Best Steakhouses in Phnom Penh: Where to Find a Serious Cut
Phnom Penh has quietly become a steak town: dry-aging cabinets, Josper ovens, Japanese wagyu and a churrascaria tradition carving picanha tableside. Here is where to eat a serious cut in the city, from the top of a capital tower to an eight-dollar Australian sirloin.
Steak was, for a long time, one of the things Phnom Penh did not do especially well. The local beef was lean, the imported cuts tended to arrive frozen and tired, and a good ribeye was something you flew out of the country to eat. That has changed, and faster than most residents give it credit for. The city now dry-ages its own beef in temperature-controlled cabinets, cooks it over Josper charcoal ovens, and grades its wagyu with the same shorthand you would hear in Tokyo or Melbourne. Somewhere in the last decade, Phnom Penh quietly became a steak town.
The sourcing tells the story. Australian grain-fed beef is the workhorse of the scene, chilled rather than frozen and cooked without the sugar and additives that used to mask tired meat. Above it sits United States prime, and at the very top, Japanese and Australian wagyu carrying marbling scores that justify their prices. A handful of kitchens have gone further still, building in-house dry-aging programmes that concentrate the flavour over weeks rather than days. The spread now runs from a sixty-day-aged tomahawk on the thirty-eighth floor of a capital tower to an eight-dollar Australian sirloin in a side-street room with the photographs hung upside down.
Steak in Phnom Penh remains an occasion rather than an everyday meal, priced in dollars and almost always imported. But the range of that occasion is now wide enough to reward knowing where to go.
Here is where to eat steak in the city, from the dry-aging cabinets and wagyu tomahawks at the top of the market, through the dependable middle and the genuine bargains, to the Brazilian churrascaria trolleys and the great cuts that hide on menus that never call themselves steakhouses at all.
The Dry-Aged and the Wagyu
306 Wagyu Steakhouse (Street 306) has the strongest single claim in the city: it is the only kitchen in Cambodia serving a Tomahawk Wagyu graded MBS 9/A-9 and dry-aged for sixty days. It is also, unusually for this end of the market, a halal fine-dining room, which makes it one of the few places a Muslim diner can order beef at this level in Phnom Penh. Beyond the headline tomahawk the menu spreads wider than most steakhouses dare, into a Mediterranean and Arabic section, wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and sushi, but the beef is the reason to book.
Provenance is also the point at Pepe Steakhouse (147 Street 51), a Serbian-owned room that does its own dry-aging in-house and treats the grill as a craft rather than a station. The 350g dry-aged ribeye is the benchmark order, the twenty-day-aged MB5 Wagyu tomahawk the splurge, and the grilled bone marrow and charcuterie board make the case that this is a kitchen thinking about the whole animal rather than just the premium cuts.
KoKo Steakhouse (47, corner of Street 94) works from the ground floor of TRIBE at Post Office Square, where executive chef Tim Pheak runs a Josper charcoal oven and a set of in-house dry-aging cabinets. The A5 Wagyu tartare and the MB5 Tajima Wagyu tomahawk anchor a menu that also runs to bone-in prime rib and a properly hand-cut steak tartare. It opens for both lunch and dinner, which makes it as good for a midday steak as an evening occasion.
The Cut Steakhouse (135, Phnom Penh 12310) keeps its range deliberately international at the top: USDA Prime ribeye on one side of the menu, Australian Wagyu sirloin on the other, a seafood platter and truffle mac and cheese filling in around them. The room is built for the occasion, and the wine and cocktail lists are set up to match.
At KO THNOT Steak House (Oknha Chrun You Hak Street, Street 294) the distinguishing detail is the beef itself: one hundred per cent natural, organic Australian, offered in dry-aged cuts and, like 306 Wagyu, with halal-certified options. The roasted beef marrow bones are a signature worth ordering alongside the A5 tenderloin, sirloin and ribeye. It keeps long hours, opening from six in the morning, which makes it the rare steakhouse you could, in theory, visit for breakfast.
Steak at Altitude
Phnom Penh's fine-dining steak has a habit of climbing. CUTS (Level 38, Vattanac Capital Tower, Street 67) is the signature restaurant of Rosewood Phnom Penh and, at thirty-eight floors up, Cambodia's highest dining room, with panoramic Mekong views that justify the lift ride. The kitchen turns hand-cut, dry-aged US and Australian beef through a Josper oven alongside grain-fed lamb and fresh seafood, and the cellar is one of the largest in the country. This is the special-occasion address for when the view is part of the order.
Ox Club (Street 71, corner Street 400) trades the tower for an Art Deco dining room and a reputation earned first under its previous name, Damnak Steakhouse. The cooking has ambition to match the setting: an MB5 Wagyu tenderloin tartare with caviar and ponzu gelée, Wagyu steak with fresh truffle risotto, a surf-and-turf platter built for sharing. It is listed on the World's 50 Best Discovery platform, and the Saturday brunch is worth knowing about in its own right.
The most theatrical steak in the city revolves. Ruby Jack (forty-two floors up at The Penthouse Residence, 83 Samdach Sothearos Boulevard) is Cambodia's only rotating dining room, turning slowly through three hundred and sixty degrees of city view while the kitchen carves its signature at the table: a grain-fed Canadian prime rib, dry-aged for seven days, slow-roasted for seven hours and served with horseradish beef jus. The Thursday prime rib nights are the standing institution.
Down on the riverside, Bati Bar & Grill (199 Preah Sisowath Quay) keeps the view but drops the formality, running its grill room on the eighth floor above the quay with panoramic river views and a dedicated smoke room. Imported steaks and smoked meats are the draw, and the two private rooms make it a useful option for a small group that wants the river without the crowd.
The Dependable Middle
Below the fine-dining rooms sits the broad, reliable middle of the scene, the places regulars return to without needing an occasion.
Stonegrill (Phnom Penh City Centre) does exactly what its name promises: Australian grain-fed tenderloin and Wagyu cuts arrive raw on a searing-hot stone, and you finish the cooking yourself at the table, to the exact point you want. It runs a Japanese and teppanyaki side alongside the beef, and the fifteen-dollar business lunch set is one of the better value propositions in this bracket. Open daily from half past eleven until late.
New York Steakhouse (264 Street 63) has held its corner of Street 63 for over a decade, which in this scene counts as an institution. It serves US beef in a classic steakhouse register: rib-eye, New York strip, tenderloin, potato gratin, a complimentary garlic bread and liver pâté to start. The house tradition of letting diners choose their own steak knife from a presented set is the kind of small ceremony that keeps regulars loyal.
Out near the airport, M Steak House (Borey Decastle, Street 137K2) is built around a single conviction: chilled, never-frozen Australian and American beef, cooked without sugar, MSG or preservatives, with the cuts left to speak for themselves. The menu is short and focused, running from a 250g Australian ribeye and striploin through to a 530g Black Angus, and the discipline shows.
In Toul Kork, Chet Steak, Pastas & Wine (34 Street 568) pairs premium imported ribeye and sirloin with fresh oysters, Italian pasta and a serious wine list, and stays open past midnight, later still on Fridays. It is as much a late wine-and-steak room as a dinner destination, which makes it useful when the evening runs long.
MARA (16AB Maline Apartment, Street 214) rounds out the middle with a steakhouse-meets-Asian-fusion menu: Wagyu steak, Pacific oysters and grilled lamb in a compact, urban-chic room that leans on its cocktail list. It opens in the late afternoon and works best as an evening booking.
Where the Price Drops
The most quietly impressive thing about Phnom Penh's steak scene is how far down the price ladder the quality holds.
Oxly Steakhouse (Street 578) is the clearest evidence. It plates Wagyu ribeye, tomahawk and filet mignon with truffle mashed potatoes at a price bracket most of its rivals would not attempt, making it the value benchmark for anyone who wants a proper cut without the fine-dining bill.
Mauu! (Langka Lane) takes a different route to the same end. The compact Australian-beef steakhouse, from the team behind Le Langka, Bun and Boma, keeps its menu deliberately short and its sirloin starting at eight dollars, side included. The gimmick is in the name and on the walls: the photographs are hung upside down, a visual joke the room commits to fully. It fills quickly, so book. There is a second branch across town, Mauu! (Toul Tom Poung) (corner of Streets 123 and 456), running the same upside-down concept and the same house-cut steaks with a secret sauce, so it is worth confirming which one you are heading to.
For the most local version of an affordable steak, Steak House (432 Street 432) serves high-quality Australian beef, rib-eye and T-bone, alongside pork steak with a Khmer spicy sauce and a lively neighbourhood crowd. It is a community room first and a steakhouse second, and the pricing reflects it.
The Brazilian Churrascaria
Phnom Penh has quietly accumulated a cluster of Brazilian churrascarias, where the format is the point: servers move between tables carving skewer after skewer of grilled meat until you signal you are done, with a salad bar and sides filling in the gaps. It is the best value in the city for a serious appetite.
de BRAZiL Brazilian Steakhouse (Street 313) is the most established of them, running the full rodízio all-you-can-eat service with picanha, grilled pork ribs, sausage and chicken hearts carved tableside. A note on names: there is a second, separately run address, De Brazil Steakhouse on Czech Republic Boulevard near Bak Touk, and the two are easy to confuse, so confirm which you are booking. The Street 313 room is the one with the longer track record.
In Toul Tom Poung, Bravo Steakhouse Churrascaria (214A Street 155, corner Street 480) runs the same tradition with picanha, chicken hearts and pork ribs churrasco, breaking its service into lunch and dinner sittings. And for the grandest version of the format, Samba Europa Brazilian Steakhouse (Euroville Boulevard) is a Singapore-owned operation carving fifteen types of churrasco meat tableside alongside an extensive international buffet that stretches to sushi and cold cuts.
Steak Beyond the Steakhouse
Some of the best cuts in Phnom Penh are not served in steakhouses at all.
Armand's (33, Street 108) is the clearest case: a classic French bistro in Daun Penh, open since the 1990s and long reputed to be a favourite of the Cambodian royal family, where the steak arrives in its French forms. The Tournedos Rossini crowns a beef tenderloin with foie gras and truffle sauce, the Chateaubriand comes with béarnaise, and the pepper steak is a benchmark. It opens only in the evenings, closes on Mondays, and it books out.
Il Forno (11 Street 302, BKK1) makes the Italian case. A decade-old BKK1 institution better known for its wood-fired pizza, homemade pasta and long wine list, it also sends a serious cut off the grill, the bistecca answer to Armand's French one. Book it for the pasta and the pizza oven, and order the steak while you are there.
Iza Japanese Restaurant (Vattanac Capital, Level 37) approaches beef from a different tradition entirely. The room runs three open kitchens, and the one that matters here is the robata-yaki grill, where wagyu skewers are cooked over binchotan charcoal rather than sent off a Western grill. Order them alongside the Hokkaido scallops and the bluefin sashimi, and pick from a bar of forty-two sakes and shochus, thirty-seven floors up.
Two bar rooms round out the picture, both leaning on the grill. Larry's 110 Street Bar & Grill (22-24 Street 110) has served Phnom Penh for over a decade, and its Sunday BBQ sessions of steaks, pork chops and ribs are a fixture, alongside a mixed grill that is a meal in itself. Paparazzi Bar & Kitchen (179 Preah Sisowath Quay) brings a strong selection of Australian and American steaks to a speakeasy-style riverside room, where a surf-and-turf and a schnitzel in mushroom cream sauce share the menu with wood-fired pizza and a well-regarded cocktail list. Note that it closes on Sundays.
Tips for a Steak in Phnom Penh
Book the top end. The fine-dining rooms, CUTS, Ox Club, Ruby Jack and KoKo, fill on weekends and for the standing prime rib nights. Reserve, and ask about the specific cuts available that day, since dry-aged and wagyu stock rotates.
Know your grades. MBS or MB followed by a number, and A5, are wagyu marbling scores: higher means richer and fattier, not simply better. A well-cooked Australian grain-fed ribeye at a fraction of the price is often the more satisfying plate across a full meal.
Halal steak exists here. 306 Wagyu and KO THNOT both serve premium beef with halal certification, which is rare at this level in the city and worth knowing for Muslim diners.
Churrascaria is a strategy. The Brazilian rooms are all-you-can-eat: arrive hungry, pace yourself past the first few skewers, and lean on the picanha. The salad bar is there to be used sparingly, not to fill up on.
Cash and cards. Most steakhouses at this level take card and ABA Pay, but the smaller value rooms can be cash-first, so carry a few dollars.
Steak is not the food Phnom Penh is known for, and it never will be, which is exactly what makes the current scene worth paying attention to. A city that a decade ago struggled to serve a decent ribeye now dry-ages its own beef, grades its wagyu properly, carves prime rib on a revolving floor forty-two storeys up, and still turns out an eight-dollar Australian sirloin worth crossing town for. From the tomahawk at the top of a capital tower to a churrascaria trolley working its way around a Toul Tom Poung table, the range is the point. Order well, and Phnom Penh will feed you a serious cut.
Ready to explore? Browse every steakhouse in Phnom Penh on BongNham, then read on with our guides to the city's halal kitchens, French restaurants and Sunday roasts. Planning a visit? Follow our one-day Phnom Penh itinerary.