I Heart Cambodia Restaurant — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I have been wanting to try this place for a while and I am so glad that I did! It was a rainy day so it was a perfect day for soup! We were immediately greeted upon entering the establishment. Although it was empty when we got there but it was soon filled up with customers assuming they were waiting for the rainfall to stop. The waitress was very accommodating and offerred us tea or water.

Now the food.. We ordered the Phnom Penh Rice Noodle Soup and it was super delicious!! This broth was light but tasty and the fried garlic complimented the broth. The dish reminded me of home. The fishballs were so smooth, bouncy and tender. I've been on the hunt for such fishball texture since immigrating from Malaysia and I found them here! Highly recommend this dish if you're new to the Cambodian cuisine like me.

The second dish we got was the Somlor Machou Kroeung. On the menu, it says you can choose, beef, chicken or pork. The soup comes with Thai eggplants, tamarind mixed with herbs paste. The sole reason that I chose this soup was because of the Thai eggplants. But to my disappointment, the soup did not come with Thai eggplants. The soup was very hearty and it has a strong sour note. I love sour soups but the sourness was a bit overpowering. However, the meat was very tender. The dish was better when mixed with jasmine rice.

The reason for the 4 star - I asked the waitress why was the second dish missing Thai eggplants. At first, she was confused then she attempted to look through the remainder of the soup to "try" to find what I was talking about. When she realized that there were no Thai eggplants, she just came up with an excuse on the spot that when the restaurant doesn't get certain ingredients that day, then they will omit those ingredients. I don't think this is a good business practice considering that I was not told ahead of time about the lack of ingredient. I am all about supporting small businesses and did enjoy the dishes but wished she took my inquiry a bit more seriously as she didn't bother asking the chefs in the back.

My suggestion is before you order, make sure you ask the waitress to check with the chefs that all ingredients stated on the menu are available.

Despite this little hiccup, overall, this was a good experience and would...

I wasn't so familiar with Cambodian food and was admittedly a little overwhelmed by the options/menu here. We narrowed it down to two dishes and asked the waiter for his input on these, at which point he recommended two other dishes. Not sure where the miscommunication was, but we somehow ended up receiving all four dishes. Lots of leftovers.

We started with the pork noodle soup. This was familiar to things I've had before but with a thinner slice of pork, which was a nice change of pace. The broth was nice but I thought adding some chili oil really amped it up.

Next came the prahok ktis. We weren't so sure how to eat this: it's a dip? Or a spread? It's minced meat and comes with vegetables to use with it. I found the texture and taste to be very similar to mapo tofu in terms of the oiliness and minced meat and so therefore really didn't care for this dish.

Next came a beef dish, I THINK the steak & prorhok sauce (recommendation from the waiter so not totally sure which it was). This was my favorite of the day. The steak was plentiful and cooked wonderfully. The sauce was an interesting flavor with fermented fish that I quite enjoyed. Again, came with vegetables so wasn't sure if this was a dip or spread situation.

Finally, what everyone orders, was the sour soup. I'm sure this was technically done quite well but I very much am not into this dish. I had a hard time reconciling the pineapple with the rest of the flavors and absolutely the pineapple is the dominant flavor which, for a soup, I don't love.

The price would have been fine had we only gotten two dishes as intended, so would recommend clarifying before ordering. There are a lot of things we didn't try so would consider coming back to explore more but wasn't blown away by anything we had...

I went into this place not knowing anything about it (literally, my host and friends just told me to go to an address)-- but I Heart Cambodia left an impression so positive I cannot WAIT to go back!

It's a modest sized dining room that's clean and has several tables both small and larger ones with rotating lazy susan centers. I love the casual atmsphere cause it's perfect for a fun meal with friends or loved ones.

We has a large group of about 7 people and absolutely over-ordered but it was easily worth it!! We ordered many appetizers and entrees that were beautifully plated and served family style. We got: papaya salad, fried quails, sour fish soup (delicious and we asked for extra sour!), spring rolls, whole fried ginger fish, and two beef dishes.

ALL OF THE FOOD IS SO GOOD! flavorful, fresh, juicy in the right places and crispy in the others. I am a big fan of their papaya salad because it is made with not just fermented fish/shellfish paste, but has whole hunks of fermented crabs mixed and marinated in! The soup was nourishing. The quails were delightful to snack and munch on. You will find yourself licking every bit of the sauces that you can find, coveting it like gold. I am already looking forward to going...