Marhaba Halal Restaurant — Restaurant in Khan Daun Penh

Considering the lack of South Asian restaurants in Phnom Penh, I am always very excited when another one opens. At last count, there cannot be more than 25 Indian restaurants on or near the Riverside. And yes, this latest offering, next to Pop Italian, fits right in: lousy décor, same old menu, lots of friends/relatives/staff sitting in front and inside of the restaurant, speaking loudly into their phones, and lacklustre service. Lots of 5-star ratings but, looking a bit closer, they all come from gentlemen called Zultan, Nassir, or Muhammad; each with exactly one review to their name. Honi soit qui mal y pense and no sacrifice is too small for a review on this hallowed forum. And it did start with a sacrifice. As soon as I walked in and I saw the two waitresses in headscarves, I knew there would be no beer. We did get the menus in a hurry but then, although the restaurant was nearly full, we were actually the only guests. We ordered a couple of banana shakes and a mango shake at $2.00 each. The drinks were OK. The menu is very similar to most of the other 135 South Asian restaurants in Phnom Penh; if only someone would come up with an exciting, fresh menu. I have Butter Chicken up to my ears and will probably scream if I see another one. There was “Beef Chapli Kabab” and Kabuli Naan, neither of which I had seen before, so we ordered those. I did ask what a Kabuli Naan was, and the answer was “it is from Kabul”. Helpful, so I pushed a little more, but I did not get further than “it is from Afghanistan”. The Kabab was $5.50 and the Kabuli Naan came in at $2.00. We also ordered Paneer Masala ($6.00), Chicken Tika Masala ($7.00), garlic Naan ($1.50), Lucha Paratha ($2.00), and Jeera rice ($3.00). Drinks took a little while and at first, we only got one banana shake instead of the 2 we ordered. Communication with the waitress was a little challenging and when I tried to explain that we had ordered two shakes, she at first wanted to take the one we had back. But we did get it all sorted eventually. We did ask for the Kabab as a started and it did come first after about 15 minutes. Getting a starter first is not a given in many of the Indian restaurants I have been to, so kudos to them. The Kabab was nothing remarkable, a very dry and fairly tasteless affair. It was supposedly beef, but it could have been roadkill for all the flavour it had. Serving them with ketchup did not really improve the experience. Main courses came 25 minutes after we ordered. All the food was piping hot, including the breads. The garlic Naan was excellent, as was the Kabuli Naan. Turns out it is a Naan stuffed with nuts and raisin. A little to sweet for me, but really not bad. The Paratha, on the other hand, was bad: way too hard, not fluffy, and actually tasted like it had been sitting around for a week or two. Nothing wrong with the curries though. Both the Paneer and the chicken were cooked just right and very tasty. Portions weren’t humongous but fair for the price. As usual, I cannot comment on the spice levels as the Missus and the kids cannot eat spicy. Ah yes, we were asked how spicy we wanted the food. Overall, the food was decent, but the girlfriend and I discussed this on the way back: with the plethora of Indian/Pakistani restaurants in town, there is no way we will be back. The restaurant felt way too depressing for that; yet another hole-in-the-wall South Asian offering with no outstanding or redeeming features. And the unavailability of beer doesn’t...

Unfortunately, my experience here didn't go well. Despite me complaining that chicken was hard, overcooked, and had weird taste and texture, the gentleman was lovely enough to replace it for me for a paneer dish. However, my first bite, I had the same chicken again. So theh took it back, added some paneer in the dish and brought it back to me... I was so disappointed and annoyed I didn't even complain. The curry sauce was OK so I dipped my bread in it and left. I wanted to speak to their owner but couldn't be even bothered. I have run food businesses and this isn't how you do it. Sorry to give you this comment but it is warranted... cheese bread was also not the cheese we know, like dry inside...

The restaurant is in a good location, however felt a bit claustrophobic. The staff were nice, but could use some improvement. When I went there some men were sitting outside which kind of intimidated me. Food was pretty good, more on the pricy side but the portions are good. I ordered the Biriyani but its unfortunate that the Biriyani didnt have any flavour. Lacked spices. Same with the karahi, could use some more spices and flavouring to bring out the authenticity. They had a diverse variety of food item to choose from. Overall 6/10...