# Siem Reap Food Guide: Khmer Cooking, Where to Eat It by Neighborhood and What It Costs (2026) > Fish amok at Chanrey Tree costs $10.50, a Cuisine Wat Damnak tasting menu $45 and market pork and rice about $1.50. The Khmer dishes and where to eat them. Source: https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-food-guide/ · Angkor Tourism Guide · Published September 5, 2026 · Updated October 25, 2026 · Figures checked October 2026 ## At a Glance - Chanrey Tree on Pokambor Avenue lists fish amok at $10.50, beef lok lak at $11.50 and samlor korko at $9.50, plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax, and opens daily 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. - Cuisine Wat Damnak serves one tasting menu at $45, or $38 vegetarian, at dinner Monday to Saturday from 6:30 p.m., and does not admit children under 12. - Embassy, the all-female kitchen led by chef Kimsan Pol, serves a seasonal chef's menu at dinner for $66 a person, or $57 vegetarian, plus 10 percent VAT, and a $36 lunch menu. - Lum Orng, chef Sothea Seng's restaurant on Tramneak Street, opened in 2019 and lists seven-course tasting menus from $32, including a vegan one. - Banlle on Street 26 in Wat Bo is a vegan restaurant run by chef Pola Siv, open Wednesday to Monday, closed Tuesday and from April 14 to 24 every year. - Haven, the training restaurant on Chocolate Road, opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with the kitchen closing at 9:30 p.m. - Bai sach chrouk, grilled pork on broken rice, costs $1 to $2 at a market stall according to a food guide updated in October 2026, and is best before 9:00 a.m. at Psar Chas, the Old Market. - The Road 60 night market, near the Angkor Enterprise ticket office, sets up from about 4:00 p.m. and runs to about 11:00 p.m., a $3 tuk-tuk ride from Pub Street. - Sala Baï, the hotel school on Tonle Sap Road, serves breakfast daily 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and lunch Monday to Friday, and started a Tuesday-to-Saturday dinner service on October 20, 2026. Most visitors to Siem Reap leave without having eaten Khmer food, because they ate dinner on Pub Street every night. The restaurants on Street 8 sell a single long menu of amok, lok lak, pad thai, pho and pizza, and the Khmer dishes on it are the least Cambodian thing about the town. Cambodian cooking is not Thai cooking with less chili, and it is not Vietnamese cooking with more rice. It runs on fermented fish, sour soups, fresh herbs and a pounded paste called kroeung, and the places that cook it properly are ten minutes from Pub Street in three directions. The lists that come up first for "where to eat in Siem Reap" rank restaurants by review count, which rewards the places with the most passing trade. They rarely explain what to order, what a dish should taste like, or why a $1.50 plate of pork and rice at the Old Market at 7:00 a.m. teaches more than a $12 amok at 9:00 p.m. This guide does it the other way around: the dishes first, then the kitchens by neighborhood, then the markets, classes and breakfasts, with every price that could be traced. Each part links to the detailed guide that goes further. Prices, hours and transport times below were checked against restaurant websites, menus and official sources in October 2026. ## Khmer Food Is Not Thai Food With Less Chili The distinction matters because it changes what to order. Thai cooking builds heat and sweetness. Vietnamese cooking builds freshness and broth. Khmer cooking builds sourness and depth: tamarind, green mango, lime and the sour leaves of the countryside on one side, and prahok, the fermented fish paste of the Tonle Sap, on the other. Chili is served on the side, in a dish of fish sauce and lime, for each person to add. A Cambodian meal is shared. Everyone gets a plate of rice, and the table gets a soup, a grilled or fried fish, a stir-fry or a dip, and a basket of raw greens and herbs. Ordering one main course each, the way a Western menu invites, gives a meal of four amoks and no soup. The better order for two people is a soup, a salad, one curry or amok and one grilled dish, with rice. The second distinction is between everyday food and restaurant food. Fish amok, the dish on every poster, is a celebration dish. What people in Siem Reap eat every day is num banh chok for breakfast, a sour soup with rice at lunch and grilled meat on Road 60 in the evening. The restaurants below are chosen because they cook one or both of those registers honestly. Siem Reap also eats early. Market breakfasts start soon after 6:00 a.m., lunch is at 11:00 a.m., and most kitchens outside the Pub Street area stop taking orders at 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. ## The Dishes, and What Each One Should Taste Like The [guide to Khmer dishes to try](https://www.angkortourism.org/khmer-dishes-to-try/) covers twenty dishes. These seven are the ones worth ordering on a first trip, and the ones most often cooked badly for visitors. ### Fish amok (amok trey) Freshwater fish, usually snakehead or catfish from the Tonle Sap, folded into kroeung paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and kaffir lime, bound with coconut cream and egg and steamed until just set. The right texture is a soft mousse that holds its shape on a spoon, not a soup. The tell-tale of a tourist version is a yellow curry with chunks of fish floating in it, served in a coconut shell. Chanrey Tree lists it at $10.50 plus tax. ### Beef lok lak Cubes of beef stir-fried in a dark, slightly sweet sauce, served on lettuce, tomato and onion, with a dipping sauce of lime juice and Kampot black pepper. The pepper sauce is the dish. A good kitchen grinds it fresh. Lok lak is the easy dish for children and unadventurous eaters, which is why it is on every menu. Chanrey Tree lists beef or fish lok lak at $11.50 plus tax. ### Kuy teav A clear pork-bone broth over rice noodles, topped with sliced pork, beef or meatballs, then seasoned at the table with lime, chili, garlic oil and bean sprouts. It is a morning dish, eaten from 6:00 a.m. at street stalls and noodle shops, and it is often served with fried dough sticks to dip. A bowl at a stall costs about $2. After 10:00 a.m. the broth at most stalls has been sitting, and the dish is not worth eating. ### Samlor korko The stirred soup, and the closest thing Cambodia has to a national dish in the everyday sense. Green papaya, green jackfruit, pumpkin, long beans, eggplant and leaves are stirred together in a broth thickened with toasted ground rice, flavored with kroeung and prahok, with fish or pork. It is bitter, sour and earthy, and it divides visitors. Order it once in a place that takes it seriously. Chanrey Tree lists it as Korko Soup at $9.50 plus tax. ### Prahok ktis Prahok, the fermented fish paste, cooked down with minced pork, coconut cream, kroeung and pea eggplants into a thick dip, served with raw vegetables: cucumber, cabbage, long beans and green eggplant. It is the gentlest way to taste prahok, because the coconut softens it. It smells stronger than it tastes. Chanrey Tree lists it as Prahok Ktish at $10.50 plus tax. Anyone who likes it should then try prahok in its rawer forms at a market stall. ### Num banh chok Fresh, lightly fermented rice noodles under a green fish curry made with coconut milk and kroeung, topped with raw cucumber, banana flower, long beans and herbs. The Siem Reap version uses coconut milk and is yellow-green. It is the national breakfast, sold by women carrying baskets and at stalls in Psar Leu, and it is gone by mid-morning. The noodles are served at room temperature, which surprises people who expect hot noodles. ### Bai sach chrouk Thin slices of pork marinated in coconut milk, garlic and palm sugar, grilled over charcoal, laid over broken rice with pickled cucumber and carrot, a bowl of clear broth and sometimes a fried egg. It is breakfast for half the town. 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. Two more are worth knowing. Lort cha, short rice noodles fried with egg and bean sprouts, is the snack sold on every corner. Num ansom, sticky rice in banana leaf, travels well on a temple day. ## Riverside and the Old Market: The Classic Repertoire The west bank of the Siem Reap River between the Old Market and Wat Preah Prom Rath holds the restaurants that cook classical Khmer food in dining rooms with air conditioning and linen. They are a 5- to 10-minute walk from Pub Street. Prices are among the highest in town for à la carte Khmer food. The three are listed by price, lowest first. The riverside walk passes both of the first two. ### Chanrey Tree The honest verdict: the classic dishes on a published menu, in a riverside dining room. Pokambor Avenue on the riverside, in Mondul 1 village, a 5- to 10-minute walk north of the Old Market. Open daily for lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. The menu lists fish amok at $10.50, beef lok lak at $11.50, prahok ktish at $10.50, Korko Soup at $9.50 and salads from $6.90, with mains from $6.50 to $16, plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. A riverside table in December and January needs a booking. The limitation: it is a polished restaurant for visitors, and the sour and fermented flavors are dialed down from what a Cambodian family would cook at home. ### Malis The honest verdict: a large riverside restaurant from chef Luu Meng, with tax and service included in the price. Malis is the Siem Reap restaurant of chef Luu Meng, on Pokambor Avenue along the river, in a modern building with a garden courtyard. Its website gives daily hours of 11:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The March 2026 menu lists starters at $6 to $13 and mains at $11 to $38, including smoked free-range duck at $24 and red snapper with sondan sauce at $13, with 10 percent tax and 7 percent service included. The free-flow Khmer breakfast Malis is known for is served at its Phnom Penh branch. The Siem Reap restaurant opens at 11:00 a.m. The limitation: it is a large, formal operation that feeds tour groups, and on a busy night the service is efficient rather than personal. ### Embassy The honest verdict: the tasting menu for someone who wants Khmer home cooking reworked by Cambodian chefs rather than a foreign one. Embassy, on Street 5 in Mondul 1 village, opened in 2014 with an all-female kitchen led by chef Kimsan Pol, who is president of the Cambodia Chefs Association for 2024 to 2027. The chef's menu changes with the seasons and costs $66 a person at dinner, or $57 vegetarian, plus 10 percent VAT, with wine pairings from $48. Dinner runs daily from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m., and a shorter lunch menu costs $36, daily from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Book ahead in high season. The limitation: at that price it is the most expensive meal in this guide, and the format, small courses in a quiet room, is a long evening after a 5:00 a.m. temple start. ## Wat Bo: Khmer Cooking in Garden Houses Wat Bo is the area across the river from the Old Market, named for the pagoda on Wat Bo Road, a 10- to 15-minute walk from Pub Street or a $2 tuk-tuk. The numbered cross-streets, Street 23 to Street 27, run from Wat Bo Road down to the river, and Street 26 holds several of the kitchens below. The restaurants here tend to occupy wooden houses or hotel gardens, the pace is slower than the west bank, and the [Wat Bo area guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/wat-bo-area/) covers the streets in detail. The four are listed by price, lowest first, then the two that publish no prices in alphabetical order. ### Banlle The honest verdict: vegan Khmer cooking in a wooden house, at low prices. Banlle means vegetable in Khmer. It is 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 is 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and dinner 6:00 to 9:15 p.m. (last seating), Wednesday to Monday. It closes on Tuesdays and every year from April 14 to 24, over Khmer New Year. Banlle says its produce comes from its own garden and nearby organic farms. Prices are not published online. A review updated in August 2026 puts most dishes at $2 to $4. The limitation: reservations are held for only 20 minutes, and anyone who wants prahok and pork should eat elsewhere. ### Pinak Pou The honest verdict: family-recipe cooking with forest ingredients, at published prices. Chef Mork Mengly opened his first restaurant in 2017, moved to Wat Bo Road in 2022 and now cooks as Pinak Pou, which a 2024 guide describes as casual fine dining built on family recipes, with green duck curry and red ant salad, and an attached cooking school. In 2025 he presented a multi-course tour of Cambodia's regions served on a banana leaf. Pinak Pou's website, updated in 2026, gives daily hours of 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. and two addresses: Ah Leah Road in Wat Damnak, which matches its map listing, and Wat Bo Street 25. The dishes shown on the website cost $4.98 to $9.88. The limitation: the restaurant has changed name and address since 2017, so confirm where it is on the day, and the forest ingredients, ants and their eggs, are not for everyone. ### Aaraama Restaurant The honest verdict: a hotel restaurant over lotus ponds, with no published prices. Aaraama is the restaurant of Angkor Village Hotel, on Street 26 off Wat Bo Road, an open-air pavilion over the hotel's lotus 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 lists the restaurant 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. The limitation: it is a hotel restaurant, and the hotel does not publish the menu price online. The hotel states that the restaurant is open to visitors not staying there. ### Footprint Cafés The honest verdict: the Wat Bo café for a Khmer lunch or an afternoon with a book, not a destination dinner. Footprint Cafés is on Street 26, opened in 2016, and combines a restaurant, a bookshop and a co-working space upstairs. It serves Khmer dishes and international ones all day, plus coffee, herbal teas and cocktails, and it says it puts most of its profits into education grants in Siem Reap province. The café does not publish hours or prices online. Listings in 2026 give an opening time of 7:00 a.m. and a closing time of 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. The limitation: the Khmer section of the menu is short and cooked for a mixed crowd, so treat it as a café. ## Wat Damnak and Chocolate Road: Tasting Menus and Training Kitchens Wat Damnak is the area south of the Old Market on the east bank, around the pagoda of the same name, 5 to 10 minutes by tuk-tuk from Pub Street at $2 to $3. It has a tasting-menu kitchen and a cluster of social-enterprise restaurants, where profits fund training for young Cambodians. The four below are listed by price, lowest first, with the one whose prices are not given here last. The guide to social enterprises in Siem Reap explains which ones are worth supporting and why. ### Wild The honest verdict: a garden bar for spring rolls and a cocktail, best before dinner rather than instead of it. Wild, on Aleah Road in Wat Damnak, is a floral-themed bar and restaurant run by Lorraine and Renaud Dion, with a garden and a small craft shop at the back. Open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., with the kitchen closing at 10:00 p.m. The March 2026 menu lists more than 15 kinds of spring roll, fresh, fried and sweet, three to a plate, at $3.50 to $3.95 a plate, and cocktails at $4.75 to $5.95, with taxes included and no service charge. Wild says its cocktails use local fruit. The limitation: it is spring rolls and drinks, and two plates do not make a Khmer dinner. ### Haven The honest verdict: a training restaurant serving Khmer classics with VAT included in the price. Haven, on Chocolate Road in Sala Kamreuk commune, trains young adults from orphanages and disadvantaged backgrounds in a program that includes housing and an allowance. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with the kitchen closing at 9:30 p.m. Closed Mondays and during Pchum Ben. The menu runs from Khmer dishes, amok and lok lak, to Western ones, with vegetarian and vegan options. The October 2026 menu lists Khmer amok at $7.50, lok lak at $8 and other mains at $7.25 to $9.50, with 10 percent VAT included. Book a few days ahead in high season. The limitation: the Khmer dishes are the safe classics, and the full menu leans international. ### Cuisine Wat Damnak The honest verdict: a seasonal tasting menu built on Cambodian produce. Chef Joannès Rivière, who co-owns the restaurant with Nguon Vengchhay, runs a tasting menu that changes with the seasons 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 costs $45, or $38 vegetarian, plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. Children under 12 are not admitted. Cash in dollars or riel, and Visa or Mastercard. Book days ahead from November to March. The limitation: a French chef's reading of Cambodian produce is not the same as Khmer home cooking, and it is closed on Sundays. ### Spoons The honest verdict: a Khmer lunch in a bamboo pavilion, run by a training program that says all profits go to the school. Spoons is run by SPOONS Cambodia, which trains young people from underserved communities in food service, bakery and barista work. It is in Wat Damnak village on Pave Road, in an open-air bamboo building. Its website gives daily hours of 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and posted a new Khmer menu in October 2026, with no prices given here. The limitation: service is by students in training, so a meal can run slowly, and the open-air room is hot at midday from March to May. ## Edge of Town: Farm Kitchens and a Hotel School Three kitchens sit outside the center, listed by price, lowest first, with the unpriced menu last. Each is 10 to 20 minutes from Pub Street. Tuk-tuk fares are not fixed, and a cost guide published in April 2026 puts a cross-town ride at $2 to $3, so agree the fare before leaving. Arrange the return ride when booking, because tuk-tuks do not pass these streets at 9:30 p.m. ### Sala Baï The honest verdict: a set lunch in a hotel-school dining room, served by trainees. Sala Baï, the hospitality school of the French nonprofit Agir pour le Cambodge, is on Tonle Sap Road in Wat Svay. Its restaurant serves breakfast daily from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and lunch Monday to Friday from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m., served by trainees. On October 20, 2026 it began a dinner service, Tuesday to Saturday from 6:00 p.m., run by graduates. Lunch is a three-course set menu at $14.50 or two courses at $12, according to the school's 2025 and 2026 menu posts. Breakfast and dinner prices are not published online. The limitation: the menu is mostly European, and lunch follows the school calendar, so check that the school is in session. ### 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 on Tramneak Street in Thiok Ondong village, as a farm-to-table restaurant. It serves lunch and dinner daily, with three seven-course tasting menus that change with the seasons and are designed to share, including a vegan one and a Royal Khmer one, from $32 a person. A chef's table sits upstairs, and cooking classes run alongside. The limitation: it is the farthest restaurant in this guide from the center, and in the rainy season the village road is muddy. ### Mahob Khmer Cuisine The honest verdict: modern Khmer cooking with clear roots, the earlier and simpler sister of Lum Orng. Mahob, which chef Sothea Seng opened in 2014, is in a wooden house at #137 Traing Village, Slorkram. Open daily for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. The menu includes braised river fish with palm sugar and lotus root, crispy pork belly and lemongrass beef on a hot stone. Its cooking class runs at an organic farm about 3 km from the restaurant. Its website publishes the menu without prices. The limitation: the menu leans toward refined versions of the classics rather than the sour and fermented dishes of village cooking. ## Pub Street: What the Menu Is Actually Selling Pub Street is Street 8 and the lanes around it, between the Old Market and Sivatha Boulevard. It is fine for a beer and loud for dinner. The restaurants share a format: a laminated menu of 80 dishes in five cuisines, a happy-hour beer under $1, and a main course for $5 to $8. Amok and lok lak are on every menu, and they are cooked sweeter and milder than anywhere else in town, because that is what the passing trade sends back. The point is not that the food is dangerous or the prices high. It is that a visitor who eats three dinners here concludes that Khmer food is a mild yellow curry, and that conclusion is wrong. The fix is simple: eat on the riverside or in Wat Bo, which are 5 to 15 minutes away, and come back to Pub Street for a drink. The guide to whether Pub Street is worth eating on names the few exceptions, and the [Pub Street guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/pub-street-guide/) covers the evening itself. The Old Market, Psar Chas, is the better use of the same location. Two minutes from Pub Street, its food stalls serve breakfast and lunch to market traders, and the [Pub Street and Old Market guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/pub-street-old-market/) explains when each half of the block is worth visiting. ## Street Food and the Markets Siem Reap street food happens in two windows: early morning, at the markets and the noodle stalls, and evening, on Road 60 and around the night markets. Midday, in the heat, the stalls are quiet. The street food guide names individual carts and covers what is safe. ### Psar Chas (Old Market) The honest verdict: the easiest place in the center to eat what Cambodians eat for breakfast and lunch. The food section at the center of the market, where the produce meets the clothing and souvenir aisles, has stalls selling bai sach chrouk, kuy teav, num banh chok and sweets, with stools at a counter. Plates cost $1 to $2, according to a food guide updated in October 2026. The market opens around 7:00 a.m. and the cooked food is best before 9:00 a.m. It is 2 minutes on foot from Pub Street. The limitation: prices are rarely posted, so ask before ordering, and some stalls quote visitors more than locals. ### Psar Leu The honest verdict: the town's working food market, for anyone who wants to see what Siem Reap cooks with. Psar Leu is on National Road 6, east of the center, and opens at 3:00 to 4:00 a.m. Its produce and fish sections supply the town's kitchens, and stalls sell num banh chok and other breakfasts to traders. A return tuk-tuk from the center costs $4 to $6. Go before 8:00 a.m. The limitation: it is a wet market, with fish being cleaned on the floor and meat in the heat, and it is not for a weak stomach. ### Road 60 Night Market The honest verdict: an evening food market built for Cambodian families rather than visitors. Road 60 runs east from the northern edge of town toward the Angkor Enterprise ticket office. From about 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., stalls set up along the roadside with grilled chicken and fish, skewers, noodle soups, fried rice, fried insects, corn, durian and sweets, and families sit on mats to eat. A tuk-tuk from Pub Street costs about $3. Prices are not posted in English. The limitation: it is a long, spread-out strip with no single center, so it works better with someone who reads Khmer or with a guided food tour, and it is quieter on weeknights in the rainy season. The tourist night markets off Sivatha Boulevard sell more souvenirs than food. The night markets guide sorts them, and the [Siem Reap markets guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-markets/) covers the daytime ones. ## Cooking Classes A Khmer cooking class is the most useful half-day in Siem Reap for anyone who plans to cook the food at home, and the best introduction to kroeung, the paste behind amok and half of the curries. The cooking classes comparison sets the schools side by side. The standard class lasts about four hours, morning or afternoon. It starts with pickup from the center, visits a produce market, then teaches three dishes, often fresh spring rolls, a curry or amok and a dessert of banana or pumpkin in coconut cream, eaten together at the end. Booking platforms consulted in October 2026 list these classes at $26 to $36 a person, usually with hotel pickup. Groups are usually capped at 6 to 10 people. The restaurant-run classes are the step up. Mahob runs its class at its organic farm, about 3 km from the restaurant, where produce is grown with the help of the nonprofit Agrisud International. Lum Orng offers classes with chef Sothea Seng's team, and Pinak Pou runs an attached cooking school. None of the three publishes a class price on its website. Choose a morning class from March to May. The market is livelier before 10:00 a.m., and an afternoon kitchen in April is hot. From May to October, the morning is also the dry part of the day. ## Breakfast Beyond the Hotel Buffet Breakfast is the meal where Khmer food is cheapest, best and least visited by travelers, because most of them are at a temple at dawn and at a hotel buffet afterward. A temple day that starts at 5:00 a.m. ends by 11:00 a.m., which leaves a late breakfast at a stall entirely possible on the way back. The breakfast and brunch guide lists more addresses. ### Sister Srey Cafe The honest verdict: a Western breakfast café opposite the Old Market. Sister Srey Cafe opened in 2012 at 200 Pokambor Avenue, opposite the Old Market. It serves Australian-style breakfasts, vegan dishes, juices and coffee, trains young Cambodians in hospitality and says it gives part of its profits to APOPO's landmine clearance work. Listings in 2025 and 2026 give daily hours of 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The café does not publish prices online. The limitation: it is a Western café with a Western menu, not the place to learn Khmer breakfast. ### Sala Baï breakfast Covered above: daily from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. on Tonle Sap Road, served by trainees. For the Khmer version at its cheapest, go to the Psar Chas stalls before 9:00 a.m. for bai sach chrouk, or to Psar Leu for num banh chok. ## Vegetarian, Coffee and Drinks After Dinner Siem Reap is easier for vegetarians than most of Cambodia. Banlle is fully vegan. Cuisine Wat Damnak serves a $38 vegetarian tasting menu, and Lum Orng a vegan one in its $32 range. Haven marks vegetarian and vegan dishes. The difficulty is the base: fish sauce and prahok sit inside dishes that look vegetable-only, including most curries and sour soups. Ask for no fish sauce and no prahok by name. The vegetarian and vegan guide lists safe dishes to order at ordinary restaurants. Cambodian coffee is strong, dark-roasted and served over ice with sweetened condensed milk, for about $1 to $1.50 at a stall. The town also has a specialty-coffee scene in Kandal Village and Wat Bo, covered in the coffee shops guide, and the Sok San Road and Kandal Village guide places the cafés on a map. For a drink with a view after dinner, a handful of hotel rooftops overlook the town. The rooftop bars guide lists them with prices, and the best bars guide covers the bars away from Pub Street. Kampot pepper, the pepper in the lok lak sauce, is the food souvenir to take home, and the souvenirs guide explains how to tell real from fake. ## By Situation ### You have one dinner in Siem Reap Chanrey Tree on the riverside. Order samlor korko, prahok ktish, fish amok and a salad for two, with rice. It covers the repertoire in one meal and is a 5- to 10-minute walk from Pub Street. ### You want one special meal Cuisine Wat Damnak at $45, booked days ahead, or Embassy if the point is Cambodian chefs cooking Cambodian home food. Lum Orng at $32 is the choice for a lunch rather than a late dinner. ### You want Khmer food in a quiet garden on the Wat Bo side Banlle for vegan cooking in a wooden house, or Aaraama Restaurant for shared plates by the hotel ponds. Pinak Pou is the choice for a chef's own family recipes. ### You are on a tight budget Breakfast at the Psar Chas stalls, lunch at a kuy teav shop, dinner on Road 60. That is three Khmer meals for under $10. The [daily budget guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-daily-budget/) shows how it fits a full day. ### You are traveling with children Lok lak and fried rice are on every menu. Chanrey Tree, Haven and Malis all take children. Cuisine Wat Damnak does not admit children under 12. The [Siem Reap with kids guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-with-kids/) covers the rest of the day. ### You are vegetarian or vegan Banlle first, then the vegetarian tasting menus at Cuisine Wat Damnak and Lum Orng. Everywhere else, say no fish sauce and no prahok. ## What It Actually Costs Prices are in US dollars, which every restaurant accepts. Change under $1 comes back in riel, at 4,000 riel to the dollar. Restaurants above stall level add 10 percent government tax and often a 5 percent service charge on top of menu prices. Tipping is not expected at stalls, and the tipping guide covers restaurants. | Meal | Price | Included | Not included | |---|---|---|---| | Bai sach chrouk at Psar Chas | $1 to $2 | Pork, rice, pickles, broth | Drink | | Kuy teav at a noodle stall | About $2 | Bowl of noodles | Iced coffee, about $1 | | Street dish, Road 60 or a stall | $1 to $4 | One dish | Drink, tuk-tuk to Road 60 about $3 each way | | Pub Street main course | $5 to $8 | One dish | Tax is usually included | | Chanrey Tree, fish amok | $10.50 | One main | Rice, 5% service, 10% tax | | Chanrey Tree, four dishes for two | About $43 | Korko soup, prahok ktish, amok, salad, service and tax | Rice, drinks, tip | | Malis main course | $11 to $38 | One main, tax and service | Drinks | | Lum Orng tasting menu | From $32 | Seven courses | Drinks, tax | | Cuisine Wat Damnak tasting menu | $45, or $38 vegetarian | Full menu | Drinks, 5% service, 10% tax | | Embassy chef's menu | $66, or $57 vegetarian | Seasonal dinner menu | Pairings from $48, 10% VAT | | Cooking class | $26 to $36 | Market visit, three dishes, usually pickup | Tip | A traveler who eats one stall breakfast, a café lunch and one sit-down Khmer dinner spends about $20 to $30 a day on food. Adding one tasting menu during a three-day stay adds $50 to $90 a person with drinks. ## What Other Guides Get Wrong 1. **Treating Khmer food as a milder Thai.** It is sourer and more fermented, and the heat is on the side. A guide that describes amok as "Cambodian curry" has described the tourist version. 2. **Recommending amok as the dish to try.** It is a celebration dish. The everyday food, samlor korko, prahok ktis and a sour fish soup, says more about the cuisine, and the order for two should include a soup. 3. **Sending readers to Pub Street for dinner.** The restaurants on Street 8 serve the weakest Khmer cooking in town. The riverside, Wat Bo and Wat Damnak are 5 to 15 minutes away. 4. **Ignoring breakfast.** The best and cheapest Khmer food is served between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. at Psar Chas and Psar Leu, and most visitors are at the hotel buffet. 5. **Listing restaurants that closed years ago.** Siem Reap's restaurant scene turned over heavily after 2020, several well-known names moved or changed hands, and lists copied from older lists still send people to empty buildings. Every venue above was checked in 2025 or 2026. 6. **Forgetting the closing days and the 9:30 p.m. kitchen.** Cuisine Wat Damnak closes on Sundays, Haven on Mondays and Banlle on Tuesdays, and most kitchens outside the center stop taking orders around 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. ## Detailed Guides - [Khmer dishes to try](https://www.angkortourism.org/khmer-dishes-to-try/): twenty dishes, what each should taste like, and which ones visitors skip and should not. - [Best restaurants in Siem Reap by neighborhood](https://www.angkortourism.org/best-restaurants-siem-reap/): every cuisine, not only Khmer, sorted by the area you are staying in. - [Best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap](https://www.angkortourism.org/best-khmer-restaurants-siem-reap/): from market stalls to tasting menus, ranked by how Cambodian the cooking is. - Street food in Siem Reap: Road 60, the market stalls and the carts, with what is safe to eat and when. - Siem Reap cooking classes compared: market visit, menu, group size and price, school by school. - Breakfast and brunch in Siem Reap: the Khmer breakfast stalls and the cafés worth leaving the hotel buffet for. - Vegetarian and vegan Siem Reap: the fully vegan kitchens and how to order around fish sauce everywhere else. - Rooftop bars in Siem Reap: which ones have a view, what a drink costs and when the light is best. - Coffee shops in Siem Reap: Khmer iced coffee, the specialty roasters and where to work for an afternoon. - Fine dining in Siem Reap: the tasting menus compared on price, length, dress and booking. - Is Pub Street worth eating on?: the honest answer and the few exceptions. ## Where to Go Next Food decisions follow from where you sleep, and the [Siem Reap neighborhoods guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-neighbourhoods/) explains the riverside, Wat Bo and Wat Damnak in the same terms as this one. If the evening includes a show, the [evening shows guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/evening-shows-siem-reap/) sets out which ones serve dinner and which ones end in time for a meal afterward. For the ingredients themselves, the [Siem Reap markets guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-markets/) covers Psar Chas and Psar Leu in daylight, and the [3-day itinerary](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-3-days-itinerary/) shows where a market breakfast and a long dinner fit around the temples. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Where should I eat in Siem Reap for real Khmer food? Leave Pub Street and pick a neighborhood. On the riverside, Chanrey Tree and Malis cook the classic repertoire, amok, lok lak, sour soups and prahok, in proper dining rooms, with mains around $10 to $12 plus tax at Chanrey Tree. In Wat Bo, Banlle does vegan Khmer cooking in a wooden house. On the same side of the river, Pinak Pou cooks family recipes. In Wat Damnak, Cuisine Wat Damnak serves a $45 tasting menu built on Cambodian ingredients. For the cheapest version, eat breakfast at the stalls inside Psar Chas or dinner on Road 60. Each of these serves food that Cambodians themselves recognize as Khmer. ### What is the most famous Cambodian dish? Fish amok, a curry of freshwater fish steamed with kroeung paste, coconut cream and egg, often in a banana-leaf cup, is the dish every visitor is told to order. It is real, it is good, and it is a celebration dish rather than everyday food. What Cambodians eat daily is rice with a sour soup, a grilled or fried fish, prahok in some form and a plate of raw greens. For the everyday version, order a samlor, a soup, alongside the amok. Chanrey Tree lists fish amok at $10.50 plus tax, and Haven, a training restaurant, lists it at $7.50 with tax included. ### Is Pub Street a good place to eat in Siem Reap? Not for Khmer food. The restaurants on Street 8 and the lanes around it serve long menus that mix Khmer, Thai, Vietnamese, pizza and burgers, priced for foot traffic, and the amok and lok lak are cooked for a visitor's palate. Prices are not extreme, a main course costs $5 to $8 at most of them, but the cooking is the weakest in town. Eat elsewhere, then come to Pub Street for a drink. The Old Market stalls, two minutes away, sell better Khmer food at breakfast and lunch for a third of the price. ### How much does a meal cost in Siem Reap? A market breakfast of pork and rice or kuy teav costs $1 to $3. A main course in a sit-down Khmer restaurant costs $5 to $15, and at Chanrey Tree a fish amok is $10.50 plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. A tasting menu costs $32 at Lum Orng, $45 at Cuisine Wat Damnak and $66 at Embassy, before drinks and tax. A beer costs under $1 at happy hour on Pub Street and $3 to $5 in the restaurants named here. Budget about $25 a person a day to eat well without tasting menus. ### Is street food safe in Siem Reap? Mostly, if you follow the rules that apply anywhere in Southeast Asia. Eat at busy stalls where food is cooked in front of you, avoid anything that has sat in the heat since morning, and eat breakfast stalls early, before 9:00 a.m., when turnover is highest. Ice in Siem Reap is factory-made and generally safe. Raw herbs and salads are the main risk for a sensitive stomach in the first days. Fermented fish dishes such as prahok are cooked in prahok ktis but served raw in some dips, so ask if that worries you. ### Do I need to book restaurants in Siem Reap? Book the tasting-menu restaurants. Cuisine Wat Damnak, Embassy and Lum Orng run a fixed number of covers at dinner and fill up from December to February. Haven, a training restaurant, also fills in high season, and booking a few days ahead is sensible. Chanrey Tree and Malis take walk-ins most nights but a reservation guarantees a riverside table. In the rainy season, May to October, most places have space on the day. Markets, street stalls and cafés need no booking. Check closing days before planning a dinner: several restaurants close one weekday. ### Can vegetarians eat well in Siem Reap? Yes, better than in most Cambodian towns. Banlle on Street 26 in Wat Bo is fully vegan, with a vegetarian section, and cooks Khmer curries and salads from its own garden. Lum Orng and Cuisine Wat Damnak both offer a meat-free tasting menu, at $32 and $38. Haven marks vegetarian and vegan dishes on its menu. The difficulty is the base of Khmer cooking: fish sauce and prahok are in almost everything, including dishes that look vegetable-only. In ordinary restaurants and at stalls, say that you eat no fish sauce and no prahok, not just no meat. ### What is the best cooking class in Siem Reap? Choose by format rather than ranking. The standard class lasts about four hours, starts with a market visit, and teaches three dishes, usually fresh spring rolls, a curry or amok, and a dessert. Booking platforms consulted in October 2026 list them at $26 to $36 a person, usually with hotel pickup. Restaurant-run classes go further: Mahob runs its class at an organic farm about 3 km from the restaurant, Lum Orng offers classes alongside its tasting menus, and Pinak Pou has an attached cooking school. A morning class is cooler and the market is livelier before 10:00 a.m.