Phnom Penh has been on my list of places to check out for the longest time but I never went due to my aversion to waiting in lines. Every time I walk by Phnom Penh, even if it’s at 2 in the afternoon, there is a crowd of people waiting outside! Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and went with Louis for a weekday lunch. We went at around 12:30PM and even though there was a crowd of people as usual, we left our name with a server and due to several no shows who had also left their name, we were seated after a brief-ish 15 minute wait.
Louis is always a great eating out buddy because our tastes are fairly similar and he likes to share several different dishes. I’m always for variety so this works out perfectly for me. Since it was a cold day outside, we decided to start with a bowl the Phnom Penh noodle soup, which was basically equivalent to the “Dac Biet” at Vietnamese pho restaurants. The broth was very flavourful and did not seem to have too much MSG in it. There was a good amount of various meats but other than that, these noodles seemed fairly standard.
Next, Louis and I had one of Phnom Penh’s specialties, the butter beef. Thin slices of raw beef were lightly seared on the edges and marinated in a soy vinaigrette-like sauce and topped with a lot of cilantro. There was quite a lot of beef and with the delicious sauce, this dish went very well with the bowl of white rice we ordered.
Finally, we finished our feast off with a half order of one of Phnom Penh’s most popular dishes, the deep fried chicken wings. The wings looked so good that in our haste to dig in, I forgot to take a picture until half the wings were gone. 
The wings were lightly coated in what I think was a corn starch batter, so they were super crispy without being too heavy. The wings were then tossed in a salty jalepeno coating. Both Louis and I agreed that these were one of the best wings we’ve ever tasted, just the perfect combination of crunchy outside with a juicy interior and a spicy salty coating.
For the wings alone, I highly recommend Phnom Penh even though they have such large crowds. Throw in the butter beef and I think you have a must-visit. I understand now why there are such long line-ups and I will definitely take Jenkins here sometime…hopefully soon!
Details:
244 East Georgia Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-682-5777
Summary:
Food: 
Service: 
Price: $
Really impressed with the dim sum at Red Star today 
Twitter
Facebook
{ 1 trackback }
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Phnom Penh ftw! Reading your review makes me wanna break my new years resolution and pig out on those wings!
@Ldub – I know, those wings are so good, they’re deadly!
Mmmmmmm…butter beef! This is one of the places I try to visit everytime I’m in town. I guess I’ve always gotten lucky because I’ve never had to line up (usually there for an early dinner and have always been seated right away). My favorite dish has to be the ‘filet beef luc lac on rice with egg’. Last time I was there we did a deep-fried taste-off between the chicken wings, squid, and the frogs legs. Suprisingly, the frog legs won! And for dessert, a yummy durian sticky rice that even my hubby (a long time durian hater) enjoyed.
@Phyllis – thanks for the tips! I tried the beef luc lac rice the other day and it was so good! I will have to give the deep fried squid and frog legs a try…I saw quite a few ppl order them.
Their butter beef, deep fried squid/chicken/and frogs legs are so good!
@Alison – I still need to try the squid and frog legs!
I fully agree – the wings are to die for! It’s so close to me, so now I get takeout from there to skip the lineup! I do recommend the frog legs there as well.
Two deep fried dishes need to be balanced out by their fish soup!
Another favourite for lunch there is the vietnamese pancake/crepe – its gigantic sized and can be shared.
@Thu – thanks for the suggestions…I’ll definitely need to try them out the next time I’m there!