time, I was unimpressed.

Had to ask for water to accompany other things. It took forever to arrive. The waitboy had a body language that made everything he did seem a burden. Quite off-putting.

When we ordered our steaks, he gathered up the menu cards and stalked off. Were we to be asked how we'd like them done? Or what sides we would choose? No sireee. No way. Both steaks eventually arrived, overdone for my tastes, technically well done I suppose, with respective sides (mine: mushrooms and onion; Another Customer: potato chunks and onion).

Flavour was OK, but both meat serves were tough (over cooked definitely, but possibly meat quality as well). Very disappointing at the price.

Not recommended.

It's one of the eateries being promoted on this website:

www.yourphnompenh.com