Cambodia’s Kitchen review 2022: Chinatown newcomer behind city’s great-value lunch spot

Try Cambodian soups, noodles and snacks at this family-run restaurant without breaking the bank.

Kara Monssen

3 min read

November 16, 2022 - 11:55AM

Food

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They washed in and out like a wave.

Hoards of hungry mouths, ravenously devouring every inch of this new city restaurant for their midweek fix, before receding into the concrete jungle.

Cambodia’s Kitchen goes from chaos to calm once more.

I know why they’re here, too.

Chef Linna Hun makes mighty fine khor ko, a sweet-edged beef noodle soup packing plenty of Phnom Penh street cred.

Swirling with noods of your choosing (the two-minute kind is tradition, but go egg), tender gravy beef and meatballs rolled out the back — it’s bubbling with depth and intensity beyond

its humble $16.90 price tag.

Cambodia’s famous khor ko, beef egg noodle soup, with beef meatballs and tripe. Picture: Tony Gough

A Cambodian breakfast banger, playing the card of warm blanket on a Melbourne spring night or a hot cuppa on a crisp morning — a star power dish that’ll have you riding that lunchtime wave every week.

Cambodia’s Kitchen isn’t our first portal to Phnom Penh.

Plenty of restaurants have come before, especially around Springvale, and since May CK has been a sweet relief for both WFO (work from office) crowds and those scratching for Chinatown cheap eats.

Linna and brother Ivanra keep it simple at their Russell St restaurant.

Think 44 seats inside a ho-hum dining room, flanked either side with decorative awnings and ornamental wicker lamp shades overhead.

A soundtrack of Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift buzzes from the speakers.

The menu has photos of each dish and is printed out and slotted into a plastic display folder. There’s no booze (until the liquor licence soon lands), just soft drinks, tea and coconut juice. Things are affordable: you’ll burn max $20 on a feed of either soup, rice and protein combos and golden fried snacks.

And you can save 5 per cent off the bill if you opt for old-school ordering at the till with cash or card. For those after a swift, no-interaction transaction there’s an app; a practical solution to staff shortages yet passive approach to service, especially if you need a “what’s good on the menu” run-through like I did.

Our waiter, the only person on the floor this midweek lunch service, is immensely helpful – steering us down traditional and tasty paths.

Like those chive cakes ($10 for five): cute crisp cubes with chewy centres countered by a sweet chilli dunking sauce. A fine start.

Seafood curry ‘Amok’ with rice. Picture: Tony Gough

Next are the meat and rice combos: pork neck strips ($15.90 each) are marinated in a secret spice mix with oyster sauce and palm sugar then dunked in the fryer until crisp.

The meat is a touch dry, yet well-seasoned and can be ordered on its own if you don’t want the full meal of rice, pork broth, pickled veg and a fried egg. It’s probably best to take that route, especially if the khor ko is en route.

Or if you’ve ordered the amok ($18.90), the country’s famous fish curry.

Banana-leaf steamed flake lazes in a luscious, red lava-like sauce brimming with coconut, lemongrass and spice without slap. Indulgently good.

Linna makes most things from scratch.

The broth? Yes. Pork loaf? A family recipe that frequently gets a whirl at dinner parties. Noodles? All five are bought in, including the three variations on rice, as well as the egg and instant.

Cambodian fried pork on rice with pickles. Picture: Tony Gough

Those doughnut sticks? Nada.

Most creations also see the bottom of the fryer, which is fine considering CK is sharing its street food faves but, depending on how you order, you’ll be craving a fresh interlude.

Perhaps these snacks are part of a wider plan of opening the minds and mouths of many who haven’t even heard of, let alone tasted, Cambodian food.

I often wonder why the cuisine, so inoffensively delicious, hasn’t taken off in this city like other Southeast Asian eats. But Linna and Ivanra are on to a good thing — and don’t the lunch folk know it.