A tasty dining guide of where to eat in Siem Reap

If you’ve never thought of Siem Reap as a dining destination, you’re in for quite a surprise. The experiences are as varied as the flavors and run an impressively wide spectrum, from cheap and cheerful roadside barbecue, to intimate, chef-owned affairs, to spectacular temple setups fit for royalty, with endless options in between. 

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen the emergence of lots of new restaurants by young Cambodian chefs who are taking traditional dishes, deconstructing them and making them their own,” says Evi-Elli La Valle, founder of Taste Siem Reap, a company that takes guests on curated food tours, traveling across town by tuk tuk. “If you love food, it’s a really exciting time to be here.”

A celebration of Khmer cuisine

While we were hankering for other Southeast Asian cuisines, a renaissance of sorts has unfolded in the kingdom over the last several years, with mission-driven chefs leading an organic campaign to revive the country’s long and rich culinary heritage and to bring the often-overlooked Khmer cuisine onto the world stage. Khmer food is generally more subtle in heat and spice but is no less flavorful, with bursts of piquant notes from fermented pastes and texture from fresh wildflowers. 

To have your fill of mouth-watering Khmer dishes in town, start at The Sugar Palm, a beautiful, mood-lit dining hall with dark-wood finishes, timber blinds and potted bamboo palm accents. Here, owner and chef Kethana Dunnet, a leading figure in the effort to revive the cooking traditions that had all but disappeared under the Khmer Rouge, serves the dishes she enjoyed throughout her childhood. House specialties include recipes Kethana learned from her mother and grandmother, and one that she then passed on to Gordon Ramsay – The Sugar Palm’s fish amok is a velvety soufflé of mashed snakehead fish, prahok (fermented fish paste) and coconut cream, in a shallow palm-leaf tub.

Younger chefs like Chomnab Seiha of Jomno and Mengly Mork of Pou Restaurant are driven by the same sense of purpose – to celebrate sophisticated Khmer fare that their grandparents enjoyed, before war and famine had altered the local plate – this time with a more contemporary take, in more casual settings. 

At Pou, which moved to Maison 557’s garden earlier this year, Mengly serves photogenic plates of reimagined street food and Khmer family-style dishes. The menu includes the family recipe for num ban chok, a breakfast staple of curry and rice noodles, using local crab meat instead of the usual river fish, stewed in coconut milk and prahok. Another must-try is the catfish with tamarind sauce, chunks of fileted then deep-fried catfish from the Tonle Sap, drizzled with a bright and tangy tamarind sauce. It’s served in a bowl of springy rice noodles and fresh wildflowers.

Meanwhile at Jomno, which also just recently moved to a larger, more inviting setting – a charming renovated wooden house in the Wat Damnak neighborhood – chef Chomnab does a similarly inventive take on local grub. If you can’t quite decide on what to have, the sharing platters feature bite-sized servings of skewers, sausages and spring rolls. Among the most ordered mains are the Battambang sausages (charcoal-grilled homemade pork and beef, served with a side salad of thin banana heart ribbons), Jomno’s soupy version of fish amok, and their mouth-wateringly delicious smoked duck. 

Creative vegetarian dishes 

At the newly renovated vegetarian restaurant Banlle, which serves both traditional Khmer and Western dishes, Swiss-trained Cambodian chef Pola Siv advocates for the planet through plant-based dining. Chemical-free vegetables and herbs are picked fresh from raised beds in the lush garden – a collaborative effort with sustainable agriculture NGO Agrisud International – that surrounds the light-filled restaurant. 

“Most of my friends think that going vegetarian means eating rabbit food,” says Pola, who became vegetarian five years ago. “We want to be an example of what’s possible.” Located along buzzy, bar-lined Street 26 in the Wat Bo area, Banlle is indeed proof that flavorful and deeply satisfying vegetarian dishes can convince even the most avowed carnivore to skip the meat for at least one meal (baby steps, right?). The restaurant is popular for its airy, relaxed vibe and for inventive dishes like the tomato tartare and the prahok ktis of fermented tofu instead of fish.

Cambodian cuisine with a twist

For an extra special evening out, head over to the acclaimed Cuisine Wat Damnak by French chef Joannes Riviere. A champion of Cambodian ingredients and flavors, Joannes arrived in the kingdom almost 20 years ago as a volunteer teacher at the Sala Bai Hotel School, where he taught culinary arts then later penned the cookbook Cambodian Cooking. He mentored and inspired a number of young Khmer chefs, both as a teacher at Sala Bai and as a chef at the Bensley-designed Hotel de la Paix, now the Park Hyatt Siem Reap. 

In 2015, Cuisine Wat Damnak became the first Cambodian restaurant to make the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants List, a feat it replicated the following year. After a two-year closure due to Covid, the Siem Reap original (a new Phnom Penh outpost opened earlier this year) is back to delight diners with a seasonal tasting menu of Cambodian dishes prepared French style. 

Away from the city center and well into the countryside, Lum Orng by chef Sothea Seng is a farm-to-table affair with a fabulous view (come for the sunset and pre-dinner cocktails). It’s also a lab of sorts where, inspired by ancient Khmer cooking techniques embedded in the culinary traditions of neighboring countries that were once part of the Khmer empire, Sothea pushes the envelope with traditional dishes in a style he calls New Mekong Cuisine. The Royal Khmer menu, one of two tasting menus, opens with a starter of poached lobster from the southern province of Takeo, garnished with avocado, pink pomelo and fresh homegrown vegetable in lemongrass and passion fruit dressing. 

The royal Khmer experience

Speaking of meals with a royal lineage, don a fancy frock then head out to dinner at 1932, the Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor’s new fine-dining restaurant that serves modern takes on Khmer recipes long in the keep of royal chefs, then gifted to the hotel by royal decree. The city landmark was first established as the Grand Hotel D’Angkor in 1932, then acquired by Raffles in 1997. After a three-year hiatus, during which it underwent a major renovation, the hotel reopened in June this year,  just in time to mark its 90th anniversary. The Raffles in Siem Reap has a rich history of hosting royalty, global celebrities and other VIPs (just ask the resident historian), from Charlie Chaplin to Jackie Onassis to Nancy Pelosi; that is to say, dinner here is a full sensorial experience – from its perfumed lobby and swish dining room to the tableside service – delivered through a seamless choreography that’s been refined over decades, by some of the world’s most exacting palates. 

For a truly memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience, take it a notch further and book a temple dinner. Dine by candlelight in the enchanting grounds of an Angkorian temple, under a canopy of ancient trees. It’s a unique and exclusive experience you won’t find anywhere else (for obvious reasons) — an experience you’ll have in common with high-flyers of the world who jet into the city in secret, under the radar of paparazzi — and one that you’re not likely to forget long after you’ve left temple town. 

Ready for a getaway to Siem Reap? Fly directly with Thai Smile Airways.