There are restaurants where you simply resign yourself to the wait, because you already know it’ll be worth it. I stood in line for more than 45 minutes before getting a table. Phnom Penh is tucked into Vancouver’s Chinatown, named after the Cambodian capital, a direct nod to its roots, even though the menu flirts just as much with neighboring Vietnam. Since opening in the late 1980s, the family-run restaurant has racked up the accolades, two Michelin Guide Bib Gourmands, several gold trophies at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, and, more recently, the titles of Best Restaurant in Chinatown/Strathcona and Best Chicken Wings in the city at the Georgia Straight’s Golden Plates Awards. The dining room itself is very plain, crammed with the kind of large round tables built for family meals rather than Instagram aesthetics.
The restaurant has never tried to open a second location to ease the crowds; the family behind it ran a Broadway branch for years before voluntarily closing it to focus on the one original spot. It’s a decision that almost goes against the grain, and it says a lot about their philosophy. The menu navigates skillfully between Cambodian and Vietnamese dishes, with prices that remain surprisingly reasonable given the restaurant’s reputation. I got out at around 30 dollars for a full meal, starting things off with a good pot of tea.
My experience at Phnom Penh
The first dish I try is the butter beef. It’s very sweet (a touch too sweet, honestly), almost disorienting at first, with thinly sliced raw beef topped with fresh cilantro and crushed peanuts. The meat is impeccably fresh, and the flavors explode on the palate like a kind of reinvented beef carpaccio.
Next, the dry soup kho arrives as the second course, like a small piece of theater. First, the dry noodles, carefully laid beneath layer upon layer of meat, offal, shredded pork, and shrimp. The whole thing comes across as a touch too bitter, likely from the sauce lightly coating the noodles. But it’s served alongside a bone broth, poured over or sipped on the side, which extends and softens the noodles’ flavor.
The meal’s overall harmony works, even if some dishes on their own felt a bit too intense at times, not quite in balance. Still, the restaurant delivers an experience that feels deeply true to Asian cuisine, at genuinely reasonable prices.
