Phnom Penh

Much like many of the restaurants we are visiting on our adventure, Phnom Penh Restaurant is nestled in the hustle and bustle of downtown Kingston.  Situated on King Street East, Phnom Penh is close to Springer Market Square, shops and other dining options.  In spite of the amount of "competition" close by (there are multiple restaurants within a 5 minute walk in any direction), Phnom Penh has been very successful.  Many of my friends frequent this restaurant, and I can certainly see why... Quite some time ago, I, too, used to visit Phnom Penh regularly, but since moving from downtown to west of the city, it has been quite some time since I have enjoyed a meal there, and I must say - it was a pleasure returning.

While not exceedingly "cozy", the restaurant itself is comfortable enough that you can sit for extended periods and enjoy your meal and the company that you are with (in our case, of course, this is never hard... we are fun people after all!). The walls of the restaurant are warm - painted red and adorned with beautiful pieces of art highlighting the restaurant's ethnic and cultural background. Named after the largest and capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh is very obviously proud of its roots - which is pretty cool in my books. Nothing like a place that really celebrates its heritage (instead of, perhaps, putting wooden cowboys up on the wall??) and gives you a sense of where inspiration is coming from.  The fact that I'm not well travelled also makes the artwork even more enjoyable as it gives me a sense of what other parts of the world are like... And, if Cambodia is anything like these pictures, then I am certainly inspired to go some day.

Phnom Penh presents a menu (found here) of cambodian and thai cuisine that is highlighted as "exotic and delightful". Lemon grass, coconut milk, curry, bamboo and galangal shoots, shrimp, peanut sauce... each of these authentic ingredients can be easily found on the menu - and for those like me who tend to eat foods from a very specific box - it is important not to turn a blind eye or "wimp out". As we say in the Coun'y (that's Prince Edward County for those of you who just cocked your eyebrow), just "give'r" - pick something, give it a shot, and I would almost guarantee that you will like it.  How am I so sure?  Because even this once-scared-of-anything-that-wasn't-a-club-sandwich eater has yet to try something at Phnom Penh that she didn't like... Further, in this visit, we started passing our plates around the table to share - which speaks to how close we are growing as friends and to how just plain awesome the food tastes.

Want to know what we had to eat?  Of course you do. 

Samer, Tonia and I were all tempted by the Cambodian spring rolls, and ordered some to start. (My apologies for the picture orientation... I can't figure out how to rotate it! Where's TheFamilyGeek when you need her?).  We were surprised to learn that chicken was the base for the rolls here (more often than not, we have found that it is pork).  They arrived quickly and hot, but weren't the best part of the meal by far. Now, this statement can be taken with a grain of salt, in my opinion, because we could easily be considered "spring roll snobs" - we eat them wherever they are offered and are very particular about ingredients, flavour, texture... Long story short, we have our favourites, and these didn't quite match up.  The rest of the meal, however - VERY happy with the food and presentation - colourful and flavourful. What more could we ask for? Not a whole lot!


Tonia ordered #5 - a chicken stir fry with lemon grass, peanut, onion, red and green pepper and green chilies with a side of rice.  Tonia opted to have the chef cook the dish without the chilies to reduce the heat.

Samer ordered special #2 - stir fried chicken with green and red peppers, onions, cashews and green chilies with oyster sauce and rice. Samer opted to keep the green chilies... which he then ended up picking out as it was just a little too hot.  Still - picking them out didn't take away from the experience and flavour of the dish.


Todd ordered #13 - chicken, mixed vegetables, green beans, jack fruit, and lemon grass paste with rice. (The mixed vegetables were accompanied by cauliflower - resulting in Todd exclaiming "I can't escape cauliflower!"). I had to google search jack fruit... if you are curious, too, click here.

I had #17 - a bowl filled with noodles, cucumber, carrot and lettuce shavings, BBQ pork and spring rolls (that's right - I had spring rolls as an appetizer and as part of my main course.  I told you - spring roll snobs.).  This dish comes with a bowl of peanut oyster sauce to pour over the top, however, I ordered it without the peanuts as I'm not a big fan.


And the result of each of these dishes? A darn good score.

Carrie - 4 forks. The spring rolls (darn) were... blah.  Nothing extraordinary. But #17 - delicious and filling. The BBQ pork was especially flavourful.

Tonia - 4 forks. The spring rolls didn't cut it, but the main dish was de-lish.

Todd - 4 forks. His plate was "monochromatic, but delicious!"

Samer - 4 forks. Outside of the entire fleet of green chilies, Samer enjoyed special #2 immensely.

Much like each of the other weeks, we sat and chatted for quite some time, and the waitress in the restaurant was flipping the sign in the door to "closed" before we stood to pay. A wonderful night as usual, and definitely deserving of the OVERALL SCORE of 4 forks! (Thankfully, the math was pretty simple this week!).

Next week, we are breaking from the usual downtown spots and heading to the west end to visit the Rose and Crown. I'm excited - it will be my first visit!!  Until then... happy eating :)