Best Restaurants on Riverside Phnom Penh: A Walk Along Sisowath Quay
Sisowath Quay is Phnom Penh's great promenade, and its restaurant scene is better than ever. From early-morning coffee to rooftop sundowners, here's how to eat and drink your way along the riverside.
There is no better introduction to Phnom Penh than a walk along Sisowath Quay. The broad riverside boulevard traces the western bank of the Tonle Sap southward from the shadow of Wat Phnom toward the Royal Palace, the brown river glittering to one side and a long parade of café awnings, restaurant terraces and shophouse facades to the other. Tuk-tuks idle at the kerb. Street vendors push carts of sugar cane juice. In the early morning, elderly Cambodians do tai chi in the waterfront park while the light is still low and gold. By evening the quay hums with a different energy: tables spilling onto the footpath, cold beers sweating in the heat, the river catching the last of the sunset. And throughout the day, from the first coffee to the last cocktail, the eating and drinking on this stretch is far better than its tourist-strip reputation suggests.
Here is a full day on Sisowath Quay: starting from the northern end near Wat Phnom and walking south toward the Royal Palace.
Morning: Start Slow
The northern end of the quay is where the strip begins in earnest, and ON THE CORNER (191 Preah Sisowath Quay), also known by its French name Le Resto du Coin, is one of the riverside's most dependable all-day spots. Open from 7am until 11pm, it offers a French-Cambodian fusion menu that ranges from fish amok and Mekong lobster to tournedos with Kampot pepper sauce and fondue. It has been here long enough to feel like a neighbourhood fixture rather than a tourist pull, and the outdoor terrace makes a fine place to ease into the morning with a coffee before the heat builds. Note that it is cash only, so come prepared.
Midday: Lunch Decisions
By late morning the quay heats up quickly, and lunch becomes as much a practical decision as a culinary one. Somewhere with good air conditioning earns points between noon and two.
Harry's Sports Bar (219 Preah Sisowath Quay) is not the most obvious lunch stop, but it has been feeding the riverside crowd since before most of the quay's newer venues existed: open from 8:30am with a menu that covers full breakfasts, burgers, sandwiches, pasta and an impressive Sunday roast. There is a pool table upstairs, live sports on the screens, ice-cold beer and a no-nonsense air-conditioned interior that many regulars treat as a second living room. It stays open until midnight.
A short walk further south, COMPAS Riverside (277A Preah Sisowath Quay) brings something genuinely unexpected to the Cambodian riverfront: serious Mexican food. The kitchen is run by Chef Mario, a native of Puerto Vallarta who spent years cooking across Mexico, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City before landing in Phnom Penh in 2014. When a riverside spot opened up in 2022 he took it, and the result is a bright, whimsical room decorated with lucha libre motifs and a large Day of the Dead skull, turning out a variety of tacos, chimichangas, seafood ceviche and quesadillas that hold up against anything in Southeast Asia. Open from 11:30am daily.
Just beyond COMPAS, where Street 154 meets the quay, Sombok Restaurant makes a strong case for being the most interesting Khmer restaurant on the riverside. It is a genuine fine dining operation: the work of internationally trained chef Kimsan Pol, whose kitchen runs on locally sourced, chemical-free produce alongside premium international ingredients. The interior was designed by young Cambodian architect Kimseng Ouk and features an original sculpture installation woven from Khmer golden silk and traditional fibres. The team is all-female, the set menu changes monthly, and the à la carte offering spans Cambodian soups, beautifully composed mains and desserts that take the country's food somewhere unexpected. It opens at 6:30am, though lunch and dinner is where Sombok really sings.
The 313 Quayside Building: The Quay's Anchor
Continuing south, the glass-fronted 313 Quayside building has become the riverside's most significant dining destination: a vertical concentration of venues that makes it worth knowing about floor by floor.
On the first floor, Riverview Restaurant & Bar opens at 4pm and leans into a modern fusion format drawing on Australian, Italian and Cambodian influences. The name earns its keep: the river views from this level are excellent, especially as the afternoon light shifts and the quay begins to settle after the lunch rush. Live entertainment runs most evenings (Apsara traditional dance on weekends, live bands on weeknights), making it a more complete evening out than most single-concept venues on the strip.
One floor up, Pizza 4P's 313 Quayside is, by any measure, the most celebrated restaurant on Sisowath Quay. The Vietnamese chain's Phnom Penh outpost brings its signature wood-fired pizzas, a serious cheese programme (they make their own mozzarella and burrata in-house), and menu combinations that blend Italian foundations with Asian ingredients: think pho-inspired toppings, shiso leaves, and fish sauce nuance in places you would not expect. The space is polished, the service is genuinely attentive, and it is open from 11am to 11pm daily. Book ahead for evenings and weekends.
Right at the top, Rukkha Sky Bar & Tapas does not open until 5pm, but the fourth-floor rooftop is where the 313 building's evening really comes into its own. Rukkha bills itself as the greenest rooftop garden bar in town: the terrace is planted with enough greenery to give it a genuine garden feel rather than the bare concrete of most Phnom Penh rooftops. The menu runs to Asian tapas and well-made cocktails, and the unobstructed views over the Tonle Sap are at their best in the hour before dark. On Fridays and Saturdays it runs until 1am.
Toward the Royal Palace: Italian and Coffee
South of 313, the quay becomes a little quieter and the venues more individual.
Pop Italian Restaurant (371 Preah Sisowath Quay) has been on the riverside since 1999, which makes it one of the longest-running foreign restaurants in the city. Also known as Pop Café da Giorgio, it operates as a proper Italian trattoria: homemade pasta, gluten-free dough made in-house, real Italian mozzarella, and a curated list of Italian wines. The owner's hospitality is well-documented: a complimentary Limoncello at the end of the meal has apparently become something of a house tradition. Closed on Mondays; open Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner.
At the southern end of the main stretch, TUBE COFFEE Riverside (385 Preah Sisowath Quay) is the quay's dominant café: an expansive, two-level venue with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the river, comfortable enough that digital nomads colonise the upper level with laptops while couples take the window seats downstairs to watch the Tonle Sap. TUBE is a Cambodian success story: started in 2017 by three young coffee-loving Cambodians, it has since grown to over 40 branches across the country. The riverside location is one of the flagship stores. Everything on the menu hovers around the $2.50 mark, and it opens at 6:30am, making it equally useful as a first stop of the day or a last-afternoon retreat before heading back out for the evening.
Tips for the Day
Best time to walk: Early morning before 9am, or after 5pm. The Phnom Penh midday heat between noon and 3pm is significant. Plan the longer stroll for when the light is forgiving.
Cash: ON THE CORNER is cash only. Most other riverside venues accept card and ABA Pay, but keep a few dollars on you for street food and smaller stops along the way.
Reservations: Pizza 4P's fills quickly on evenings and weekends. Book via phone (+855 23 636 2000). Rukkha Sky Bar is usually fine for walk-ins early in the evening, but the rooftop gets busy after 7pm.
Getting there: The 313 Quayside building is the most useful landmark to give any tuk-tuk driver as a drop-off point: everything on this list is within a comfortable walk in either direction.
Sisowath Quay is not a hidden secret, and it does not pretend to be. But the best day you can spend on it (drifting between a fine Khmer kitchen, a proper Italian trattoria that has outlasted empires, a Mexican spot run by a chef who crossed the world to end up here, and a rooftop bar with the river going gold below) is genuinely one of the better days Phnom Penh has to offer.
After dark, browse every bar in Phnom Penh or read our guide to the city's hidden rooftop bars. A short tuk-tuk inland, the Daun Penh scene around Central Market makes a natural next stop, or plan the whole day with our one-day Phnom Penh itinerary. For the quay after dark, follow An Evening on the Quay; for the museums and galleries a street inland, see Art, Architecture & Hidden Gems Around the Royal Palace.
Cover photo: Jpatokal, CC BY-SA 4.0
