Friends The Restaurant, Phnom Penh
215 Street 13
Phnom Penh
We visited Friends back in November 2011 and absolutely loved it. I don’t know how come I forgot to post about it. Anyway, on our next trip to Phnom Penh, we were keen to try the place again, and I’m pleased to say we weren’t disappointed. It was superb again, and is definitely a restaurant you should try if you’re in Phnom Penh.
The interesting thing, though, is that it’s not just a restaurant like any other. It’s a training restaurant which exists to provide opportunities for former Cambodian street kids. It’s a very laudable cause, as I’m sure you’ll agree, but the amazing thing is that putting aside the charitable aims of this place, the food itself is incredibly good. I would have been happy to pay for food of that quality in any commercial establishment.
The food covers a variety of cuisines, Western and Asian, and it’s served tapas-style with relatively small portions (priced accordingly). This is great because it gives you the opportunity to try lots of different things rather than having to opt for one big plate of the same thing.
So, let’s have a look at what we had.
There’s a large tapas menu with lots of vegetarian options, fish, and meat dishes too. We went for the roasted pepper, courgette and rocket spring rolls with basil lemon mayonnaise. These are the raw type of spring rolls rather than the ubiquitous deep-fried version. They were very good and probably our favourite of the dishes we sampled.
We also had fish and potato cakes with a roasted red pepper coulis, which were also tasty. The stir fried beef with oyster mushrooms was pleasantly peppery and the beef was tender. We had Khmer grilled pork fillet with a lotus and beansprout pickle, which was an interesting diversion and very good. And also a smoky aubergine dip with crusty French bread.
We left very full and satisfied.
The ambience of the place is very pleasant with friendly staff and good service. The presentation and quality of the food couldn’t be faulted. And you can have a warm, fuzzy feeling by knowing you’re helping a worthwhile project. I’m not the only person to think this as Friends is currently No. 1 on TripAdvisor for their readers’ top restaurants. Interestingly, TA’s No. 2 is a sister restaurant of Friends. It’s Romdeng – those guys who serve the fried tarantulas. Yes. I know that I really need to go and check that out but I’m frightened of spiders. We’ll see…
There’s also a Friends shop next door to the Friends restaurant which sells clothes and crafts made by others on the Mith Samlanh projects. It’s all really good quality stuff. (Mith samlanh is Khmer for “friends”.) Also, if you want to help them there are various ways to donate or support their projects, including buying a brick for $50. The brick is individually painted by one of the Friends children and is used to build their centre in Phnom Penh.
Friends International is the umbrella NGO for all these wonderful projects. Please support them if you can, even if it’s only to go and treat yourself to a good scoff. You’d be hard pushed to find better food in Phnom Penh anyway. Highly recommended!
One Response to “Friends The Restaurant, Phnom Penh”
I’ve managed to find the notes we took when we visited back in November.
We’ve tried other dishes besides those mentioned above. They are:
Chinese spinach and cheese ravioli – which were large and generously filled, not the little postage stamps with a pathetic tiny blob of filling, and came on a tomato and basil sauce
Crispy rice noodle salad with lime and chili sauce – very nice, although the noodles rapidly lost their crispiness; light yet filling. A bit like a Thai som tam without the fieriness. We commented at the time that it was our least preferred dish of what we’d ordered, but only because we’d enjoyed everything else so much!
Courgette and cheddar fritters – not quite what we expected as they looked rather like falafel but without the pulses. Again, nice enough, but they didn’t wow us as much as some of the others. (We were rather full by the time we’d finished, and the staff were happy to pack them for us. They weren’t bad as a cold snack.)
There’s seating both outside and in – we chose to sit outside, in a courtyard that stretches the length of the front of the building. It’s pleasantly breezy, and not just because of the standard fans.
As on our second visit, we were very impressed by the quality of both the food and the service. It really is hard to believe it’s a training restaurant – it compares favourably with many of the other restaurants we’ve visited in PP!