by Jarrod Zickefoose Wednesday July 15, 2009,
Roath Bun, co-owner of Phnom Penh, in the dining room at the W. 25th Street location, near the West Side Market in Ohio City.
Cambodia does not exactly have a lot going for it. Known mostly for the violent Khmer Rouge regime and crippling poverty, the country, surrounded by Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, is probably not the first place you think of when planning the family vacation.
However, one thing the country does have going for it is its food. Cambodian cuisine is a mixture of its surrounding influences with some distinctive local touches. Think chilies, lemongrass, galanga root, and tamarind.
Bayon at Phnom Penh, a mixture of curry with zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, green beans and snow peas. You choose your protein or go vegetarian.
While not many restaurants specialize in Cambodian cuisine, two spots on Cleveland's Near West Side are putting out fine Cambodian and Vietnamese food. Phnom Penh, with locations near the West Side Market on West 25th Street and on Lorain Avenue, will please those seeking something out of the ordinary.
Mono Bun opened the Lorain spot a decade ago. The West 25th restaurant followed.
The menus at both offer more than 100 items, and most represent a lot of bang for the buck. Many entrees are the same dish with a different protein -- Asian basil fried rice with chicken or pork, for example (each $6.15). Most of the food -- including noodles -- is made in-house.
Diners are asked to specify the level of spiciness they prefer on a scale of "not spicy," "mild," "medium," or "hot." Be warned that the meaning of these designations varies depending on who is in the kitchen, and a friend and I have ordered the same dish on the same night with differing levels of spice -- hers medium, mine hot -- to find our entrees indistinguishable.
A favorite is the Salad Phnom Penh ($5.05). Finely shredded cabbage is combined with chicken, onion, bean sprouts, carrots, red basil, green peppers and peanuts and served with garlic sauce. The flavors are bright and subtle with a bit of citrus.
The vegetarian spring roll ($1.10) will stain a take-out bag with grease, but at the same time manages to be light and flaky. It's served with an exceptional, delicate slightly sweet sauce.
For this diner, no trip to Phnom Penh is complete without an order of the hue beef soup ($3.05 small, $6.10 large). The soup is a rich orange-red beef broth with slices of beef brisket, spices and wonderful round rice noodles. The soup is so spicy it will clear your sinuses, but there is nothing like it. A small order is enough for two.
Another wonderful dish is the Kuy Teav Chha Khmer ($6.10-$9.05). It's a mixture of your choice of protein or vegetables with carrots, cabbage, fried eggs, bean sprouts, Asian basil, scallions, ground peanuts and a house sauce tossed with rice noodles. All ingredients are chopped with great skill, so the dish presents itself as dense, aromatic and full of flavor. Again, watch out for the spice.
Phnom Penh does not serve alcohol.
Phnom Penh is at 1929 W. 25th St. and 13124 Lorain Ave., both in Cleveland. Hours, which may vary, are 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2-9 p.m. Sunday. Call (216) 357-2951 (W. 25th) or (216) 251-1230 (Lorain).
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