7 Hidden Rooftop Bars You Need to Try in Phnom Penh

From a 37th-floor whisky library with cantilevered views over Vattanac Capital to a three-storey perch above the Russian Market with piña coladas on tap, Phnom Penh's rooftop drinking scene covers more ground than most visitors expect. Here are seven worth the elevator ride.

Phnom Penh does not advertise its skyline the way other Southeast Asian cities do. There are no glowing towers designed to be photographed from the outside. But climb high enough (the 26th floor of a BKK1 tower, the fourth floor of a riverside building, the rooftop of a Toul Tom Poung shophouse) and the view assembles itself: the Tonle Sap cutting its broad brown line toward the Mekong, the Royal Palace catching the last of the afternoon light, a city that looks more layered and interesting from above than it does at street level. The rooftop bar scene here has grown considerably in the last few years, from neighbourhood bars that happen to have stairs to internationally ranked cocktail programmes with serious ambition. What follows spans that whole range, because the best one for a given evening depends entirely on what that evening calls for.

1. Sora, Rosewood Phnom Penh, Vattanac Capital Tower

Sora (Level 37, Vattanac Capital Tower, Street 92) is the benchmark against which every other rooftop bar in the city is measured. Ranked No. 65 on Asia's 50 Best Bars, the cocktail programme runs from an indoor whisky library (Cambodia's largest single malt collection) to a cantilevered open-air terrace on the 37th floor with views that take in the full bowl of the city. The bar snacks are serious: robata-grilled Hokkaido scallops with cod roe sauce, wagyu beef sliders over charcoal with miso and truffle. The cocktails are serious. The space, designed with the Rosewood's characteristic restraint, is serious. You will pay accordingly, and the majority of guests would tell you it is worth it.

Opens at 5pm daily.

2. HighGround Sky Bar, Amass Central Tower, BKK1

HighGround Sky Bar (Amass Central Tower, Street 63, BKK1) occupies the 25th-floor interior bar and 26th-floor open-air rooftop of a building that commands one of the best unobstructed sightlines in the city: the Royal Palace to the south, the Tonle Sap to the east, the BKK1 grid spreading below. Over a thousand reviews at 4.7 stars is the kind of track record that has earned it a reputation as the neighbourhood's most reliable elevated drinking address. Fresh oysters on the half shell, proper gourmet cheese boards, tapas worth eating: the food programme does not treat itself as an afterthought. The DJ sets tend toward the ambient side of things early in the evening, which is exactly right.

Opens at 5pm, runs until 2am.

3. Above Eleven, Novotel BKK1

Above Eleven (Novotel Phnom Penh BKK1, Street 51 corner Street 294) takes its name literally: it sits twenty-eight floors above the BKK1 streets, a hundred metres up. The concept is Peruvian-Japanese (nikkei cuisine, which is the culinary vocabulary that emerged when a large Japanese community settled in Peru and started cooking) and it translates into a bar menu anchored by a classic Pisco Sour and a food programme that runs tiradito, anticucho wagyu skewers, and ceviche alongside the cocktails. The nightly DJ sets start early enough to soundtrack the sunset. This is the rooftop for those who want something considered alongside the view rather than just a cold beer and a terrace.

Opens at 5pm.

4. Rukkha Sky Bar & Tapas, 313 Preah Sisowath Quay

The riverside has several bars with river views. Rukkha Sky Bar & Tapas (4th Floor, 313 Preah Sisowath Quay) is the one that earns them. The terrace (planted with enough actual greenery to feel like a garden rather than a rooftop) sits directly above the quay, and the unobstructed sightline over the Tonle Sap is at its finest in the forty-five minutes before dark when the water goes gold. Nearly twelve hundred reviews at 4.7 stars on Google, and a TripAdvisor rating of 4.9, back what any regular visit confirms: the sesame beef tataki tapas are the bar snack to order, the cocktail programme is taken seriously, and the whole operation runs with the calm efficiency of a venue that has been doing this for long enough to make it look easy.

Opens at 5pm; Friday and Saturday until 1am.

5. Celeste Revolving Skybar, The Penthouse Residence

Celeste Revolving Skybar (43rd Floor, The Penthouse Residence, Phnom Penh 12122) holds a specific distinction: it is the highest revolving bar in the city. The mechanics of a revolving floor tend to be the novelty rather than the programme, but Celeste earns its place on this list through the sheer drama of the view: three-sixty degrees at forty-three floors, slowly cycling through a panorama that takes several rotations to fully absorb. The cocktails are well-made, the Cambodian amok-style canapés are a reasonable option, and the live music and DJ sets keep evenings from feeling like pure spectacle. For a first-time visit to Phnom Penh, or for anyone who has not yet looked at the city from this height, it is an experience worth having once.

Opens at 5pm; closes midnight on weekdays, 1am at weekends.

6. Khmer Funk Sky Bar, TRIBE Phnom Penh, Post Office Square

Khmer Funk Sky Bar (Top Floor, TRIBE Phnom Penh, Corner Streets 1 and 94, Post Office Square) occupies a part of the city that most visitors walk past without looking up. The TRIBE hotel sits on Post Office Square (the old French colonial heart of Daun Penh) and the rooftop bar it houses operates on a brief that is more relaxed than most venues in this list: Mekong-inspired street-style bites, grilled skewers, craft beers and Southeast Asian cocktails in an industrial-tinged open-air space. The five-star rating across over two hundred reviews is rare at any level of the market, and reflects a crowd that is predominantly local and genuinely enthusiastic about what the kitchen is doing. A city-centre rooftop bar where the food is worth ordering for its own sake is less common than the view would suggest.

Opens at 5pm daily.

7. Sundown Social Club, Toul Tom Poung

Sundown Social Club (#86 Street 440, Toul Tom Poung) is the neighbourhood entry on this list: three floors above the Russian Market, with piña coladas, banana daiquiris, and pitchers of sangria doing the work that the grander venues leave to single-malt whisky. Listed on the World's 50 Best Discovery, it operates at a register that makes the distinction between a "rooftop bar" and a neighbourhood institution irrelevant: rattan furniture, open-air terrace, food that runs around five dollars a plate, and an energy that matches the hour without trying to manufacture it. New ownership as of 2025 has brought fresh energy without disturbing the formula. It opens at 4pm, which makes it one of the earlier-starting options on this list, useful for those who take the "sundown" part of the name seriously.

Opens at 4pm daily.

Tips

Timing: The hour before sunset is the working hour for all of these venues: arrive between five and six for the best light and before the crowds build. Sora and Above Eleven in particular fill on weekends; walk-in is usually fine mid-week.

Dress code: Sora, Above Eleven and HighGround observe a smart-casual policy that means no flip-flops or vests. The others are considerably more relaxed: Sundown Social Club is a rattan-and-sarong venue, not a velvet-rope one.

Getting there: Most of these venues are inside hotels or towers; tuk-tuk drivers navigate by hotel name better than by floor number. Rukkha and Khmer Funk are the exceptions: give the driver 313 Preah Sisowath Quay and Post Office Square respectively.

Spending: There is a forty-dollar spread between the cheapest round at Sundown and the most expensive at Sora. Both are doing what they set out to do. Choose accordingly.

The city looks different from up here: more coherent, more interesting, more obviously built at the junction of two rivers that have shaped everything below. None of these seven bars are alike in price or ambition, but they share the one thing that earns a rooftop bar its place: a view that the street cannot offer, paired with a reason to stay for more than one drink.

Browse every bar in Phnom Penh on BongNham, or read the full guide to the city's bars and nightlife. Want the evening planned for you? Follow An Evening on the Quay for dinner, the night market and a nightcap, or see what to do with one day in Phnom Penh.