CAMBODIA: Sounds Good, I want to go, give me the skinny III

CAMBODIA: Sounds Good, I want to go, give me the skinny

Part Three: Where to Eat, Drink and Make Merry

Restaurants and food ranging from Khmer pavement stands to 4 star international cuisines – Phnom Penh has it all.

Where to Eat Khmer Cuisine:

Khmer Surin,
Street 57, south of Sihanouk Blvd. A combination of Khmer and Thai food in a very relaxed setting; eat under shelter outside, or dine inside on one of the three differently attired floors

Raffles Hotel
Street 92, near Monivong Blvd. Okay, listing hotel restaurants is usually cheating; but this is no ordinary hotel, or restaurant. Happy hour in the Elephant Bar see cocktails two for one, or as is currently the price US$6 for two cocktails.


Where your average Khmer eats ( they are pretty much all the same) :

Good Dreams
Street 214 between streets’ 63 and 51.

An atypical Khmer restaurant/beer garden; Blue plastic chairs, tin tables, the occasional table cloth.

Ankle deep in bones and general restaurant debris by the close of play, most of the staff speak no English whatsoever. If you venture in there you are pretty much guaranteed to be the only foreigner in there.

Personally I love this place. Usually in Khmer restaurants the staff has a tendency to be somewhat obsequious, not so here. Our usual waitress speaks not a word of English and when we try in our pigeon K’mai to talk to her there is a 50-50 chance that she will listen to what we say and then shake her head not understanding; or, she will just wander off bored, with you in mid sentence…


International Cuisine

The Rising Sun
Can be found on Street 178 about 12 yards away from the riverfront.

Claiming to be an ‘English Pub in the heart of Phnom Penh’ it could not be further from it. It is another of those hole-in-the-wall bars. This one just happens to have British movie and music posters and pictures on the wall!

What it does have though, is an English ‘Pub Grub’ menu that is second to none in this city. If you want [need] a full fried breakfast of a morning, the rising sun serves the best one in the city. Roast chicken on a Sunday lunch, pork chops with mashed potatoes or bangers, mash and onion gravy. Sometimes you just need a little fix of home, this place can provide it

The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC); I know, I know, love it or loathe it, they are here to stay. Generally loved by tourists and loathed by ex-pats Regardless of which side of the fence you fall, everyone agrees it has one of the most commanding views of the confluences of rivers in Phnom Penh.


Where to Drink, Chat, Relax and Meet People…

The Peace Café
Lower end of Street 63 between Streets’ 360 and 380

A relaxing bar, run by Dave, a long term ex-pat. The peace café has been in this location for around 3 years, but prior to that was based up in skanky-backpacker-heaven, more commonly known as the lakeside. It is a dark bar, with original and slightly disturbing, artwork adorning the walls, all of which were done by Dave, the owner of the establishment.

Offering a reasonably priced menu of both Western pub meals and Oriental dishes. The beer is also reasonably priced.

They run a British style pub quiz on a Monday Evening; they have jam sessions with local ‘musicians’ on random nights.

Recently Dave has bought a movie projector, so he can show DVD’s. Thursday evening is Art-house night, showing a selection of the bizarre and random.

The Green Vespa
Top end of the Riverfront, near the port.

The advertising proclaims ‘the only bar in town with a motorbike on the roof’ well, it is true ! a friendly and relaxed little bar, ran by Alan. Offering a simple menu of western food and cheep drinks, the walls are covered with photos of vespas, Alan drives a green vespa and as they say, there is another green vespa on the roof ?!?

DV8
As their advertising says ‘booze, birds, billiards’ which just about sums it up !

Happy hour until 7pm, good selection of drinks and friendly staff. Barry who runs the bar is relaxed and always easy to talk to – which is more than can be said about some of his barmaids!

Zanzibar
Strangely enough this bar never seems to have any customers in it whenever I drop by. This is a shame because I really like the bar if I want a quiet drink where nobody knows me.


The are also a multitude of bars along the Riverfront, ranging from the awful to the wonderful


Martini, Sharky’s and Walkabout are the kind of places that you really need to make your own mind up about


Further information on beer and babes
www.khmer440.com

and

http://darrenconquest.blogspot.com/

of course !!!