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Top Restaurants in Angkor
Bistrot de Siem Reap
The town’s quintessential French restaurant, located in the Victoria Angkor hotel, continues to survive the world’s harshest critics with its unadulterated version of old school haute cuisine. Don’t be put off by the plain décor, the focus here is on the food. The indulgent seven-course tasting menu is recommended, but even a simple bowl of French onion soup au gratin is enough to please. An astoundingly lengthy and well-chosen wine list will quiet even the most discriminating travel companion.
Blue Pumpkin
The Blue Pumpkin is a great diversion for picky eaters and those who are tired of Cambodian curries. The cool bakery serves incredible pasta as well as American staples like burgers, sandwiches, and salads. The all-white room, Philippe Starck furniture, and free Wi-Fi attract a hipster crowd that seem like they would be more at home in Manhattan than Cambodia. Part of a mini-chain, this location is one of five in Siem Reap.
Butterflies Garden Restaurant
Located in the southern section of the Wat Bo district, this butterfly farm-cum-restaurant appeases all of the senses: taste real Khmer cuisine as you listen to mesmerizing Khmer music, smell the lotus and hyacinth flowers, and watch the bright butterflies. The tamarind stew, beef and peanut stir-fry, and fresh pomelo salad are some of the best in town. After dinner, take time to explore the premises and enjoy the butterflies.
Café Indochine
This signature tourist restaurant is yet another French/Khmer hybrid just below the busy city center. If you’re coming from Phnom Penh you already know the drill: sit up high near the open air balcony, dine on multiple spicy dishes and plates of sticky race while watching the street drama of Cambodia unfold. Choose something more refined like duck confit and wonder how the best of Paris ended up so far away.
Madame Butterfly
Set in a lofty, traditional Cambodian home, this popular Asian restaurant is a low-risk introduction to the wonders of Khmer cuisine. Try authentic and flavorful Khmer curries, rich soups, yummy vegetable stir-fries, and delicious seafood under a canopy of colored silk and wooden beams. Familiar Thai dishes also grace the menu along with a round up of choice wines.
Maharajah
Siem Reap’s best (and only) Indian restaurant, Maharajah serves all the greats of northern Indian cuisine: masala and korma curries, paneer, biryani rice dishes, and plenty of healthy vegetarian options. Order it as spicy as you want it and don’t shy away from the many sauces and chutneys available.
Meric
Original, bold, and shamelessly gourmet, the fine chefs of Meric spare no culinary tradition from experimentation, though the menu is influenced the most heavily by Asian-Pacific flavors – think Alaskan scallops in citrus liquorice sauce, sesame nougatine duck, or veal tenderloin seared with garam massala. Artful dining in such a tranquil setting is purely transcendental. Dessert is similarly superb.
Red Piano Café
"First come, first serve" is the mantra at this incredibly popular evening hangout just off the main drag of bars and nightclubs. The largest menu in the city covers Italian, Chinese, Indian, Cambodian, American, and everything in between. The impressive selection almost guarantees that you’ll find something you’ll like, just like the bright red walls of the building guarantee that you’ll find this café.
Restaurant Le Grand
Siem Reap’s finest dining experience defines the notion of “royal Khmer cuisine.” The chef combines local ingredients to create a swirl of flavors that are both strange and wonderful to the western palate, such as green salad tossed with red papaya vinaigrette and lobster that is braised in fresh water and then smothered in ginger and caramel sauce. By all accounts, the menu is imaginative, satisfying, and Cambodian, if slightly rich. Le Grand also lays claim to one of the largest wine lists in Cambodia.
Shinta Mani Restaurant
Acting like a performing stage for Siem Reap’s Institute of Hospitality, the Shinta Mani restaurant allows guests to taste the creative output of some its best students. Fusion cuisine is still the trend, blending Khmer dishes and spices with familiar European staples like pizza, pasta, and salads. Shinta Mani stands out in Siem Reap for being largely vegetarian and totally organic. The weekly Khmer dinner buffet is affordable and remarkably delicious.
Soup Dragon
Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese cooking attract huge crowds to this three-story restaurant in the heart of the old market. Barbecue your own meat at your table or order Chinese staples like sweet and sour pork, stuffed dumplings, and spicy soups off of the huge menu. A bowl of Vietnamese pho (noodle soup) is a meal by itself.
Street stalls
Feeling adventurous? Pinch your nose and pick up a couple of Cambodian delicacies from the food stands in the market. The deep-fried black spiders, squirming silkworm grubs, and salted crickets are considered light snacks. For something more substantial, ask the cooks to fry it all up with rice. As long as its served piping hot, you probably won’t get sick.
Viroth's
This local favorite may have French owners, but the cuisine is straight-up Khmer – come for simple, contemporary dishes like lemon pork, locally-caught, steamed fish, colorful fried rice, and lots of fresh vegetarian options. Located in a boutique hotel by the same name, the décor is refreshingly light and modern.
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