Best Breakfast in Phnom Penh: Where to Eat, from Kuy Teav to Avocado on Sourdough
The city wakes early, and there is a case for waking with it. The air is as cool and fresh as it will be all day, and by six the noodle vendors around Phsar Kandal are already ladling broth and the bakeries have their ovens warm. Here is where to eat breakfast in Phnom Penh, from a five-in-the-morning bowl of kuy teav to a slow avocado brunch.
Phnom Penh is a morning city, whether or not its newer residents have caught up to the fact. Long before the heat gathers and the traffic thickens, the corners around the markets are already working: a pot of broth kept at a rolling simmer, a glass case of grilled pork, a low bench of plastic stools filling with people who have come to eat the same bowl they eat most mornings of their lives. This is the breakfast the city has always run on, and it starts early. By seven, the best of it has already done half a day's business.
Layered over that older rhythm is a second breakfast culture, slower and later, that arrived with the cafés and the bakeries. It opens nearer to eight, runs on flat whites and laminated pastry, and treats the meal as something to linger over rather than something to fuel the day ahead. Neither is more correct than the other, and for the visitor that is a welcome dilemma. The useful thing about Phnom Penh is that both are available within a short tuk-tuk ride of wherever you happen to be staying, and the choice comes down to what kind of morning you are having.
There is one argument that settles a great deal: the heat. Between eleven and three the city becomes hard work, and the diner who eats early keeps the pleasant hours for themselves. Whatever else it recommends, breakfast in Phnom Penh is best taken before the day turns.
Here is where to eat it, sorted by the kind of morning you are having.
The Cambodian Breakfast
The default Khmer breakfast is a bowl of soup, and the address that makes the strongest case for it is 126 Restaurant (126 Street 13, corner Street 136, Phsar Kandal). It has been operating from the same corner since 1992 and opens its doors at five in the morning, which tells you most of what you need to know about its priorities. The kitchen is built around kuy teav, the clear pork-and-noodle soup that anchors the Cambodian morning, along with a beef noodle soup that regulars order without looking at the menu. Everything sits under five dollars, the broth is the product of long hours rather than shortcuts, and by the time the lunch crowd drifts in it has already done its best work of the day.
For kuy teav of a slightly different character, Kaun Heng Noodle Restaurant (Oknha Pich Street 242) is a family-run room that has been ladling the same broth for over twenty years. The minced pork version is the one to order, and the portions are generous in the way that a place with regulars to keep can afford to be. It runs on morning hours and shuts around one in the afternoon, so this is a breakfast that does not wait for you.
Where the soup gives way to porridge, Chicken Porridge Tuol Tompoung (Street 444) has spent two decades perfecting the Cambodian version of comfort food. Borbor is rice cooked down soft and savoury, and here it comes with a spread of fresh toppings that let you build the bowl to your own weight of appetite. It is as good in the early morning as it is late in the evening, which is when much of the neighbourhood treats it as a restorative rather than a start.
For bai sach chrouk in the most central setting of all, eat by the great yellow dome itself. The Food Court inside Psar Thmei (Central Market) serves the classic Cambodian breakfast plate from six in the morning, among the traders and the market bustle. Bai sach chrouk is marinated pork grilled over coals and laid over white rice with pickled vegetables and a small bowl of clear broth on the side, and it is the plate most Cambodians would name first. Here it comes cheap and quick, surrounded by the landmark that anchors the whole neighbourhood.
The Chinese Breakfast
Central Market sits on the edge of Phnom Penh's historic Chinese quarter, and the streets behind it hold a morning tradition of their own: dumplings and noodle soup, eaten fast and cheap among a crowd that has been coming for decades. Shandong Restaurant is the anchor of that strip, a twenty-four-hour canteen that has fed the Chinese lunch crowd and the in-the-know expat for years. The hand-pulled noodles with pork and the fried dumplings are the reasons to come in the morning, though the fact that it never closes means there is no wrong hour to arrive.
A street over, Lanzhou Noodles brings a more particular tradition to the same neighbourhood: Chinese Muslim hand-pulled noodle soups in the Gansu Province style, halal-certified and built around noodles stretched by hand and a beef broth that takes time to get right. The pan-fried dumplings are worth ordering alongside it, and the whole operation reads as a proper sit-down restaurant rather than a quick canteen stop, open from half past eight.
For dumplings at the other end of the scale entirely, FU LU ZU at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra on Sothearos Boulevard is the city's high-end answer. The kitchen turns out Cantonese and Teochew dishes alongside an acclaimed dim sum menu, xiao long bao included, in private dining rooms built for a business breakfast rather than a market-corner one. It opens at half past six, and the polish justifies the considerably higher price.
Bakeries, Coffee and the Slower Start
For the morning that begins with bread rather than broth, Eric Kayser Pasteur (22 Street 5, corner Street 228) is the benchmark. The Parisian house has been baking since 1996 and brings the discipline to Phnom Penh: butter croissants with a proper laminated crumb, pain au chocolat, and sourdough that stands up to anything in the city. It opens at seven and runs an all-day café menu, but the first hour, with the bread still warm from the oven, is when to come.
The homegrown answer sits a short ride away at PAPA PAIN (Street 163, Toul Tom Poung), the French-style bakery chain founded in Phnom Penh and now spread across it. The baguettes emerge fresh through the day and the pastry counter satisfies both the six-in-the-morning coffee crowd and the mid-afternoon sweet tooth. It is a modern operation rather than a neighbourhood institution, and it is honest about that, but the baking is consistent and the early opening makes it genuinely useful.
For coffee first and breakfast alongside it, BROWN Roastery | BKK (corner Street 57 and Street 294) is the flagship of Cambodia's leading local chain, spread across two floors with the power outlets and reliable Wi-Fi that draw the laptop crowd. It opens at six-thirty and the food menu reaches well beyond pastry into eggs benedict and a full English breakfast sandwich, which makes it a place you can settle into rather than pass through.
And for the breakfast you settle into for the long haul, Khéma La Poste (41 Street 13, Wat Phnom) runs a daily free-flow spread that rewards an unhurried morning. The French brasserie and delicatessen, part of the Thalias group, occupies a restored colonial building near the old Post Office square, and the breakfast plays to its strengths: pastries from its own bakery, cheeses and charcuterie from the deli counter, and eggs and hot dishes brought to the table as fast as you can work through them. It opens at seven, and its sibling on Pasteur (163 Street 51) lays on the same free-flow breakfast if that corner of town suits you better.
The Full Western Breakfast
Some mornings call for a proper sit-down breakfast menu rather than a single dish, and Jasmine's Breakfast Kitchen (134 Street 148) obliges. A family-run room near Central Market, it opens at six and has made its name on a proper Full English alongside omelettes, sandwiches, baguettes, toasties, and Asian dishes. It is unfussy, hearty, and exactly what it says it is.
For the Australian register of the same idea, Melbourne Coffee (Chaktomuk) brings café culture to a small side street off Street 240, near the Royal Palace, pairing Melbourne-style espresso with a brunch menu of smash burgers, deli sandwiches and the sort of avocado-and-egg plates the format demands. It opens at six-thirty on weekdays and keeps a calmer, more considered pace than a fry-up house.
And for the full English done properly, with a pint within reach, Box Office (8Eo Long Nget Street 258, near Wat Botum Park) is the address most regulars would name. The British pub and live-music room has anchored this corner near Wat Botum Park since 2014, and its Full English has built a reputation as one of the best in the city, the plate assembled with the care a proper fry-up rewards rather than the indifference it often gets. Doors open at half past seven, late enough for the requisite hunger to develop.
The Healthy Breakfast
The city's wellness scene has grown too broad to fold into a breakfast guide, but the anchor is worth naming: Farm To Table (16 Street 360), an open-air kitchen and community garden arranged around a giant jackfruit tree, where certified chemical-free produce becomes grain bowls, green salads and fresh-pressed juice from eight in the morning. The tree-shaded courtyard is one of the pleasanter places in the city to spend a slow, clean-eating hour. For the rest, from the Street 240 cafés to the cold-pressed juice bars, our full guide to eating healthy in Phnom Penh does the subject justice.
Tips for Breakfast in Phnom Penh
For the early risers: If you are up before the cafés are, the Cambodian corners are your friends. 126 Restaurant opens at five, and Jasmine's, the Central Market food court and PAPA PAIN are all serving by six. The bakery-and-brunch places tend to start between seven and eight.
On a budget: The local soup and porridge spots are the value play, with most bowls sitting well under five dollars. A kuy teav at 126 or Kaun Heng, or a plate of bai sach chrouk at the Central Market food court, costs a fraction of a Western brunch and is arguably the more interesting meal.
Beat the heat: Cool air and soft light are the reward for eating early. The pleasant hours run until about ten, after which street-side seating becomes a test of endurance. Plan the leisurely brunch for a shaded courtyard like Farm to Table, or an air-conditioned room, once the sun is high.
Cash and cards: The market-corner spots and smaller Khmer kitchens generally prefer cash, so keep small notes on you. The bakeries, chains and café-brunch venues take card and ABA Pay without trouble.
For a working morning: BROWN Roastery is the reliable laptop breakfast, with power outlets, Wi-Fi and the tolerance for a long stay, and Eric Kayser's all-day café menu works just as well once the bread rush has passed. Arrive before the mid-morning crowd if you want a good table.
Breakfast is the meal that gives Phnom Penh away. The city that most visitors meet in the heat of the afternoon is a different place at six in the morning, quieter and more itself, feeding its own people at the corners it has always fed them. The best breakfast here is not a single address but a decision about which version of the morning you want: the five-o'clock bowl of noodle soup at a corner that has been open since 1992, the warm croissant and the first coffee of the day, or the slow avocado brunch under a jackfruit tree once the light has softened. If it's not the most important meal of the day, with Phnom Penh's plentiful options it can certainly be the most enjoyable.
Cover photo: Breakfast, Phnom Penh