Best Khmer Restaurants in Siem Reap: From Street Stalls to Fine Dining (2026)

The best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap are spread across four price levels that have almost nothing in common, and the mistake is comparing them. A $1.50 plate of pork and rice at the Old Market at 7:00 a.m. and a $66 seasonal chef’s menu on Street 5 are both Khmer food. They answer different questions, and the right question is which level fits the meal, not which restaurant wins.

Most lists of Khmer restaurants rank by review count, mix in Pub Street kitchens that cook Khmer dishes for a visitor’s palate, and include places that closed or moved after 2020. They rarely say what to order, which day the kitchen closes or whether the price on the menu includes tax. This guide sorts the kitchens into market stalls, everyday restaurants, classic dining rooms, garden kitchens on the Wat Bo side and tasting menus, and judges each by how close its cooking is to what a Cambodian family would recognize. The Siem Reap food guide covers the cuisine and its markets in full.

Prices, hours and transport times below were checked against restaurant websites, menus and official sources in October 2026.

Cooked for Visitors Versus Cooked for Cambodians

The distinction that matters is not price but palate. A kitchen cooking for passing visitors sweetens the amok, thickens the curry, drops the prahok and moves the sour notes into the background. A kitchen cooking for Cambodians, or for visitors who want the real register, keeps the tamarind, the fermented fish and the bitterness of samlor korko, and serves chili on the side for the table to add.

The test is simple. Order a soup. If the menu has samlor korko or a sour fish soup and the kitchen cooks it as a soup rather than a curry, the rest of the menu is likely to be honest. If the only soups are tom yum and pumpkin, the kitchen is cooking for someone else. The guide to Khmer dishes to try explains what each dish should taste like.

The second test is timing. Khmer breakfast exists from about 6:00 to 9:00 a.m., and the best Khmer food in town at the lowest price is served in those three hours. Most visitors are at a temple or a buffet.

Market Stalls and Street Food

The cheapest Khmer food is also the most Cambodian. These are not restaurants, and they need no booking. The street food guide names individual carts.

Psar Chas food counters

The honest verdict: the easiest place in the center to eat what Siem Reap eats for breakfast. The food section in the middle of the Old Market, where produce meets the clothing aisles, sells bai sach chrouk, kuy teav, num banh chok and sweets on stools at a counter. Plates cost $1 to $2 according to a food guide updated in October 2026. The wet market is busy from about 6:00 a.m. and the cooked food is best before 9:00 a.m. It is two minutes on foot from Pub Street. The limitation: prices are rarely posted, so ask first.

Psar Leu

The honest verdict: the town’s real food market, for num banh chok among traders. On National Road 6, east of the center, open from 3:00 to 4:00 a.m., a $4 to $6 return tuk-tuk. Go before 8:00 a.m. The limitation: it is a wet market, with fish cleaned on the floor, and not for a weak stomach.

Road 60 Night Market

The honest verdict: the evening food market built for Cambodian families. From about 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., near the Angkor Enterprise ticket office, about $3 by tuk-tuk from Pub Street, with beef skewers, grilled chicken and fish, noodle soups and fried insects, eaten on mats. The limitation: prices are not posted in English and the strip is long, so point and ask.

Everyday Khmer Kitchens

These are sit-down restaurants that cook the classics without ceremony. They are listed by price, lowest first, with the unpublished prices last in alphabetical order. Three of them are training restaurants, explained in the social enterprises guide.

Khmer Family Restaurant

The honest verdict: a locally owned Pub Street kitchen for Khmer food without leaving the street. Locally owned, with a picture menu and amok and lok lak at $4 to $7, and tables full of families before 7:00 p.m. The limitation: it cooks for a tourist palate, so do not take it as the measure of the cuisine.

Haven

The honest verdict: a training restaurant serving Khmer classics with VAT included in the price. On Chocolate Road in Sala Kamreuk, training young adults from orphanages and disadvantaged backgrounds. Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., kitchen until 9:30 p.m., closed Mondays and during Pchum Ben. The October 2026 menu lists Khmer amok at $7.50, lok lak at $8 and other mains at $7.25 to $9.50, VAT included. Book a few days ahead in high season. The limitation: the Khmer dishes are the safe classics, and the wider menu leans international.

F3

The honest verdict: the Friends-International training restaurant that replaced Marum, for a Khmer dinner that funds vocational training. It reopened in October 2024 in Phum Slor Kram near Wat Polanka, about 1 km from Pub Street, with a nail bar and a shop. Current listings give Monday to Saturday 5:00 to 9:30 p.m. The limitation: the Friends-International website still shows older hours, so confirm the day before.

Spoons

The honest verdict: a good-value Khmer lunch in an open bamboo pavilion. On Pave Road in Wat Damnak village, run by SPOONS Cambodia, which trains young people from underserved communities and says all profits go to the program. Open daily 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with a new Khmer menu posted in October 2026 and no prices given here. The limitation: service by students in training runs slowly, and the pavilion is hot at midday from March to May.

Classic Dining Rooms on the Riverside

The west bank of the river north of the Old Market holds the restaurants that cook the full classical repertoire in proper dining rooms, 5 to 10 minutes on foot from Pub Street. They are listed by main-course price, lowest first. The riverside walk passes both.

Chanrey Tree

The honest verdict: the classic dishes on a published menu in a riverside dining room. On Pokambor Avenue in Mondul 1 village. Open daily 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Fish amok $10.50, beef lok lak $11.50, prahok ktis $10.50, Korko Soup $9.50, salads from $6.90, plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. Order korko, prahok ktis, amok and a salad for two, about $43 with service and tax. A riverside table in December and January needs a booking. The limitation: the sour and fermented flavors are dialed down from home cooking.

Malis

The honest verdict: a large riverside restaurant from chef Luu Meng, with tax and service included in the price. The Siem Reap restaurant of chef Luu Meng on Pokambor Avenue, in a modern building with a garden courtyard, open daily 11:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The March 2026 menu lists starters at $6 to $13, soups at $9 to $17 and mains at $11 to $38, including smoked free-range duck at $24 and red snapper with sondan sauce at $13, with tax and service included. The limitation: it is a large operation that feeds tour groups, and the Malis free-flow breakfast belongs to the Phnom Penh branch.

Wat Bo: Garden Kitchens Across the River

Across the Old Market bridge, 5 to 10 minutes on foot from Pub Street, the Wat Bo side has Khmer kitchens in wooden houses and gardens. They are listed by price, lowest first, with the unpublished prices last. The Wat Bo area guide walks the streets.

Banlle

The honest verdict: vegan Khmer cooking in a wooden house, at low prices. Banlle means vegetable in Khmer. A vegan restaurant with a vegetarian section, run by chef Pola Siv in a restored two-story wooden house on Street 26, about 50 meters from the river, with a garden and a fan-cooled upstairs terrace. Lunch 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., dinner 6:00 to 9:15 p.m. last seating, Wednesday to Monday. Closed Tuesdays and from April 14 to 24 every year. Banlle says its produce comes from its own garden and nearby organic farms. Prices are not published, and a review updated in August 2026 puts most dishes at $2 to $4. The limitation: tables are held for only 20 minutes, and there is no prahok or pork.

Pinak Pou

The honest verdict: family-recipe Khmer cooking with forest ingredients, at published prices. Chef Mork Mengly opened his first restaurant in 2017 and now cooks as Pinak Pou, with family recipes, green duck curry, red ant salad and an attached cooking school. In 2025 he presented a tour of Cambodia’s regions served on a banana leaf. The website, updated in 2026, gives daily hours of 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and dishes at $4.98 to $9.88. It also gives two addresses, Wat Bo Street 25 and Ah Leah Road in Wat Damnak. The limitation: confirm which address is serving on the day, and the forest ingredients are not for everyone.

Aaraama Restaurant

The honest verdict: a hotel restaurant beside ponds, with no published prices. Aaraama is the restaurant of a boutique hotel on Street 26 off Wat Bo Road, an open-air pavilion beside the hotel’s ponds. The hotel describes chef Touch Savon’s menu as traditional Khmer dishes to share, following the eras of Khmer cooking, with locally sourced ingredients. The hotel’s website lists it as open daily from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., and states that it is open to visitors not staying at the hotel. The limitation: it does not publish menu prices online, so the bill is unknown until you sit down, and a hotel dining room is a quieter, less local room than Banlle or Pinak Pou.

Tasting Menus

Four kitchens serve Khmer food as a set menu of several courses. They are listed by menu price, lowest first, with the unpriced menu last. All need booking from November to March. The fine dining guide compares length, dress and pairings.

Lum Orng

The honest verdict: a farm-to-table tasting menu in a village garden. Chef Sothea Seng opened Lum Orng, which means pollen, in 2019 in Thlok Ondong village, Slorkram, with its own garden. Lunch 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. and dinner 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. daily. Three seven-course menus to share, including a vegan one and a Royal Khmer one, from $32. The limitation: it is the farthest kitchen in this guide from the center, 10 to 20 minutes by tuk-tuk, and the village road is muddy in the rainy season.

Cuisine Wat Damnak

The honest verdict: a seasonal tasting menu built on Cambodian produce. Chef Joannès Rivière and Nguon Vengchhay run a seasonal menu in a wooden house in Wat Damnak village, between Psa Dey Hoy market and Angkor High School. Dinner Monday to Saturday from 6:30 p.m., last orders 9:00 p.m. The menu is $45, or $38 vegetarian, plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. Children under 12 are not admitted. Cash or Visa and Mastercard. The limitation: it is a French chef’s reading of Cambodian produce rather than Khmer home cooking, and it closes on Sundays.

Embassy

The honest verdict: the tasting menu for Khmer home cooking reworked by Cambodian chefs. On Corner Street 5 in Mondul 1, opened in 2014 with an all-female kitchen led by chef Kimsan Pol, president of the Cambodia Chefs Association for 2024 to 2027. The seasonal chef’s menu is $66, or $57 vegetarian, plus 10 percent VAT, with wine pairings from $48. Dinner daily 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. Lunch is a $36 menu, daily 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The limitation: it is the most expensive meal in this guide, and a long evening after a 5:00 a.m. temple start.

Mahob Khmer Cuisine

The honest verdict: modern Khmer cooking with clear roots, chef Sothea Seng’s earlier restaurant. In a wooden house at #137 Traing Village, Slorkram. Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. daily. The menu includes braised river fish with palm sugar and lotus root and lemongrass beef on a hot stone, published without prices. The limitation: it leans toward refined classics rather than the sour and fermented dishes of village cooking.

By Situation

You have one Khmer dinner

Chanrey Tree, ordering a soup, a dip, an amok and a salad for two, about $43 with service and tax.

You want one memorable meal

Cuisine Wat Damnak at $45 or Embassy at $66, booked days ahead. Lum Orng at $32 if lunch suits better than dinner.

You are staying in Wat Bo and want to walk

Banlle for vegan cooking, Pinak Pou for family recipes if it is serving at Street 25, and Aaraama Restaurant for a hotel garden setting. All three are on or near Street 26.

You are on a tight budget

Psar Chas at breakfast, Haven or Spoons at lunch, Road 60 at dinner. The daily budget guide builds the day.

You are traveling with children

Haven, Chanrey Tree and Malis take children and have lok lak. Cuisine Wat Damnak does not admit children under 12. The Siem Reap with kids guide covers the rest.

You want to cook it at home

A morning class with a market visit, listed at $26 to $36 a person on booking platforms in October 2026. Mahob, Lum Orng and Pinak Pou run their own classes without publishing a price. The cooking classes comparison sets them side by side.

What It Actually Costs

Every restaurant takes US dollars, and change under $1 comes back in riel at about 4,000 to the dollar. Check whether menu prices include tax. Rows run from cheapest to most expensive, with unpublished prices last.

Meal	Price	Included	Not included
Psar Chas breakfast plate	$1 to $2	Pork, rice, pickles, broth	Drink
Road 60 street dish	$1 to $4	One dish	Tuk-tuk, about $3 each way
Khmer Family Restaurant main	$4 to $7	One dish	Drinks
Haven main	$7.25 to $9.50	10% VAT	Drinks
Chanrey Tree, four dishes for two	About $43	Service and tax	Rice, drinks
Malis main	$11 to $38	Tax and service	Drinks
Lum Orng tasting menu	From $32	Seven courses	Drinks, tax
Cuisine Wat Damnak	$45, or $38 vegetarian	Full menu	5% service, 10% tax, drinks
Embassy chef’s menu	$66, or $57 vegetarian	Full menu	10% VAT, pairings from $48
Aaraama Restaurant	Not published	Not published	Ask when booking

The tipping guide covers service in restaurants. Stalls expect no tip.

What Other Guides Get Wrong

1. Ranking Pub Street kitchens as Khmer restaurants. They cook Khmer dishes for a visitor’s palate. The riverside and Wat Bo are 5 to 10 minutes away.
2. Ignoring breakfast. The cheapest and most Cambodian meals in town are served from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. at Psar Chas and Psar Leu.
3. Listing restaurants that moved or closed. Pinak Pou has changed name and address since 2017, Marum became F3, and older lists still carry kitchens that have not traded since 2020.
4. Treating every tasting menu as the same thing. Embassy is Cambodian chefs reworking home cooking, Cuisine Wat Damnak is a French chef reading Cambodian produce, Lum Orng is farm-to-table. Choose the idea, not the price.
5. Quoting prices without the tax. Chanrey Tree and Cuisine Wat Damnak add service and 10 percent tax to menu prices, Haven and Malis include it. The difference on a dinner for two is $5 to $15.
6. Forgetting closing days. Cuisine Wat Damnak closes Sundays, Haven Mondays, Banlle Tuesdays and over Khmer New Year.

Addresses, hours, prices and transport times checked against operator websites and official sources in October 2026. Hours change seasonally and prices change often. Confirm anything time-critical with the operator.

Where to Go Next

The Siem Reap food guide places every kitchen here in its neighborhood and adds the markets and classes. For non-Khmer tables, the best restaurants by neighborhood covers the rest, and the vegetarian and vegan guide explains how to order around fish sauce. For where a long Khmer dinner fits around the temples, the 3-day itinerary has the timings.