Where to Find a Proper Sunday Roast in Phnom Penh
Twelve time zones from home and the tradition still holds: Phnom Penh's expat pubs fire up the ovens every Sunday for proper Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and gravy. Here's where to find the best of it.
There is a particular kind of homesickness that a Sunday roast cures, and Phnom Penh's expat community has never been shy about admitting it. The city is a long way from anywhere that considers a roast dinner a birthright, and yet on any given Sunday between noon and closing, a surprising number of kitchens across BKK1, Tonle Bassac, Daun Penh and the riverside are doing the same thing: pulling trays of roast potatoes, carving beef and lamb, and stacking Yorkshire puddings by the dozen for a crowd that has been waiting all week.
The tradition arrived with the British, Australian and Kiwi pub owners who make up a good share of Phnom Penh's hospitality scene, and it has even taken root a little beyond the expat crowd who first demanded it. What began as homesick pub owners cooking for homesick regulars has become one of the city's more reliable Sunday institutions: sports bars with roast specials, proper British boozers that sell out their trays by early afternoon, and at least one garden restaurant that puts a Cambodian spin on the whole affair.
Here is where Phnom Penh does its Sunday roast properly, from the purists to the sports bars to the places doing something a little different with the format.
The Purists
If you want the roast done the way it is meant to be done (a full plate, a proper gravy, no shortcuts), The Rose & Crown (115 Street 472) is the address most around Russian Market mention first. It is a British-owned beer garden built specifically to bring pub food to Phnom Penh, and the Sunday roast (chicken or beef, with all the expected trimmings) is popular enough that it sells out weekly and genuinely needs advance booking. Turning up at three in the afternoon hoping for a table is not a strategy that works here; call ahead, or accept fish and chips as your consolation prize.
Just off Norodom Boulevard on Street 174, Family Pub runs a quieter, more neighbourhood-feeling version of the same idea: that is their pork roast with apple sauce in the photo at the top of this article. Owners Mol and Navie have built a genuinely welcoming spot rather than a big production, and the Sunday roast sits alongside bangers and mash and a full English breakfast as part of a menu that understands exactly what its expat regulars are looking for. It is the kind of place where the value matters as much as the ceremony: good-sized plates at prices that do not sting.
The Sports Bar Sunday
Phnom Penh's sports bars have, almost without exception, worked out that a roast on the table pairs well with a match on the screen: many of the same venues screening every match of the 2026 World Cup have built serious Sunday followings around exactly that combination.
On the riverside, Harry's Sports Bar has been feeding the Sisowath Quay crowd since well before most of its neighbours existed, and the Sunday roast here leans into the sports-bar strength: slow-roasted, generously portioned, and served in an air-conditioned room with a pool table out back for anyone who needs to walk off lunch before the next match kicks off.
In BKK1, Aussie XL brings its Australian ownership to bear on the format with roast pork and crackling or roast chicken, served in the super-sized portions the venue is known for. A mini beer garden and dartboard round out a Sunday that does not need to end when the plate is empty. Over in Daun Penh, The Big Easy on Street 172 works the same territory, choosing between pork belly or roast chicken with all the trimmings, and the pool table and lengthy happy hour make it an easy venue to settle into for the whole afternoon.
Closer to the river, Front Bar (an Australian expat pub just off the riverside) has built its Sunday reputation on the roast as much as its live sports coverage, and the social, unpretentious atmosphere makes it a reliable pick for a group that wants lunch and an afternoon in the same booking.
The Wildcards
Not every Sunday roast in Phnom Penh comes from a British or Australian pub kitchen. Penh. 278, the garden restaurant on Street 278 in BKK1, runs a fusion menu that sits wood-fired pizza and crispy fish and chips alongside Khmer-inspired dishes, and whilst the rest of the menu leans fusion, the Sunday roast itself is served properly traditional, with both mash and roast potatoes on the plate rather than a compromise between the two. It comes in a newly renovated outdoor garden with soft lighting that makes for a considerably more relaxed setting than a pub booth, and suits a Sunday that wants good food and a pleasant space more than it wants a screen showing the football.
Over near Wat Botum Park, Box Office (8E0 Street 258) is the long-time player in the game: it has been running since 2014 and functions as much as a live venue as a bar, with a calendar of musicians and comedians and a kitchen that has quietly turned out pie and mash and a proper Sunday roast for over a decade. It is not a British boozer or a sports bar, which is exactly the point: the roast here comes as part of an evening that might just as easily involve a band or a comedy set, and the standard has kept the room full long enough to earn its place on any list like this one.
The Vine Phnom Penh on Street 244 is better known for its burgers and its early-evening acoustic Sunday Sessions than for a weekly roast, but it does put one on the menu on an occasional basis. Worth checking ahead if the plan for the day already includes The Vine for cocktails and live music, and a roast dinner would make the timing even better.
Tips for the Day
Book ahead where it matters. The Rose & Crown sells out its roast most weeks, and a phone call earlier in the week saves a wasted trip.
Cash and card both work, mostly. Most of the venues on this list take card or ABA Pay, but it is worth having a little cash on hand regardless: smaller pub kitchens can have off days with card machines.
Start early if the group is large. Sunday roasts across Phnom Penh's pubs tend to run from around noon, and trays can run out by mid-afternoon at the busier addresses. Arriving early is the difference between a full plate and a menu of apologies.
Pace the afternoon. Nearly every venue on this list doubles as a sports bar or live-music spot, which means the roast is often just the first act. Plan the day rather than the meal if the Sunday is meant to run long, and if the roast is only the starting point, the full list of Phnom Penh's pubs is the place to plot the rest of it.
Phnom Penh's Sunday roast scene is not something the city was ever going to need, geographically or culturally, and that is exactly what makes it worth paying attention to. It exists because enough British, Australian and Kiwi pub owners missed it enough to build it from scratch, after somehow finding an oven, on streets a very long way from home. Whatever kind of Sunday is on the cards (a full day at the pub, your favourite sports and a roast, or something that leans more beer garden than pub), Phnom Penh now has more good ways to spend it than most people arriving here would ever expect.