Best Siem Reap Cambodian Restaurants for Authentic Cambodian Food

Best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants for authentic Cambodian food include everything from home-style Cambodian cooking served in a traditional wooden house to contemporary experiments in Cambodian-European fusion cuisine. They’re not on Pub Street and most aren’t on Trip Advisor’s top ten, but here’s where you’ll sample the best Cambodian food in Siem Reap.

In Cambodia’s ‘Temple Town’ of Siem Reap, where there are thousands of hotels, including many five-star resorts and boutique hotels, it’s surprising that there aren’t more outstanding traditional Cambodian restaurants. Sadly, like any city, there are scores of mediocre eateries, and it can be very hard to have a truly great meal of authentic Cambodian food if you don’t know where to go.

That abundance of mediocrity can partly be blamed on tourism, on tourists’ lack of knowledge of Cambodian cuisine and an expectation that it should taste like a mild form of Thai food (see our story on Dispelling Cambodian Cuisine Myths for more on that subject), along with chefs’ willingness to adapt Cambodian dishes to meet tourists’ expectations rather than educate diners about Cambodian food (see our story on Ruining Amok, Cambodia’s National Dish for more on that).

On the other hand, there are some outstanding Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants where chefs, Cambodian and foreign, are cooking incredibly delicious traditional Cambodian food, as well as experimenting with creative Cambodian cuisine. These especially warrant a meal, after you’ve acquainted yourself with traditional Cambodian cooking, to get a taste of the future of Cambodian food and I’ve called that movement New Cambodian cuisine.

Update 9 February 2023: The pandemic was tough on Siem Reap with countless businesses closing permanently or temporarily and many only recently re-opening. Fortunately many new restaurants have launched. We’re in the process of updating this restaurant guide and will add new restaurants as we experience them, so do bookmark this page.

Best Siem Reap Cambodian Restaurants for Authentic Cambodian Food

If you only have a few days in town, I recommend you dine at a couple of the very best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants cooking authentic traditional Cambodian food, such as Sugar Palm and Malis, and then try a few of the move inventive contemporary Cambodian restaurants. Also make sure to graze on Cambodian street food and try some of the more rustic, local, neighbourhood eateries. Here’s our guide to the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants:

Siem Reap’s Best Cambodian Restaurants

The Sugar Palm (OPEN)

Start your Cambodian food journey at the Sugar Palm, which moved to Street 27 in the Wat Bo neighbourhood a few years ago to a striking, breezy, purpose-built restaurant with lofty ceilings and shutters that tips a hat to the charming traditional timber house that was The Sugar Palm’s home for many years.

With some new dishes on the menu, it remains one of the very best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants when it comes to more home-style, traditional Cambodian cooking of the kind eaten pre-Khmer Rouge in the capital. Delicious, hearty and generous in size, the dishes are the kind you would have found in middle class to upper class homes in Cambodia before the war.

While some of the dishes have been made a little bit more accessible for foreigners they still remain authentic in flavour. This doesn’t mean the food has been dumbed down or fused with Thai flavours, as it has at most of the more tourist-driven restaurants. It simply means that some of the pungent, sour and tart flavours that Cambodians love are more subtle in taste so that they’re a little more palatable to foreigners. This makes Sugar Palm a fantastic first restaurant to dine at if you’re new to Cambodian cuisine.

The Cambodian-born New Zealand-bred owner-chef Kethana Dunnett is the go-to for chefs visiting Cambodia, and has advised the likes of Luke Nguyen and Gordon Ramsay when they were here filming television shows. She even makes an appearance in Ramsay’s Southeast Asian series.

While the restaurant is more lively in the evening, when it gets packed with visitors and expats, it’s also a pleasant spot for lunch, when it’s a lot quieter (everyone is out at the temples). Chef Kethana’s amok trei or fish amok, a steamed fish curry, is the most authentic and most delicious in Cambodia, made as it should be, in the old style, which means steamed. If it’s not steamed, it’s not amok.

We also recommend the prahok k’tis, the Cambodian chicken curry, and smoked eggplant and pork. This is food that is made to be shared, so order an appetiser, a salad, and a couple of mains and a side. It’s ridiculously affordable for the quality. Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.
www.thesugarpalm.com

Malis (OPEN)

The first Malis restaurant in Phnom Penh was considered the country’s finest Cambodian restaurant until Cusine Wat Damnak opened in Siem Reap five years ago and landed on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2015. The new Malis in Temple Town is truly outstanding, and even better than the first.

This is easily one of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants for refined renditions of traditional recipes, some with modern plating, and dishes from around Cambodia you won’t see on other menus.  Executive chef and co-owner, Luu Meng is the David Thompson of Cambodia, the authority on Cambodian cuisines. He makes an effort to travel the country every few weeks to towns and villages he’s never been, seeking out old dishes to introduce to his restaurant menus that might otherwise be lost.

While Luu Meng travels frequently between his restaurants in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, he has capable teams of chefs in both cities, and an impressive front of house team in Siem Reap, many of whom have worked at the city’s finest hotels and restaurants. The chef is committed to using local produce and working with farmers, however, he insists on premium quality ingredients, making concessions with products such as beef, which can be tough in Cambodia. As a result he has an exclusive deal with Blackmore from Australia for his beef.

The Siem Reap restaurant is in a grand, elegant riverside building, with a dramatic interior inspired by the Angkor temples. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so for those anxious about getting sick from street food, this is the safest spot in the city to sample Cambodian breakfast soups and noodles (in the morning) and snacks such as lort cha noodles (in the afternoon).

Everything on the menu is absolutely wonderful. This is food that should be shared so order a handful of dishes for the centre of the table. We love the rustic Takeo sausages, the crispy deep-fried soft-shelled crab from Kep, the Royal mak mee crispy noodle salad prepared table-side, which is full of texture and flavour, the plear sach ko (Cambodian carpaccio), and the rich Saraman curry, which is the best rendition of this dish you’ll find at any restaurant in Cambodia. Don’t miss a dessert taster (they serve three) and hope they can include the Kampot pepper creme brûlée, the Malis jasmine mousse, and the young palm fruit in coconut, which is very traditional.

While lunch is more relaxed when it comes to dress (smart casual clothes are still appreciated), during high season it’s packed with tour groups. This restaurant can easily handle large groups but you’ll need to arrange well in advance. There’s more of a fine dining feel in the evening, so do dress up a little and enjoy a cocktail at the bar before heading to the table.
www.malis-restaurant.com

Embassy (OPEN)

It’s taken a few years for the two young women chefs helming Embassy, Kimsan Pol and Kimsan Sok, to find their feet. But now that they have, they are confidently creating some of the most exquisite and most inventive, contemporary Cambodian cuisine in the country. It’s best sampled by indulging in their 7-course ‘gastronomic menu‘ which they change monthly, according to seasonality.

Known as the Kimsan Twins although they’re not twins nor do they even look like twins, the women also oversee the many other restaurants of the Angkor W Group, a rarity in a region where men hold such positions.  Like other Cambodian chefs making their mark in Siem Reap (Chef Pola of Mie Cafe, Chef Sothea of Mahob Khmer), the women cooked in five-star hotel restaurants overseas. (Spookily enough, the Kimsan Twins worked in Dubai’s Grand Hyatt with Chef Sothea when we lived in Dubai and were dining at the hotel’s restaurants almost every week.)

Like a lot of the best Cambodian chefs, the Twins also had experience in Europe, doing stages at Michelin starred restaurants in France. The chefs at one of those restaurants, Régis Marcon of 3 Michelin-starred Le Clos des Cimes (which has held its three Michelin stars since 2005), took them under his wing and has remained a mentor to the women.

As you’d expect their cuisine is French-influenced when it comes to technique yet remains distinctly Cambodian in flavour and rooted in traditional Cambodian cuisine. Expect deconstructed Cambodian dishes with the prettiest plating in the city.

Embassy’s wine list is one of the most impressive in Siem Reap, service by the all women team is easily the best in town, and the restaurant one of the most stylish, making for a really outstanding experience. Book a table in the main dining room to enjoy the chic space with striking art on the wall, splashes of orange, and a chandelier at the centre.

Update 9 February 2023: Embassy has re-opened in a new location in recent days, moving from the Kings Road complex to the other side of the river in the former Siem Reap Brew Pub, just behind Shinta Mani Resort in the Old French Quarter. Dinner only, 6-11pm daily. Book well ahead, especially during high season and weekends.
www.embassy-restaurant.com

Mahob Khmer (OPEN)

Diagonally opposite Mie Café, in another lovingly refurbished traditional timber house with lamps made from woks illuminating the path after dark, Mahob Khmer opened not long after its neighbour and also remains one of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants.

Owner-chef Seng Sothea offers a modern take on traditional Khmer cuisine. Sothea started his career at the age of 17 at the luxurious Sofitel and Meriden hotels in Siem Reap before moving to Dubai where he worked in most of the Grand Hyatt’s best restaurants, including its impressive Manhattan Grill, which is where he learnt to cook a perfect steak. The lok lak at Mahob Khmer, made with local beef sourced from a special supplier, is the most tender, melt-in-your-mouth lok lak that you’ll sample in Siem Reap

Expect to find refined renditions of traditional dishes, such as the most delicious skewers marinated in kroeung, which here are served as a set of three (prawn, chicken and beef) served in individual bowls. This is also the place to taste Cambodian dishes that I don’t recommend you sample on the street, such as the local clams. Here they are done with tamarind and basil, but most importantly they are safe to eat.

I also recommend the crispy frogs legs, and, if you’re adventurous, prahok (fermented fish) with vegetables, and the caramelised pork shank. Chef Sothea also offers hands-on cooking lessons at his small organic farm and these are the best cooking classes in Siem Reap. Open for lunch and dinner.
www.mahobkhmer.com

Cuisine Wat Damnak (OPEN)

Voted #43 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2016, and named the Best Restaurant in Cambodia, this intimate restaurant in a traditional wooden house remains one of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants, despite the arrival of Malis – and having a French-born chef at the helm. This is the restaurant that foodies make a beeline for when in town. In fact, Cuisine Wat Damnak is the very reason many gourmands even make it to Siem Reap.

The often inventive, contemporary Cambodian cuisine is rooted in authentic Cambodian flavour profiles. While some dishes are traditional, even in their presentation (a Saramann curry appears no different to any other – but just wait until you taste it), the petite and often more elegant starters tend to be more creative in their flavour combinations and plating. While others dishes are traditional in essence, they’re prepared using European technique with more refined ingredients as a substitute to those used in the home, or they might simply feature a twist.

The French owner-chef, Joannès Rivière, who has lived in Cambodia for many years, written a Cambodian cookbook, and speaks fluent Khmer, only uses Cambodian ingredients and mostly local produce, which he sources from farmers and co-operatives close to Siem Reap.

There are only two 5 or 6 course degustation (tasting) menus offered, which since April 2016 have changed every two weeks (it used to be weekly), and they’re an absolute bargain. A six-course menu (a must for foodies) is just US$28 a head and a decent bottle starts at US$26. There’s an amuse bouche to begin with and Cambodian fruits follow desserts.

We suggest ordering one of each menu and sharing dishes. Leave this until your last evening in Siem Reap, as, like the food at Mie Cafe and Embassy, Chef Jo’s cuisine makes better sense after an understanding of the traditional cuisine. Note that the restaurant closes for one month during monsoon and the European summer. Cuisine Wat Damnak is open for dinner only and closed Sunday and Monday. Also see my story on Fine Dining Lovers.
www.cuisinewatdamnak.com

Spoons (OPEN)

Stylish, breezy Spoons, which opened in late 2016, has quickly become one of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants. A social enterprise established by hospitality training school EGBOK, Spoons provides training opportunities and employment to disadvantaged young locals entering the tourism industry.

While there’s a short menu of appetisers, mains and desserts, the specialty here for us is the upscale Cambodian street food. I like to order all six appetisers, which are essentially refined renditions of street food classics, such as nom krok, sweet and savoury coconut cream and spring onion puddings, served with a coconut dipping sauce with galangal and fermented radish; the succulent grilled beef skewers marinated in kroueng that come with a quick pickle of green papaya and carrot; the fresh spring rolls with salad and a little stir-fried whitefish; the grilled chicken marinated in garlic, chilli, oyster sauce, and fish sauce, served with a green mango salad; and the herbaceous forest beef sausage with a banana flower salad with tree ant dressing.

Wash these down with inventive cocktails such as the Spoonatini, mixed from Sombai rice wine, vodka, Cointreau, lemongrass, lime, simple syrup, and aromatic bitters, and (my favourite), the EGBOK, made with campari, basil, lime, palm sugar, and sparkling water.

What also makes Spoons special is its commitment to being as sustainable and as energy efficient as possible. This starts with its cutting-edge architecture and breezy structure built from sustainable bamboo and eco-friendly products used in the restaurant, including biodegradable straws, placemats and seat cushions woven by Scrap from discarded fabric remnants from the local factory, Pactics, and menus printed on banana tree paper made from unused parts of banana trees by Kumae.

Spoons gives their non-compostable food waste to local farmers to use as animal feed, sends their used cooking oil to Naga Earth to be converted into biofuels and soap, and donates other waste for recycling to Rehash Trash, which makes beautiful ‘knitted’ products (everything from cups and trays to mats and ottomans) out of plastic bags. They also offer a selection of products for sale, from refillable water bottles to bamboo candles.
http://egbokmission.org/spoons-cafe/ 

Chanrey Tree (Open)

One of the city’s most stylish restaurants, as well as another of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants, Chanrey Tree is set in a traditional-inspired house that has a gorgeous front courtyard garden and a contemporary minimalist design. Chanrey Tree is lovely for lunch but also delightful in the evening.

We like to describe Chanrey Tree’s food as a more refined version of Sugar Palm’s. The flavours are authentic, but like Sugar Palm have been made a tad more palatable to Western tastes, without compromising too much. Their prahok k’tis, a pork mince dip made with the Cambodian fermented fish called prahok, is often toned down, so ask for it to be made in the authentic way if you wish to try it as it should be made.

Unfortunately many foreign tourists to Siem Reap often ask not to share food that is intended to be shared family-style. Chanrey Tree has given in to this, serving dishes individually, Western-style. We still ask to share when we dine here, so don’t be afraid to tell them if you wish to also. For diners who are happy to eat Asian family-style they’ll provide extra plates, however, (one of my only gripes) they’ll still serve individual mounds of rice on each plate.

The menu features dishes not seen on many other menus, including the owner Kaan Soann’s mum’s recipes. I highly recommend starting with the rice crackers with Natang sauce, prahok k’tis, and Cambodia ’tempura’, including delicious deep-fried frangipanis.

Follow with char kroeung (a stir-fry with Cambodian kroeung, a herb-based spice paste made with lemongrass, turmeric, kaffir lime, and galangal) which can be made with either frogs legs, river fish or beef (we recommend the frogs legs) and the roasted Khmer chicken (a free range chicken roasted with honey, rice brandy, young jackfruit and lemongrass, served with a prahok dipping sauce).

Open for lunch and dinner daily, although I prefer it for lunch. You’ll need to book the day before during high season. If Chanrey Tree is full they’ll put you in their Cambodian-French fusion restaurant Sokhak next door, although you can still dine on the Chanrey Tree menu.
chanreytree.com

Por Cuisine (Open)

This sleek restaurant was opened in early 2014 by Lee Ing, the daughter of Chep Por, who started Siem Reap’s first noodle soup stall and restaurant after the Khmer Rouge were ran out of Siem Reap. The humble family-operated eatery has survived him, continuing to feed locals breakfast each day, while his daughter’s minimalist restaurant serves up Cambodian set menus to tourists nightly, along with a traditional Apsara show.

This is the most touristy of all the venues on this list, however, it’s easily the best of the Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants with an apsara show and everyone wants to see an apsara performance when they’re in Temple Town. If you prefer not to dine in a room full of tour groups and traveller couples, then head here for breakfast or lunch when locals eat here, including many of the players in Siem Reap’s tourism and hospitality industry. (Lee Ing’s hotelier husband is director of a hotel corporation).

The menu features Cambodian dishes presented elegantly in a European style, along with some Thai and Western dishes that are popular with the local clientele as much as the less adventurous tourists. We recommend sticking to the Cambodian dishes, which are delicious. The head chef worked at both Marum and the Sofitel and it shows. The spring rolls and green papaya salad are some of the freshest you’ll find in Siem Reap, while the beef lok lak and amok are favourites.

The apsara show starts at 7pm each evening, which is when you’ll be dining mostly with tourists, however, set in the most civilised surroundings of any of the dinner shows it’s actually a terrific opportunity to see an apsara performance. Take tuk tuk as it’s a little out of the way.
Tea Chamrat Street, off Wat Bo Road.
www.porcuisine.com

Marum (CLOSED)

Another of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants, Marum is a must. While it’s enchanting sitting in the leafy courtyard garden in the evening, this is also a lovely spot for lunch when umbrellas provide shade and fans offer some cool relief from the heat. It’s a fun option for families with the vibrant art by kids on the walls and bean bags on the lawn.

Marum is a hospitality training restaurant started by parent NGO Friends International but operated by their Kaliyan Mith organisation, group of restaurants that form the Tree Alliance. The NGO was ground breaking when they launched the first Friends Restaurant in Phnom Penh and have been highly influential, providing an excellent model for hospitality training-focused social enterprises in Cambodia, regionally, and around the world.

The menu here offers a combination of creative, contemporary Cambodian and pan-Asian tapas – both finger-food and appetisers – as well as more traditional, generously sized mains. Once again, everything is made for sharing. The ‘tapas’ are continually changing as the trainee chefs experiment with new dishes, the popular dishes staying on the menu, while the not-so-well-received are struck off.

When we last dined the menu include such oddities as lotus, jackfruit and coriander hummus with a toasted baguette, along with delicious starters such as the pumpkin and roast duck croquettes with citrus hoisin sauce, and BBQ pork ribs with apple and radish salad.

Marum is the spot for you to be a bit adventurous. Try the stir-fried red ant salad with beef, lemongrass and chill; the crisp and creamy silk worms with spicy green mango salad; and the crocodile burger with Sriracha mayo. More traditional mains include kor ko, a hearty vegetable and fish stew.

The shy, sweet, and very earnest trainee students come from impoverished backgrounds in rural villages, and if it wasn’t for Marum probably wouldn’t have this opportunity. For most, this is the first time they have been in such a sophisticated environment, so do be sensitive to their limited experience, and be patient and helpful. If you feel there’s a misunderstanding, quietly clarify your order with the instructors, who are nearly always at their side.

Don’t miss the Frends’n’Stuff shop, which sells cute gifts and souvenirs, many made from recycled materials. Open for lunch and dinner.
Marum website

Mie Café (CLOSED)

Easily one of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants, Mie Café is not a café at all. Indeed, it’s perhaps Siem Reap’s most romantic Cambodian restaurant. (Couples should book a table on the upstairs balcony, while foodies should sit downstairs by the open kitchen.) Set in a splendid, renovated, traditional Khmer timber house, beautifully illuminated at night, there’s a lush garden with serene ponds where the chef grows his own herbs.

This lovely restaurant is owned by Cambodian chef Pola Siv, a capable and talented young chef who worked at five star hotels on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Caribbean to save money to put himself through culinary school in Switzerland, after which he trained in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Expect modern Cambodian-European fusion, with Cambodian dishes prepared using classical French technique or presented in a modern style, reflecting the chef’s fine dining experience, or European dishes with a Cambodian touch. Sometimes this can be as simple as a chocolate molten lava cake with a hint of spice.

Don’t even think about ordering anything but the inventive 5-course gourmet menu which changes daily according to the availability of produce, although there are sample menus on their website. Hope it kicks off with the Cambodian scallops with a fresh seaweed salad with young palm fruit heart, turmeric and sesame oil vinaigrette, followed by the Carpaccio of fresh Snakehead fish fillet in fresh citrus juice with Cambodian spices, grapefruit and hazelnut oil dressing with poached egg tempura.

One of my favourite dishes is the Grilled beef Laap with red ant eggs, which is essentially a steak tartare made with chopped grilled medium rare beef marinated with local herbs, chilli, roasted sticky rice flour, tomato, and balsamic vinegar, served with long bean salad and topped with with a fine sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Of the a la carte menu, one of the finest dishes I’ve sampled has been a delicious pan-fried Tonle Sap fish fillet with wild herbs, tamarind and ginger, and a tender duck breast cooked in a rich Cambodian vegetable stew (samlor kor ko).

Take a tuk tuk from the centre. It’s on Phum Treng Khum, between the Temple Road (Charles de Gaulle) and River Road. Open Wednesday to Monday, lunch and dinner. Book ahead. This is a restaurant you don’t want to miss dining at during your Siem Reap sojourn.
www.miecafe-siemreap.com

Chong Phov Khmer Restaurant (CLOSED)

An up-styled version of the humble neighbourhood restaurants with charming decorative touches such as graters for lamp shades, this impressive newcomer, which opened in July 2016, is easily one of the best Siem Reap Cambodian restaurants for authentic local Cambodian food. There’s no air-conditioning, but there are plenty of ceiling fans, and one side of the restaurant is open to the elements, allowing a cooling breeze to waft through.

The menu is a manageable length compared to many local Cambodian restaurants, with around 7-8 choices in each category of appetiser, soup, roast/grill, main, and sides. If you really want to go local, order one of each. The prices are ridiculously cheap for the quality, from US$1.50-$10, with the average dish costing $3.75. Fortunately, there are no Western dishes on the menu, which shows that the chef is taking his Cambodian food seriously. The drinks list is short with a handful of beers and a couple of bottles of wine but don’t let that deter you.

What you’re here for is the genuine Cambodian food. There’s a wonderful prahok k’tis, a super-tasty char kroeung with frog’s legs, a rich Saraman curry, and one of the most heavenly soups I’ve ever eaten in Cambodia, a samlor machou kroeung sachko (a spicy sour beef soup). There’s a reason why, or rather two.

Owner-chef Eng Im was executive chef at Malis, and prior to that cooked at Shinta Mani, before going out on his own. There is also another notable chef working alongside him in the compact kitchen. A cook for 15 years, Chef Eng’s aunt was a village cook, which meant she cooked at the pagoda and took charge of feasts for ceremonies, weddings and funerals, a respected position in Cambodia, and also worked at Banteay Srey Restaurant in Siem Reap for many years. It’s not on Trip Advisor, however, if you asked any well-to-do local what the best Cambodian restaurant in Siem Reap was, that would be the one they named.

It’s this combination of two culinary talents, from two very different experiences, that has resulted in such delicious food with an authenticity and depth of flavour that you won’t find on many restaurants listed on Trip Advisor.
Sala Lodges Road, Wat Damnak Village, Sangkat Salakamreuk, Siem Reap, 012 462 807 / 092 739 906

Keen to learn about Cambodian cuisine and planning a  trip to Cambodia? I can craft you a bespoke itinerary. Need accommodation in Cambodia? See our recommended hotels in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Battambang.