For Good Food, Follow the French People French food, as is fitting for a former French colony, is well
represented in Phnom Penh. The French community likes to eat well and favored places are
seldom empty. However, do remember the Gallic tradition of closing on Mondays and plan to
eat elsewhere that day. Food, too, comes in French, with a $6 set lunch offering an appetizer or salad and main dish, such as filet of fish au Mekong with lime juice, or a main dish and dessert. Dinnertime favorites include pepper-sauce beef or beef with Roquefort cheese, pork escalopes and chicken spit-roasted or barbecued. If the Deauville offers Phnom Penh’s French community an opportunity to get together, Passe-Temps at the International Youth Club, just west of Wat Phnom on Street 96, offers the same group of friends a chance to socialize and, if they are members, to swim, too. Passe-Temps overlooks the club’s pool and is a cool place to hang out and soak up some rays. For something entirely different, quick-march down to La Rose. This is a sort of privatized officers’ mess for the French military and serves great food at good prices—arriving at your table swiftly and efficiently. Getting to La Rose is half the adventure. Go out along Pochentong and take a left at the traffic lights at Mao Tse Tung. Immediately turn right, behind the Ambassador Hotel, and go boldly forward until you get to the military checkpoint. From there, walk down until you see La Rose on your right—the sentry will be happy to point the way. A great lunch with salad, main course and a dessert such as chocolate crepes will cost about $5, although there is wine available, naturellement, which could tempt you to bump up the bill. The service is fine, the food good and how often do you lunch with the military, anyway? Named for the prettiest town in the Loire Valley. L’Amboise at Sofitel Cambodiana has become a standard with people who have something to celebrate and want to do so in style. The Loire duck farms are famous for their pate de fois gras and some of this flavor finds its way to l’Amboise to be served with wine sauce and grapes for $15. Wild mushroom soup at $9 and salmon tartare at $17.50 are other special dishes, but many diners head straight for the prime rib, a perennial favorite at $40 for two. The chef counsels people to leave room for his creme brulee, a sweet delight at $6. More fine French food is on the menu at La Royal’s Cafe Monivong. A buffet for $15 at lunchtime and $17 for dinner offers what the hotel staff freely admit is the best French food in Cambodia. The Royal’s catering staff’s pride is demonstrated in such specialties as fresh pasta with Khmer basil pesto, salmon in a myriad of different guises and a Caesar salad tossed to order for optimum crispness. The buffet selections are changed daily, to take advantage of what is fresh and fine, but two constants are the warm breads and a coconut creme cake, a signature dish for the restaurant. Quite close by, the Bayon Hotel at 2 Street 75 has consistently maintained a high standard of French cuisine for its faithful clientele. To make a Frenchman nostalgic, there is the basic croque monsieur for $4 but the menu is far from basic, with cassoulet d’escargot at $7, rabbit cooked in cider and Calvados at $10 and appetizers such as chicken liver eclairs and leek and bacon soup at around $5. Another longtime favorite that offers French food and wine to a loyal clientele is Atmosphere by the Independence Monument at 141 Norodom Boulevard, just south of Sihanouk. Atmosphere excels at, well, atmosphere. It’s cool and cozy and a favorite with people who appreciate an outstanding salad. The salads here come with chicken livers, gruyere cheese and crouton at $3.50 or with salmon, shrimps, potatoes and shallots at $5. If green stuff alone isn’t going to fill you up, there’s a seven-cheese platter with bread and salad for $4 or even venison filet for $6.50. But leave room for a mint chocolate mousse at $3. The owner of La Croisette at 241 Sisowath Quay views his menu as a work-in-progress. Main courses often come from his barbecue pit and meals are focused on the meat and fish side. Beef, pork, chicken and seasoned fish sizzle over the flames and there is a full-course dinner—owner Pierre Bitcheff calls it the menu gastronomique---of appetizer, buffet and dessert for $8.50. A set two-course lunch is $4.50. Competition is fierce along the river and Pierre stakes his claim in the fray by being open from 7 am to 11 pm. Breakfast by the river is a treat offered at many locations. Right across from Croisette at 23 Sisowath Quay is the long-established Rendezvous, also a terrace restaurant and also serving food with French aplomb. The breakfast specials are displayed boldly on a blackboard and a Saturday-morning meal of omelette and coffee, enjoyed over the weekend edition of The Cambodia Daily, perhaps, is a fine start to the day. Since it changed hands, the One Way Restaurant at 136 Norodom Boulevard has segued over from Khmer-and-French to mostly French cuisine. New owner Dimitri Pinaud does a daily special, such as rillettes maison for $3 or gratin Sovoyard of potatoes layered with bacon, topped with cheese and doused with white wine, at $6. And no roundup of French restaurants in Phnom Penh could ignore the grandpere of them all, La Paillotte at 234 Street 130-53, a Phnom Penh instituton for six years now. It’s opposite the main entrance of the Central Market, or Psar Thmei. The food is French, impeccable and not overpriced. La Paillotte takes credit cards, too. There’s a daily lunch special for $7, typically composed of
soup, main dish and dessert with a tot of liqueur to round things off. At dinner,
Paillotte offers such dishes as lamb stew with raisins or chicken breast with cognac, each
at around $7.50. Desserts include creme brulee at $2 and crepes Suzette for $4.
There’s a good wine cellar, too. |