The Definitive Phnom Penh Burger Guide 2026
The hiss of beef hitting a flat-top, onions softening in rendered fat, cheese sliding off the edge of a double. Phnom Penh's burger scene has never been better, and here is where to find it: from homegrown chains and smash counters to Wagyu on charcoal.
You hear it before you see it: the hiss of cold beef meeting a flat-top that has been heating since the lunch shift, then a lower crackle as the fat runs to the edges and starts to lace. The smell arrives next. Browned beef, onions collapsing into the rendered fat, butter on the cut face of a bun turning gold. Then the thing itself, set down in paper or on a board, cheese draped over the edge of the patty and a pickle slipping out of the stack.
Sometimes, after a long day or even a hard morning, nothing is more satisfying than that simple combination of bread, beef, onion, cheese and pickle. Nothing. Phnom Penh took a while to reach that conclusion, but it has reached it in force. A city where a decent burger once meant a long tuk-tuk ride to one of a handful of expat bars is now well covered in specialists, from smash counters in Toul Tom Poung to Wagyu on charcoal in BKK1, so wherever you are in the city you will not have to travel far.
The styles have split, too, and knowing which one you want is half the decision. Here is the Phnom Penh burger scene in four parts: the local fast-format operators, the smash specialists, the thick-patty classics, and the bistros and grills that treat a burger as a serious plate.
The Local Fast Format
The international franchises get the billboards, but the more interesting fast-format burgers in Phnom Penh come from homegrown operators who have borrowed the chain playbook: tight menus, combo sets, kitchens built as much for delivery as for dine-in. Some run half a dozen branches. Others run one counter with the confidence of ten.
Belly Burger (385 Preah Sisowath Quay) is the one that has genuinely scaled. Branches now stretch from the riverside to Street 460 in Toul Tom Poung, Toul Kork, Eden Garden, Sen Sok and across the bridge in Chroy Changvar, which makes it the nearest thing the city has to a local burger chain in the full sense of the term. The format is built on value: cheeseburgers, chicken and fish burgers at around $4–5, made to order rather than held under a lamp. The Riverside branch is the most useful for visitors working their way along the quay.
OG Burger (234 Preah Monivong Blvd) works a fast-casual counter on Monivong Boulevard, attached to a hotel and built for speed. The burgers are griddled doubles on crisp-edged buns, with the Double Boss as the headline and the Beast combo for anyone who skipped lunch. Crispy chicken pieces, eight to a box, are the side order regulars defend. It is about as central as a burger stop gets, and open until half past ten every night.
Amaze Burger (13 Street 105) built its name on Wagyu at fast-food prices, and the kitchen near Boeung Trabek still leans on it. The homemade Wagyu burgers sit alongside a New York chopped cheese sandwich, hot dogs and a Wagyu truffle mac and cheese made with cavatappi, the corkscrew pasta that holds sauce better than anything else in the box. Much of the trade is delivery, and the salad travels in its own container so the bun arrives intact, a small detail that says a lot about the kitchen's priorities.
Further north, 80/83 Burger (313 Street 578), which trades as Room 80/83 Cozy Place, keeps the operation tight and handmade. Beef, crispy chicken and fish burgers make up the core, with quesadillas for anyone who cannot commit, and the Ultimate 80/83 Double is the order to make. Full sets with fries and a drink start at $5.75.
Cheap Charlie's Burger (Street 464) has the most honest name in the city. The Toul Tom Poung kitchen runs from the Cheez-Mini, a fifty-gram slider for under $2, up through cheese-loaded doubles like the Duo Max, and nearly everything comes dressed in the house pink sauce. The Tropical Smoked, with chilli sauce cutting through the smoke, is the one that sets it apart, and the gorgonzola burger is for anyone who likes their cheese to argue back. Portions are generous enough to share, though few people do.
Smash Burgers
No style has moved faster through Phnom Penh in the past three years. The method is simple and unforgiving: a ball of fatty beef pressed hard onto a flat-top hot enough to crust it in seconds, so the edges go thin and lacy and the surface caramelises before the middle has a chance to dry out. Thin patties mean the doubles and triples are the real menu. The city now has enough smash counters to argue about.
Smashed Burger Co. (41Eo Street 208) is where much of that argument started. The business began as an experiment in a coffee shop in Takeo, run by an English expat named Connor, and tested the capital with a delivery kitchen that sold out almost daily before the permanent Daun Penh shop opened on Street 208. Australian beef goes onto the flat-top in seventy-five-gram balls, which is why the doubles, the triples and the Quadruple Classic Smash exist. The Oklahoma Smash, with thin-sliced onions pressed into the beef as it cooks, is the order that shows the technique at its purest. A second outpost, The Garden X Smashed Burger Co. (38 Street 460), brings the same burgers to Toul Tom Poung from late afternoon.
Out in Sen Sok, Kelly's Kitchen (Sen Sok) builds its headline order around the same Oklahoma style: the Oklahoma Triple Smashed Burger, three thin patties and a lot of onion. It is also the only smash counter in the city putting foie gras on a double, which is either decadent or inspired depending on your view of French luxury goods on a griddle. Spicy chicken sandwiches fill out a menu that closes at eight, making this a lunch and early dinner proposition rather than a late one.
Back in the centre, Garage Sale (22z Street 51) serves its smash burgers in a room that suits them: a vintage Americana bar down a funky lane off Pasteur Street, all licence plates and retro kitchen fittings, with spiked milkshakes on the drinks list. The patties come crisp-edged and the cheese comes in quantity. The kitchen also runs one of the deeper vegan menus in the city, vegan cheeseburger and chilli cheese fries included, so a mixed table is easily handled. Weekday doors open at five.
Burger Daddy - Smash Lab (Street 360) is the budget end of the smash scene, a BKK1 shop where a single Wagyu smash costs only a few dollars and the doubles stack up with bacon and cheese. The air-conditioned upstairs room, set with long tables, makes it a proper sit-down stop rather than a grab-and-go counter, and the kitchen keeps delivering until late.
Closer to the heart of BKK1, Beau Smash Burger (Street 310) is the calmer face of the style: a clean, laid-back burger bar with smash burgers, properly crisp fries and a homemade falafel burger for anyone skipping beef. It pours coffee too, and the space is comfortable enough to sit and work through the afternoon before the burger becomes inevitable.
South of the Russian Market, Stacks & Buns (Street 482) is a small counter that keeps the menu short: smash burgers with crisp, lacy edges, a chicken burger, and fries with a chipotle dipping sauce that has picked up a following of its own. There is a pleasant spot to sit and eat in, which is where a smash burger is always at its best.
Thick Patty Classics
Before the smash wave, this was simply what a burger was in Phnom Penh: a hand-formed patty with real thickness, cooked on a grill, juices soaking into the base of the bun by the third bite. Several of these kitchens have been doing it for over a decade, and longevity in this city is a credential that no trend can buy.
Lone Pine (76 Street 244) has been at it since 2009, an American-style diner whose menu runs mostly to Tex-Mex but whose burger list has always run deep. The colossal seven-ounce beef burger is the anchor. The Wreck, piled with ham, Swiss, jalapeños, peppers, mushrooms and bayou mayo, is for nights when restraint has left the building. Evenings only, and closed on Mondays.
Further along the same street, The Vine (84Eo Street 244) pairs handmade burgers with wine and cocktails, and hedges its bets on style with the Grand Wagyu & Smash Deluxe. The Tropical and a straightforward classic with fries cover the rest of the board, and the generous happy hour makes it an easy first stop on Street 244. Closed on Tuesdays.
Larry's 110 Street Bar & Grill (22–24 Street 110) has been feeding the riverside end of the city for over ten years, and the burger has long been the reason its regulars give for returning. The classic beef cheeseburger is built on Australian chuck, rich enough that ketchup becomes optional, and the lamb burger specials have a following of their own. On Sundays the barbecue fires up and the Char Burger takes over, the burger at its most elemental, straight off the open flame.
Tacos Kokopelli (42 Street 19z) is a Mexican cantina first, but it has spent over twenty years building a second reputation on burgers made with 125-gram, all-Australian beef patties. The Double Royale with Cheese is the house order, the towering Fat Cat with the Lot is the one for serious appetites, and the fries are triple-cooked. The Loco BBQ burgers go further, each topped with 100 grams of shredded chicken, pork or beef and finished with barbecue sauce. The early-evening margarita happy hour makes a strong case for arriving hungry and staying late.
In Toul Kork, Burger on the Table (Street 347), known to its regulars as BOT, gives the thick patty a playful menu and a Korean accent. The Double Blessing is the straight answer, two beef patties with cheese, bacon, pickle and special sauce. Order it cheese volcano style and it arrives cut in half, set into a cast-iron skillet of bubbling cheese. The Ko Samot stacks a shrimp patty on top of the beef with Cajun sauce, and the Holy Seoul Bulgogi, Korean-style bulgogi beef in a bun, is where the accent comes from. Garlic-rice chicken bowls cover the non-burger orders, at prices that stay friendly.
Home Kitchen (Street 454) is a cosy, spotless neighbourhood kitchen near Toul Tom Poung cooking Asian and Western comfort food side by side. The house burger is the reason it makes this list, and the generous carbonara with garlic bread is the reason the second visit sometimes goes another way. It stays open until nearly midnight.
Two blocks over, The Wok & Barrel (9 Street 460) is the sports bar of the group: screens on, draught cold, and a double stack cheeseburger that arrives with fries and no apology. Loaded animal fries and tater tots do the supporting work, and the Wokstar Express menu of American-style Cantonese dishes means the burger keeps unusual company. It stays open until one in the morning, every day.
Gourmet & Bistro
At the top end, the burger stops being a quick fix and becomes a plate a chef puts their name to: better beef, a bun made in-house, a wine list within reach. These are the places to take someone who insists they do not really eat burgers.
Baldwin's Bistro (52C Street 240) is a French-European kitchen run by chef Guy Baldwin, and the burger receives the same care as the slow-cooked duck. The Signature Burger is a 200-gram patty on a homemade bun with cheddar and onions caramelised in Jack Daniel's sauce, with house-smoked bacon a dollar extra. Street 240's boutiques are a short walk in either direction, which makes it a natural lunch stop.
306 Wagyu Steakhouse (17 Street 306) is a steakhouse first, and the burger benefits from the company it keeps. The BKK1 kitchen cooks over charcoal-fired domed grills and dry-ages beef on site for up to sixty days, so whatever arrives between the buns comes from a kitchen that understands beef better than most. The burgers are made from Wagyu ground in-house, which gives them a richness few patties in the city can match. The menu is fully halal, with a Lebanese section running alongside the steaks.
Tucked into Toul Tom Poung, Haven Bistro (15A Street 450) is a small French-soul bistro run by chef-owner Benoît, whose kitchen moves between duck confit, house terrine and Asian plates with equal ease. The burger has become one of the reasons people seek the place out, and Benoît's own take on the double-decker classic is the one to ask about. With a bottle of French wine and a corner table, it is the most intimate burger on this list.
Down on the river, Oskar Bistro (159 Preah Sisowath Quay) is the French-owned sibling of the original Oskar in Bangkok, and its Wagyu burger has quietly become one of the reasons people book. It comes cooked to order, medium if you ask, and the wine list is priced to make a second glass an easy decision. The kitchen runs until midnight on weeknights and later at weekends, which makes it the most civilised late-night burger in the city.
Hard Rock Cafe (Exchange Square, corner of Street 108 and Street 51) has held its corner since November 2017 and needs little introduction. Every beef burger comes in at six or eight ounces from the company's own blend, and the Original Legendary, eight ounces with smoked bacon, cheddar and an onion ring on brioche, is the one to order. It is a known quantity in the best sense, and a reliable answer when a group cannot agree.
Tips for Burger Hunting
Toul Tom Poung is the burger quarter: Street 460 alone holds a Smashed Burger Co. branch, a Belly Burger and The Wok & Barrel, with Cheap Charlie's and Home Kitchen a block or two away. If you cannot decide on a style, start there.
Smash doesn't travel far: A smash patty's crust is at its best in the first five minutes and softens fast in a delivery bag. For a long delivery, a thick patty holds up far better. For smash, order from somewhere close, or better still, eat it at the counter.
Check the hours: Several of the best burgers in the city are not all-day affairs. Lone Pine opens in the evening and closes on Mondays, the Toul Tom Poung Smashed Burger Co. opens late afternoon and closes Mondays, Garage Sale opens at five on weekdays, Kelly's Kitchen closes at eight, and Tacos Kokopelli is closed on Thursdays.
Dietary needs: 306 Wagyu Steakhouse is fully halal. Garage Sale has the deepest vegan burger menu on this list, Smashed Burger Co. offers a beetroot and chickpea smash for vegetarians, Tacos Kokopelli offers black bean burgers, and the homemade falafel burger at Beau Smash Burger, mentioned above, makes a good meat-free pick in BKK1.
Phnom Penh is not a burger city in the way it is a noodle city, and nobody should pretend otherwise. But the distance between the two has narrowed faster than anyone predicted, and the burger here now comes in every register the city speaks: a two-dollar slider eaten from the paper on a Toul Tom Poung kerb, a double smash with crackling edges eaten standing at a counter, a Wagyu patty and a glass of red beside the river as the quay lights come on. Pick the style, pick the neighbourhood, and the city will meet you there with your choice of bread, beef, onion, cheese and pickle, and nothing beats it!