5 Best Restaurants in Cambodia

Set in a traditional-style Khmer wooden house with French colonial tiles, floor-to-ceiling windows looking onto a garden with herb boxes, and smooth jazz music in the background, Lum Orng (which means “pollen” in Khmer) is renowned for its innovative contemporary Cambodian cuisine. This casually elegant fine diner, in a village on the edge of town, is owned and helmed by one of Cambodia’s most creative chefs, Sothea Seng, who can be found most nights cooking at his intimate Chef’s Table upstairs. The dishes reinterpret Cambodian specialties, both preserving and reinventing them, using the freshest of organic local produce grown in the gardens around the restaurant and at the chef’s farm out near Banteay Srei.

Cuisine Wat Damnak offers a unique journey for the taste buds with its five- or six-course set menus (changing every fortnight). Beyond the sophisticated indoor sala and romantic garden, the concept here is Cambodian food remodeled into creative modern dishes by French chef Joannes Riviere, whose knowledge of the area allows him to source rare ingredients such as shellfish unique to the Mekong and Tonle Sap lake, fresh lotus seeds, wild lily stems, and edible flowers.

If you're interested in learning more about Riviere's culinary philosophy and techniques, you can buy a copy of his cookbook here.

Built in 1903, Chinese House (home to Tepui) is among the few colonial houses in Phnom Penh that remains in its original state. An impressive painting of a Chinese girl with ruby-red lips is the centerpiece in this sophisticated restaurant serving South American and Asian-fusion dishes, with specialties such as corn empanadas filled with beef picadillo and goat cheese cream, or red tuna tartare with wasabi emulsion. There is a lively bar on the ground floor.

In the elegant dining rooms of this beautifully restored 1880s Indochina Bank Building, next to the historic main post office, you can dine on classical French cuisine. Service is endearingly old-fashioned, and there are courtyard tables which are very pleasant on a cool breezy evening.

This elegant French fine dining restaurant is a longtime Phnom Penh favorite with Cambodia's elite, affluent expats, diplomats, and gastronomes. The capital's best wine cellar, premium-quality ingredients such as French oysters and Tasmanian Cape Grim beef cooked to perfection, and faultless service has made Topaz one of the most feted spots to dine in the city. It's a great choice for a final vacation meal.