The restaurants in Angkor are plentiful and varied - and eating out in Siem Reap can be a real treasure!

Our Siem Reap restaurant guide below will provide you with information about eating out in Siem Reap, as well as some suggested places to dine. We also have some general information and suggestions on eating out in Cambodia. Before ending your day with a nice meal, do some shopping in Siem Reap to find the perfect gift!

Food & Cuisine in Siem Reap

Siem Reap offers an amazing range of cuisines for so small a city – from the local Khmer food to various types of European and Asian cuisine, such as Thai, Indian, Sri Lankan, Malay, Italian, French, German, Swiss, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese.

With so much of variety, both in cuisine and restaurant ambience, you will definitely find one that fits both your palate and pocket. If you are tired after a hectic day of sight seeing, order fried rice or some such simple fare that can be cooked up by the guest house restaurant easily. For a small place like Siem Reap, restaurants are seldom more than a five minute ‘tuk-tuk’ ride away. While in town, be sure to have at least one dinner to the accompaniment of a traditional Apsara dance performance. Angkor Village Hotel, Raffles Grand d'Angkor and Soria Moria Boutique Hotel all have scheduled performances and places like Kulen II and Jasmine Angkor are popular with tour groups.

Coming all the way to Cambodia and Siem Reap, it makes sense to have Khmer food. Some places, such as Le Tigre de Papier, offer Cambodian cooking classes where you actually go with an instructor to the market and get the ingredients to make the food that you have chosen from the menu. However, for those who would like to have something more westernised, you will find a wide selection of hamburgers, pizzas, and rest, but,.as at yet, there are no McDonalds or Burger Kings in Cambodia You can try out the Amok and Khmer curries.

Many of the upper end hotel restaurants offer a buffet with a classical Khmer dance performance and some offer other types of cultural shows. There are many good food stalls and lower end, local restaurants where meals range between $1 and $5. Tipping is not customary in most restaurants but always appreciated as local salaries are very low. This is excluding upscale restaurants and those in hotels where it is added on to the bill. Note that some restaurants are open very early to accommodate those who want to catch Angkor Wat at sunrise. The Paper Tiger is open 24/7 and can offer pizzas, breakfasts and ready-made lunchboxes anytime you like.

To find the Karaoke style restaurants that offer true Khmer food, ask your ‘moto’ or ‘tuk-tuk’ driver, who would be glad to take you to these back streets and also accompany you inside should you feel out of place. Make sure you get a table slightly removed from the loudspeakers.

Though most menus will not be in English, the restaurant staff will help you make your choice. However, it is always good to know a few trusted and tried out delicacies that should be in your must have list. If you want to try out your hand at cooking a beef barbeque, go for phnom pleurng. The trei bung gancheyt is a fish dish, where the whole fish is served bubbling in a sauce that has a tasty peanutty flavour and is accompanied by green vegetables.

For the budget travellers the choice is still plentiful with many different types of fried rice and noodles - filling and easy on the pocket , available at a whole lot of stalls lining a street to the west of Pub Street - just ask for the 'Rice corner'. These stalls are fairly clean and popular with the locals. However, check out the hygiene factor if you plan to have local Khmer food from the market.

To the north of the Old Market area, you will find Bar Street or Pub Street as it's also called. Most pubs and bars have happy hours (usually before 8 pm), where drinks cost less than the usual US$1-2 and you can also get Angkor draft for US$ 0.50.

There are some nice eateries here too that won’t burn a hole in your pocket. The Old Market area also has restaurants that offer a range of wonderful salads, pastas, sandwiches, pizzas and burgers. For all of you who have travelled across the world lured by its fame, Siem Reap offers the ultimate Happy Herbs Pizza and their little cousin, Ecstatic pizza. These pizzas laced with 'happy herbs' (yes, it's true, they actually are...) are available depending on the vigilance of the police watch on any given day. Make sure you know what you’re doing before you try them, lest you get too happy!

Lot of restaurants open quite early for travellers who like to get a sunrise view of Angkor Wat.