I’ve never been to this place before, like really, I have never been to this place before. And why did I come here today you ask? Simple, there are tons of reviews online raving about just how good this place is. And I got curious. So we gathered Colleen’s family and gave this place a shot. After we parked and poked our head in, we were informed that it would be a 15min wait, at the very least. OOh how exiting! While we were standing outside waiting for a table, a toyota venza whose license plates read tucson, arizona was parking and yes, they are here to eat. REALLY? Drove all the way here to our chinatown and to NOT EAT chinese, but to have cambodian cuisine? REALLY? Now I’m convinced…if this guy drove his entire family from arizona just to eat here, this place must be PENHnominal(get it).
Phnom Penh
244 E Georgia St, Vancouver BC
Tel#: (604) 682-5777
After a fairly long wait, we were finally led to a table! I still can’t believe just how busy this place was. It remained pretty hectic throughout our meal and even as we were leaving. That’s insane!
Just look at how busy this place is,and it only got worst. We couldn’t even see the windows anymore after a few minutes. It looks like a collective mix of people eat here. So would that be considered a good or bad thing?
We found the Spring Rolls to be rather bland. It was filled with meat and packed tight, but it’s not the best I’ve ever had. The Butter Beef was next to arrive. Very overpriced for this item if I might be so bold as to say so. There wasn’t really a lot of beef to it. Thinly sliced, spread over a regular sized plate. The sauce itself was good and tasty. I enjoyed the soy/vinegar/sugar / cilantro/ garlic….oops, did I just give away the secret ingredients? LOL really, the beef itself didn’t look fresh, I was kinda put off as to whether I would eat more of it by the end. Actually, even though there was a group of us, this plate was still there by the end.
Ah! The infamous Chicken Wings. The very hyped up wings. The “you must eat this” wings. Hmmmmmm, my personal take on it? Too much freakin MSG! Seriously, what is the big deal about these? its just coated with potato starch and glutenous rice flour. Throw in a bajillion assortment of MSG flavoring and there you go. And if you’re reading this and you want to defend their wings, go and buy these ingredients and deep fry em up at home yourself and see if they are really worth the $12 for such a tiny amount of wings.
On the right is the #19 Noodle with 3 kinds of Meat ball, Prawn and Beef. This was a wider kind of egg noodle. The soup was fairly bland. The only saving grace for this dish was the size of the balls, these were pretty massive.
Next came Colleen’s dads rice dish. It came with chicken and ham. Portion wise, this was quite small. There wasn’t a lot of rice, but lots of vegetables. It was a bit disappointing. On the right is the same dish as the below 2 pictures.
This is their #1 – Rice noodle soup. Soup for this dish was also bland, there was no taste to any of it. I guess the trend here is to not order any of the ‘pho’ dishes.
Colleen decided to get the #31 – Rice with Chicken, Shredded Pork, Ham and Egg. When this came to the table, everyone stopped eating and looked. Portion for this dish was very generous. There was a lot of meat and tons of rice. The chicken was juicy and quite flavourful. I’d say this dish was the best of the night.
Overall, our visit to Phnom Penh was pretty disappointing. Yes, I realize that everyone else seems to rave about this place, but before all the rage begins, you probably did not receive the same food/service we experienced. The food was bland, and the service was almost nonexistent. There was a mistake in 1 of our orders. The server placed a bowl of pho down stating it was a #1, so the person dining with us took it without another thought, when in fact it was not her order. When the actual #1 came to our table, we were all confused, and asked the server and all he replied with was, ‘it’s not my fault‘ and left it at that. That was pretty disappointing. I guess since they are so popular/busy with so many customers, that they don’t care about customer service. With this experience, I can’t understand all the rave reviews this place has.
Post by Marv
I wasnt too impressed with the butter beef as well. When we had it for the first and last time I felt disgusted eating raw beef. I guess its just my personal preference. I can eat raw fish but not raw beef. I thought it will be medium rare but it was really raw. Anyway, I ended up asking them to nuke it for me. The waitress gave me a funny look but she did it anyway.
The first time I had the Butter Beef I felt the same way as you, but then I had it another time and totally loved it. It’s kind of weird, but it’s really subjective cuz it’s a bold dish…
Yea…the beef didn’t look to appealing…it looked sad…
We used to rave about the place, however, our recent visits were not too great, and the MSG attacks were so obvious and instant…we weren’t too impressed about it…
overall, things have been getting weaker, as BG mentioned, the wings, while I still do like it, is really overdone in MSG. I haven’t had the butter beef for a while, but i’m used to raw beef and do like it, but mind you, it’s preference. I do like the spring roll, but only if i dunk it in the msg laden sauce. I can’t really tell when it’s gone downhill, but it’s been pretty gradual.
Marv: I’m glad we all share the same opinion towards the downhill decline of the food quality here, never again will I come back here as I was not impressed with even their service.
yeah, the service has really gone, we’ve seen a steady rotation of servers and now they just focus on getting you in and out quickly. The manager does recognize buddha girl and I,obviously because of our size, NOT!!! heheheh,but also because her family has been going there for a really really long time. He’s really nice to us, but he’s always busy. We still go, but our expectations in food quality and service has declined.
WOW, that’s so disappointing. I too have heard countless good things about this restaurant and was going to try it the other day. What are the prices like?
Marv: prices were a bit high, the chicken wings itself was already $13 for the large pictured in the post.. I’d say the best value in our entire meal was colleen’s rice dish.