Khmer Dishes to Try in Siem Reap: Amok, Lok Lak, Kuy Teav and the Ones Tourists Skip (2026)

The Khmer dishes worth ordering in Siem Reap are not the ones on the posters. Fish amok and lok lak are real dishes, and both are worth eating once, but they are the celebration food and the easy food. What Siem Reap eats every day is a sour soup with rice, grilled pork at dawn and noodles in a pork broth, and most visitors never taste any of them.

Lists of dishes to try usually stop at ten names and a photo each. They rarely say what a good version tastes like, what time of day it exists, or where in town it is actually cooked. A kuy teav at 1:00 p.m. is a different and worse dish from the same bowl at 7:00 a.m., and an amok served as a runny yellow curry in a coconut shell is the tourist version of something that should hold its shape on a spoon. This guide takes twenty dishes in the order a day in Siem Reap meets them, and names a place for each. The broader Siem Reap food guide sets out the restaurants by neighborhood.

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

Khmer Food Runs on Sour, Fermented and Fresh, Not Hot

The trap is ordering Khmer food as if it were Thai food. Thai cooking builds heat and sweetness. Khmer cooking builds sourness and depth. The sour side is tamarind, lime, green mango, unripe fruit and sour leaves. The deep side is prahok, the fermented fish paste of the Tonle Sap, and kroeung, a pounded paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, kaffir lime and garlic that sits under half the curries in the country. Chili is a condiment, served in a dish of fish sauce and lime on the side.

The second trap is ordering one main course each. A Cambodian meal is shared: a plate of rice per person, and for the table a soup, something grilled or fried, a salad or a dip with raw vegetables, and perhaps a curry. Four people who each order amok get four amoks and no soup. The better order for two is one soup, one salad, one amok or curry and one grilled dish.

The third trap is timing. Breakfast dishes are gone by 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. Street grills start around 4:00 p.m. Most kitchens outside the Pub Street area stop taking orders around 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. A day planned around the temples, which open at 5:00 a.m., fits this rhythm well: a market breakfast on the way back, a long lunch in the heat, an early dinner.

Breakfast: The Dishes That Disappear by 9 a.m.

Breakfast is when Khmer food is cheapest and best, and when most visitors are either at a temple or at a hotel buffet. The stalls inside Psar Chas, the Old Market, two minutes from Pub Street, serve the first three dishes below. The breakfast and brunch guide covers the cafés.

Bai sach chrouk

The honest verdict: the best $2 in Siem Reap. Thin pork slices marinated in coconut milk, garlic and palm sugar, grilled over charcoal and laid on broken rice with pickled cucumber and carrot, a small bowl of clear broth and sometimes a fried egg. Stall prices are not posted, and a food guide updated in October 2026 puts a plate at $1 to $2. The stall in the middle of Psar Chas, where the food section meets the clothing aisles, is the easiest to find. The limitation: it is a morning dish, and after 9:00 a.m. the grills go cold.

Kuy teav

The honest verdict: the dish that tells you whether a stall is good, because the broth cannot hide. A clear pork-bone broth over rice noodles, with sliced pork, beef or meatballs, seasoned at the table with lime, chili, garlic oil, bean sprouts and herbs. About $2 a bowl at a stall, served from about 6:00 a.m. Por Noodle Soup on 7 Makara Road in Wat Bo is a noodle breakfast stop on that side of the river. The limitation: after 10:00 a.m. most broths have been sitting, and the dish is not worth eating.

Num banh chok

The honest verdict: the national breakfast, and the one most foreigners have never heard of. Fresh, lightly fermented rice noodles served at room temperature under a green-yellow fish curry of kroeung and coconut milk, topped with raw cucumber, banana flower, long beans, mint and basil. It is sold by women carrying baskets, at market counters, and in quantity at Psar Leu on National Road 6, which opens at 3:00 to 4:00 a.m., a $4 to $6 return tuk-tuk from the center. The limitation: the noodles are not hot, which disappoints people expecting soup, and the sellers are gone by mid-morning.

Borbor

Rice porridge, the Cambodian congee, cooked with fish or chicken and finished with fried garlic, bean sprouts, scallion and a squeeze of lime. It is what a Cambodian eats on a day the stomach is unsure, which makes it the right breakfast on day two of a trip. It is sold at the same market counters as kuy teav, with no published price, inside the $1 to $4 range of a basic street meal. The limitation: it is plain by design, and anyone after a big flavor should order bai sach chrouk instead.

The Restaurant Classics: Amok, Lok Lak and the Curries

These are the dishes every menu in Siem Reap carries, and the ones most often cooked down to a visitor’s palate. The riverside restaurants cook them properly, and the best Khmer restaurants guide ranks the kitchens.

Fish amok

The honest verdict: worth ordering once, from a kitchen that steams it. Freshwater fish, usually snakehead or catfish, folded into kroeung, coconut cream and egg, then steamed in a banana-leaf cup until it sets into a soft mousse. Chanrey Tree on Pokambor Avenue lists it at $10.50 plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. Haven on Chocolate Road lists Khmer amok at $7.50 with tax included. Aaraama, the restaurant of Angkor Village Hotel on Street 26 in Wat Bo, serves Khmer dishes to share on a menu built around the eras of Khmer cooking, open to non-guests, but does not publish prices online. The limitation: it is a celebration dish, and the version on most Pub Street menus is a yellow curry with chunks of fish floating in it.

Beef lok lak

The honest verdict: the easy dish, and the one where the dipping sauce matters more than the beef. Cubes of beef stir-fried in a dark, slightly sweet sauce, served on lettuce, tomato and onion, with lime juice and Kampot black pepper mixed at the table. Chanrey Tree lists beef or fish lok lak at $11.50 plus tax, Haven at $8. A fried egg on top and a plate of rice is the common format. The limitation: it is the dish that tells you least about Khmer cooking, which is why it is on every menu.

Samlor kari

A red curry of chicken, sweet potato, eggplant and long beans in coconut milk, eaten with rice or with a baguette for dipping. It is the curry of weddings, ceremonies and Khmer New Year, milder and thinner than a Thai red curry. Most sit-down Khmer restaurants in town carry a version. The limitation: in restaurants for visitors it is often thickened and sweetened, so judge it by whether the broth is light enough to soak into the bread.

Malis smoked duck and red snapper with sondan

Two dishes from the March 2026 menu at Malis, the riverside restaurant of chef Luu Meng on Pokambor Avenue, open daily 11:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Smoked free-range duck is $24 and red snapper with sondan sauce $13, tax and service included. They show what Khmer cooking looks like when a chef with a national reputation refines it. The limitation: this is restaurant food at restaurant prices, not what a Siem Reap family eats on a Tuesday.

The Everyday Table: Soups, Dips and Salads

This is the half of Khmer food that visitors skip and that Cambodians eat every day. If one meal in Siem Reap is going to include a soup and a dip, it should be a lunch on the riverside or in Wat Bo.

Samlor korko

The honest verdict: the closest thing to a national dish in the everyday sense, and the one to order alongside the amok. The stirred soup: green papaya, green jackfruit, pumpkin, long beans, eggplant and leaves, stirred in a broth thickened with toasted ground rice and flavored with kroeung and prahok, with fish or pork. It is bitter, sour and earthy. Chanrey Tree lists it as Korko Soup at $9.50 plus tax. The limitation: it divides visitors, so order it to share rather than as a main course.

Samlor machu

The sour soup, built on tamarind or sour fruit, with fish or pork, tomato, pineapple and a handful of herbs. It is the soup on the daily table, the one that sits next to the rice and a fried fish. Restaurants that cook for Cambodians as well as visitors always have one, usually unnamed in English as “sour soup”. The limitation: the sourness is the point, and a version cooked sweet for tourists has lost it.

Prahok ktis

The honest verdict: the gentlest way to taste prahok. The fermented fish paste is cooked down with minced pork, coconut cream, kroeung and pea eggplants into a thick dip, served with raw cucumber, cabbage, long beans and green eggplant. Chanrey Tree lists it as Prahok Ktish at $10.50 plus tax. It smells stronger than it tastes. The limitation: anyone who cannot eat fermented fish should skip it, and raw prahok in its market form is a step further.

Bok l’hong and the Khmer salads

Green papaya pounded with lime, fish sauce, chili, tomato and dried shrimp or crab, close to Thai som tam but sourer and often made with prahok. Khmer salads in general, of green mango, banana flower or pomelo with herbs, roasted peanuts and grilled meat or fish, are the fresh counterweight to every heavy dish on the table. Chanrey Tree lists salads from $6.90 plus tax. Banlle on Street 26 makes vegan ones from its own garden. The limitation: herbs and raw vegetables are the main risk for a sensitive stomach in the first days.

Street and Evening Food

Evening food happens on the street from about 4:00 p.m., when the heat drops. The street food guide names the carts and covers what is safe.

Sach ko ang and the Road 60 grills

The honest verdict: the evening meal Siem Reap families actually eat. Skewers of beef marinated in lemongrass and kroeung, grilled over charcoal, with grilled chicken, quail and fish beside them. The Road 60 night market, near the Angkor Enterprise ticket office, sets up from about 4:00 p.m. to about 11:00 p.m., a $3 tuk-tuk from Pub Street. Families sit on mats. The limitation: prices are not posted in English, and the strip is long and spread out, so point, ask the price, then order.

Trey ang

Whole river fish, often snakehead, grilled over charcoal, then pulled apart at the table and wrapped in lettuce and herbs with a dipping sauce of fish sauce, lime and chili or a tuk trey of fermented fish. It is the grilled dish in a shared Khmer meal. Road 60 has grilled fish stalls, and riverside restaurants carry it on their menus. The limitation: river fish has small bones, so eat it slowly.

Lort cha

Short, fat rice noodles stir-fried with egg, bean sprouts, chives and a sweet soy sauce, often with a fried egg on top. It is the snack sold on corners and carts in the afternoon and evening, within the $1 to $4 range of a basic street meal. The limitation: it is a snack, not a dinner, and quality varies from cart to cart.

Num pang

The Cambodian baguette, a legacy of the French period, split and filled with pâté, pickled papaya and carrot, cucumber, herbs and sometimes grilled pork. Carts sell it in the morning and evening. It is the easiest temple-day lunch to carry. The limitation: it is not a Khmer dish in origin, and bread from a cart at midday has been in the heat.

The Ones Tourists Skip

These are the dishes that make a Cambodian meal Cambodian, and the ones that visitors photograph rather than order.

Red ant salad and forest food

The honest verdict: worth trying once, cooked by someone who grew up eating it. Weaver ants and their eggs are a seasonal forest food in rural Cambodia, sour and crunchy, cooked with beef or in a salad with herbs. Pinak Pou, the restaurant of chef Mork Mengly, has served red ant salad and green duck curry on a menu built on family recipes. Its website gives daily hours of 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., dishes at $4.98 to $9.88, and two addresses, Ah Leah Road in Wat Damnak and Wat Bo Street 25. The limitation: confirm the address on the day, and ants are not for everyone.

Fried insects

Crickets, silkworms, water bugs and grasshoppers, deep-fried with garlic, chili and salt, sold by weight from carts on Road 60 and around the night markets. Cambodians eat them as a beer snack. Fried tarantulas come from Skuon, a town on the road to Phnom Penh, and are a novelty in Siem Reap rather than a local food. The limitation: a cart outside a bar sells to visitors at visitor prices, so buy on Road 60.

Kralan

Sticky rice with coconut milk, black beans and a little sugar, packed into a length of bamboo and roasted over embers for hours, then sold on roadsides. The seller splits the bamboo and you peel out a stick of rice. It is the snack on the road to Banteay Srei and the other temples north of town, covered in the Banteay Srei guide. The limitation: it is filling and plain, a snack for a long ride rather than a dish.

Num ansom and nom krok

Num ansom is sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf around pork and mung beans, or banana for the sweet version, eaten especially at Pchum Ben and Khmer New Year, and it travels well on a temple day. Nom krok is small rice-flour and coconut cakes cooked in a dimpled iron pan, crisp outside and soft inside, sold hot from carts. The limitation: both are sold by vendors who move, so they are found rather than visited.

Sweets, Coffee and Drinks

Khmer desserts lean on palm sugar, coconut cream and sticky rice: pumpkin custard steamed in the pumpkin, bananas in coconut milk, sweet sticky rice with mango in season from about March to May. The cooking schools teach a dessert as the third dish of a class, and the cooking classes comparison sets them side by side.

Khmer iced coffee

Dark-roasted coffee dripped through a cloth filter and poured over ice and sweetened condensed milk. It costs $0.75 to $1.50, or 3,000 to 6,000 riel, at a stall or cart. It is the drink after a temple morning. The limitation: it is very sweet, so ask for less milk.

Sugarcane juice and fresh coconut

Sugarcane is pressed to order on carts with a squeeze of kumquat or lime, and green coconuts are opened with a machete at fruit stalls and at the temple car parks. Both are cheap and safer than cut fruit that has sat in the sun. The limitation: ice in the sugarcane juice is factory-made and generally safe, but the press is worth a look before ordering.

By Situation

You have one meal to learn the cuisine

Chanrey Tree on the riverside, ordering samlor korko, prahok ktis, fish amok and a salad for two with rice. It covers the soup, the dip, the steamed dish and the fresh side in one meal, for about $43 with service and tax.

You want the cheapest real Khmer food

Psar Chas before 9:00 a.m. for bai sach chrouk and kuy teav, then Road 60 after 5:00 p.m. for skewers and grilled fish. Three meals cost under $10, and the daily budget guide shows how it fits a full day.

You are vegetarian or vegan

Banlle on Street 26 in Wat Bo, for vegan curries, salads and amok. Everywhere else, ask for no fish sauce and no prahok by name, since both sit inside dishes that look vegetable-only. The vegetarian and vegan guide lists safe orders.

You are traveling with children

Lok lak at Haven for $8, fried rice, lort cha and bai sach chrouk. Fresh spring rolls at Wild, three to a plate for $3.50 to $3.95, are an easy win. The Siem Reap with kids guide covers the rest of the day.

You want to try something difficult

Red ant salad at Pinak Pou, then raw prahok at a market stall if the cooked version went well, then fried insects on Road 60. Go in that order.

What It Actually Costs

Prices are in US dollars, which every restaurant and most stalls accept. Change under $1 comes back in riel, at about 4,000 riel to the dollar. Restaurants above stall level often add 10 percent tax and sometimes 5 percent service on top of menu prices.

Dish	Where	Price	Not included
Bai sach chrouk	Psar Chas stall	$1 to $2	Drink
Kuy teav	Noodle stall	About $2	Iced coffee
Khmer iced coffee	Stall or cart	$0.75 to $1.50	Nothing
Basic street dish	Road 60 or a cart	$1 to $4	Tuk-tuk, about $3 each way from Pub Street
Spring rolls, three	Wild	$3.50 to $3.95	Drinks
Fish amok	Haven	$7.50	Rice, drinks
Fish amok	Chanrey Tree	$10.50	5% service, 10% tax, rice
Korko soup	Chanrey Tree	$9.50	5% service, 10% tax
Red snapper with sondan	Malis	$13	Drinks
Four dishes for two	Chanrey Tree	About $43	Rice, drinks, tip

A traveler who eats breakfast at a market, lunch at a café and one sit-down Khmer dinner spends about $20 to $30 a day on food. Tipping is not expected at stalls, and the tipping guide covers restaurants.

What Other Guides Get Wrong

1. Calling amok the dish to try. It is a celebration dish. The everyday food, samlor korko, a sour soup and prahok ktis, says more about the cuisine, and a meal for two should include a soup.
2. Describing Khmer food as mild Thai food. It is sourer and more fermented, and the heat is on the side. A guide that calls amok “Cambodian curry” has described the tourist version.
3. Ignoring the clock. Kuy teav, bai sach chrouk and num banh chok are morning dishes. A list that recommends them without saying “before 9:00 a.m.” sends people to cold grills.
4. Listing fried tarantula as a Siem Reap food. The tarantulas come from Skuon, on the road to Phnom Penh. In Siem Reap they are sold to visitors as a dare.
5. Sending readers to Pub Street for these dishes. The Street 8 menus carry amok and lok lak cooked sweeter and milder than anywhere else in town. The guide to whether Pub Street is worth eating on names the exceptions. Khmer Family Restaurant on the street cooks amok and lok lak in the $4 to $7 range for a tourist palate, and it is the right choice there if you do not want to walk.
6. Forgetting that fish sauce is everywhere. A vegetable curry is rarely vegetarian. Prahok and fish sauce are the base, not a garnish.

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 dishes are only half the decision, and the Siem Reap food guide places every kitchen above in its neighborhood. The best restaurants in Siem Reap by neighborhood adds the non-Khmer tables, and the Siem Reap markets guide explains when Psar Chas and Psar Leu are worth the walk. For the morning that makes room for a market breakfast, the 3-day itinerary puts the temples first and the noodles straight after.