An Honest Review of Phnom Penh

Tucked in the heart of Main St. is an authentic Cambodian restaurant called Phnom Penh. They have won multiple awards over the years such as a “Best South East Asian Dining” and a Michelin Recommendation (Phnom Penh Restaurant, 2023). Every time I have been to this restaurant, there is a line out the door. Although they have speedy service and everyone eats relatively fast, the usual wait time during dinner is over an hour. 

A great place to share food with friends family style as you will want to try a little bit of everything. Their most famous menu items consist of the Butter Beef (rare beef in a tangy house special, topped with crispy garlic and cilantro), the Beef Luc lac (tender pieces of fillet beef that is marinated and coated in a sauce that coats your mouth, and the Deep Fried Chicken Wings. This is the one restaurant that I would recommend everyone try at least once especially if they are not from Vancouver. 

The food is reasonably priced and if you are sharing with friends, the different flavours work in harmony to create an explosion of flavour in your mouth. I went to revisit this restaurant this summer with a few of my friends. It was their first time visiting this restaurant and they absolutely loved it.

We ordered 5 dishes to try the different flavours but the 3 of us would have been full with a dish each to share. We ordered the classics that I mentioned above, and a couple more menu items such as the Black Pepper Squid and a Vietnamese Omelette. Everything was super tasty, but the famous 3 dishes stole the show. The squid was very tender and the sauce was sweet and savoury which paired really well with rice. 

We were genuinely surprised when the bill came as we ordered a lot of food and it came out to less than $30 per person. My friends enjoyed their experience at Phnom Penh so much that they were already planning their next visit to the restaurant on the way home.