Restaurant Cuisine Wat Damnak — Restaurant in Siem Reap

THE FOOD The amuse bouche of turnip and tofu cream was light. Beneath the cream were crunchy beansprouts and caramelised turnips.

The croacker fish was fresh and seared well. It was moist but the exterior was crisp. The pounded wild mushrooms were also great, giving a hint of truffle and also a spicy kick.

The crispy duck pancake was a little dry. There were shredded green papaya slices atop. If you eat the pancake together with the slices and chilli sauce, the flavour goes well. I also like how the holy basil was fried to the point of being crispy.

The prawn sour soup had two highlights. The first was the two succulent prawns that had been seared with butter. They were sizeable and fresh, and were deveined. The second was the clam broth that was extremely flavourful. However, the green tomatoes and pineapples seemed a little odd in this combination and I did not enjoy them as much. The chef did mention that the pineapples were to remove the fishiness. Surprisingly, the soup also came with brown rice.

The rice pancake with minced pork and breast was pretty good. There was a small piece of rice cracker in the middle. The exterior was crispy. The minced pork ball was tasty and had a hint of ginger in it. The breast was thinly sliced and seared well.

Fresh pomelo with lime sorbet and meringue made for a good ending of the six course meal. The pomelo was a little sour, but when eaten with the lime sorbet was delicious. The lime sorbet was also refreshing. The meringue had a good texture too.

The head chef came out to offer us a plate of fruits on the house. There were grapes, tree cucumbers, green mango and soft coconut slices. The most interesting thing was that the fruits were paired with chilli sugar. Upon tasting, it really was more like Tom yum sugar. The grapes were sweet. However, the tree cucumber was quite acidic and sour, a taste which was alleviated with the sugar. I thought it was great that the chef chose tree cucumbers as it is hard to come by in other cuisines.

Upon paying the bill, I was also offered Tamarind candy, which tasted a lot like hawthorn.

THE STAFF While I enjoyed the food at Cuisine Wat Damnak, I'm not sure I can say for the same for service. It was great that they were able to seat us in an air conditioned area at the last minute. We tried to book a table in advance but they were apparently fully booked. Called on the day at 6pm and there were tables available. The staff are attentive in checking whether you have any allergies. While I was attempting to order herbal tea, the waitress could not recall what varieties there were and proceeded to retrieve another menu. During the prawn sour soup dish, one of the waiters poured the soup into the bowl, but did not notice that some of the soup had spilled onto my friend's lap. It was fortuitous that my friend had a napkin on his lap. When I called for the bill, the waitress was wiping a table and she decided that it was more of a priority to complete wiping down a table that had no one else coming. After returning to the kitchen and coming back out she still had no bill in her hands. After she caught my eye, she immediately went back to...

Food that takes you on a journey – A must visit that comes only second to the temples!

I was in Siem Reap for a birthday treat and got taken here for a birthday treat. It was the best dining experience I’ve had for a very long time. We travelled by tuktuk down unlit roads to a quiet part of town, where we were warmly greeted outside the restaurant.

We sat upstairs and it was full of charm. Interesting sculptures and paintings, perfect lighting and a very calm and relaxed atmosphere. The service was attentive but non-invasive, as if they weren’t even there. The concept, Cambodian and Khmer (note that there is a difference, such as the latter not using shrimp paste) cuisine through the use of French culinary technique and seasonal ingredients. Celebrity chefs often ramble on about ‘terroir’ and each course took me on a journey of the ‘terroir’. Each dish was interesting, so much so that my girlfriend has a photo of my face practically in the bowl trying to smell and look at the different ingredients. It was even rarer that my vegetarian girlfriend found the dishes exciting.

The menu changes on a fortnightly basis depending on what is available in the local markets, but the duck saraman was the star for me. A rich curry that had complex flavours with many layers. I just wished that I got served a bit of rice with it so I could mix it in with the sauce at the end. For the negative Nigels of the world, this is comparatively expensive to a meal around pub street. But when you have meals for above £100 in many taster menus in London, it will be the best bargain you find in Siem Reap.

I would think that not many people will revisit Siem Reap over and over again. For that, why don’t you add a once in a lifetime dining experience to your once in a lifetime trip to Cambodia!

Some tips:

1. Book in advance - the restaurant is very popular. When a table finished around 9, they weren’t in a rush to reset and accept more customers, which I felt was excellent and added to the relaxed atmosphere.
2. Sit upstairs – the fan cooled wooden house is full of charm. The lighting is perfect, decorations wonderful and very comfortable seats.
3. Have the 6 course menu - I had a 6 course meal for $31, whereas the 5 course was $25. It’s worth it!
4. Speak to the chef! – the chef came out with a selection of unusual fruits to try for every table. It’s a wonderful touch and a great opportunity to speak to someone who’s very approachable.
5. Ask your tuktuk driver to come back for you – If you didn’t mind tipping an extra few dollars, ask for your driver to come back and collect you or they sometimes just wait. It’s a little off the beaten track and may be a bit harder to...

Utterly disappointed, I had very high hopes for this restaurant and unfortunately it fell short of anything I wanted, before getting into the poor aspects of this evening out I would like to highlight the positives, initially as we walked in we were greeted with a fantastic smile and warm reception we had the meal explained to us in a fantastic way and I was pleased, after we sat down however it's the small things I started to notice. We ordered three cocktails to start the night and all fell short of what I would've expected for a fine dining restaurant, one was way too strong (ginger vodka drinks) and the other two lacked in any fulfilling flavours (mojito and Collins).

Now onto the food, first course was a nice introduction to the night with a pleasent seafood dish, the following 3 courses were the highlight of the night in my opinion, pork, mackerel and beef tounge were extremely flavourful and the flavours were balanced perfectly which gave me hope for the mains. The first main ( jungle curry) came out and honestly was close to inedible, the lime in the dish was so overpowering and there was nothing to balance the flavour out the other aspects of the dish were honestly terrible. The second main (pan fried quail and dumplings) was horrendous, I was wondering why they didn't give us a knife for how tough the quail breast was, everything on the plate was tough to eat, the mushrooms had zero flavour, the jus was like water and the greens on top seriously tasted like dishwasher detergent I couldn't finish the food.

Now onto the desserts, the first dessert was quite nice and nice combination of flavors and I really enjoyed it, the second dessert however ( churros) was really below average. The churros were blonde as opposed to golden brown, the fudge served was terrible and the coffee nibs on top tasted like coco pops. The fruit course was very average to finish the night off as well, they served too many sour fruits with a weird and confusing sweet spicy salt which was left to take back the the kitchen.

Finally onto the service as much as the staff was super friendly and nice the small things you expect from this price range of food want up to standard, they served a course while one of my friends was in the bathroom, the whole dinner felt rushed, there were no placemats or coasters on the tables and the sparkling water we had wasn't chilled so it basically heated up as the dinner progressed.

In sum, I believe this restaurant needs to reassess the menu and fine tune there services especially when they are in the same category for the Embassy in Siem Riep which I would recommend ten times over...