Food is John's biggest interest in his life.
Cambodian cuisine aka Khemer cuisine, mixture of Thai, Vietnam, Chinese style of cooking, famous with Amok (yellow curry with vege and meat), BBQ and steamboat.
The activities that John most looked forward was hunt some food in the Pub Street (mostly all the famous restaurant located in this street), we tried a couples and i decided to write the review of few recommended restaurant.
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| This is the main restaurant and tourist area, full of restaurant and pub. |
i'm sure if you have done the research, you will come across Khemer Kitchen, Red Piano and few other famous restaurant in the town.
We've tried Khemer Kitchen and Blue Pumpkin, so i won't go into detail on these two restaurant. Both serve good food but not so big portion (we are Asia and we don't eat big portion, but we feel the portion is really small), and money that we paid is not worth the portion and taste.
But i have to admit that, Khemer Kitchen serves real good Amok, almost the best among those that we tried. If you want to try the real Khemer taste, Khemer Kitchen might be one of your choice in term of taste, but not price.
In this post, i will go through the review of The Soup Dragon, Cambodian BBQ, FCC Angkor and Angkor Mondial Restaurant.
1. Cambodian BBQ
Cambodian BBQ and the Soup Dragon is actually located in the same area.
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| Click for bigger imagine |
We went to Cambodian BBQ as dinner in one night, we picked this restaurant randomly and turn out to be a good try.
Cambodian BBQ served meal in a set, we picked the dinner for 2 sets, come with 5 kinds of meat, (snake, chicken, beef, crocodile and prawn), vege, noodle and rice, drink is not included.
Vege, noodle and rice is unlimited refill but not to meat.
John is mutton person so he added a plate of goat meat, we got the bill of $25 and we're satisfied.
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| The meats, the yellow cup in the middle is egg york, up to you to mix it with your beef, so your beef is cover by a coat of egg and taste nicer. |
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| the thai's steamboat pot and the meal. |
This is my first time to have snake meat, i had crocodile since i'm small because i'm a asthma patient and Chinese believes crocodile and herb soup could cure.
Instead of BBQ, i'd rather called this as BBQ + steamboat meal, as you can see from the picture above, you will be given a pork skin cube so you can melt before you put the raw meat on the hot pot which the soup doesn't covered.
If you want to boil your meat, vege and noodle, there are soup on the lower part of the pot, just like thai's hot pot.
Meats are fresh, vege and noodle can be refill until you drop, good environment and friendly service, special meat and real Khemer taste, $25 might be a little bit expensive in the first sign but do consider we were getting 6 kinds of meat and all fresh, good deal.
If you're from the western and think crocodile or snake meat are horrible, you can actually choose the other meat to replace it (eg, 2 portions of chicken).
But hey, i don't think western countries will see crocodile or snake meat very often, since you're in Asia why not give a try.
Crocodile meat is a little chewy and smell like fish, not my favourite but snake meat is tender and taste like chicken, very nice taste.
Price: 3/5
Taste: 4/5
Environment: 3/5 (by the road side so a bit noisy)
Service: 4/5
2. The Soup Dragon
Cambodian BBQ and the Soup Dragon is actually located in the same area with Cambodian BBQ, this is Vietnamese restaurant and famous with the hotpot.
FYI, Cambodian is very much influenced by the French culture (people eat baguettes everyday), also the culture of Cambodia's neighbor, eg Vietnam and Thailand (lots people can speak fluently Vietnamese and Thai).
We chose soup dragon in a raining night, John's a soup person so we walked in to this restaurant and decided want so hotpot (other Vietnamese food is available, eg beef noodle and etc).
Hotpot come with a set, we got 2 people set which including vege, noodle, meat ball, one kind of meat (we choose beef), egg and fried tofu skin.
We then later added another plate of beef, fried tofu skin (this is the nicest tofu skin aka fu chook that i ever eat, must try!), meat ball, fried spring roll and beer.
Bill, $24, including 3 beers. The Soup Dragon is the best restaurant that we dined in Siem Reap.
Oh not to forget the soup of the hotpot, not clear soup but soup with rich flavor, we still missed the tasty soup now.
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| Picture from John's angle. |
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| crispy and nice, good to have it with beer! |
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| A table of food. |
We didn't take the food picture because we were so damn cold and hungry. Above picture is the only one that can see all the foods on the table.
John did took a short clip, showing the waiter is serving the meat that mix with egg for us.
We choose to sit on the 2nd floor, because less noise.
After finished all the food, we enjoyed beer while seeing people passing by on the 2nd floor, very nice experience indeed.
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| The fat. |
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| Sky turns dark and the street turns bright. |
Price: 4/5
Taste: 5/5
Environment: 4/5
Service: 4/5
The Soup Dragon is worth to try if you want some hot soup in the cold night. Strongly recommended.
3. FCC Angkor
FCC Angkor is a hotel with medium high class restaurant in the town, not located in the pub street area but be by the river side.
We don't actually dine there but we had tea there.
Menu only for main course, salad and soup, no menu for tea set. You can only tell them how many person you are, and choose the tea you want.
We got tea set for 2 persons, $18.
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| Sandwiches, fruit and scone. |
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| Empty restaurant, we're the only customer. |
Although we're the only table to served, but we actually got our tea and food slow, we wait for 20 minutes to 30 minutes to got our tea and foods.
$18 for 2 pots of tea and foods might be a bit expensive, but do consider this is high-class hotel and they do charge extra for the service. So that's actually alright.
Sandwich is nice and freshly made, scone isn't the best and fruit is chill and refreshing.
If you have a noon to spend at no where, perhaps you can consider FCC Angkor for tea or light meal, while looking at the river in front of the hotel.
Price: 3/5
Taste: 3/5
Environment: 5/5
Service: 4/5
4. Angkor Mondial Restaurant
Siem Reap was John's birthday celebration trip, so on his birthday i brought him to Angkor Mondial Restaurant for buffet dinner with traditional dancing show.
Angkor Mondial Restaurant is not the only buffet restaurant with show in the town, but this is the one that our tuk tuk driver recommended.
Although John is not happy that this is a tourist restaurant, but i must say the show is really good.
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| Not too far from pub street. |
We were sent to this restaurant in the noon time after our visit in Angkor Wat for table booking, we don't understand why the driver couldn't just calla and book us a table at first, but later we only know that you have to choose your own seat and pay advance.
The restaurant is huge, about 100 tables and when the time we reached, mostly front seats were taken. We choose the seat on the right hand side which near the food bar, pay $24 ($12 per person) and tell them we will come back by 7pm.
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| Restaurant name. |
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| Us |
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| The show last for an hour, great show. |
We didn't take much photos in the restaurant, but the are lots of different sections of food, eg salad bar, main course, BBQ bar, dessert, noodle soup bar and etc.
For me, $12 per person is worth the money, the variety of foods and show are nice, although the restaurant might be a little bit noisy and full of asian (especially china chinese that make great loud), but i'm good with this, because the music is louder than their voice, haha.
Price: 4/5
Taste: 3/5
Environment: 2/5
Service: 3/5
And there end my restaurant review, the next and last Cambodia post will still be foods, but snack that we found on the street and the local market.
ok bai!
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20130212, 0841am
Rach in Happy CNY mood.
