Phnom Penh eats early and eats hard: rice-noodle soup at 6am, fermented prahok fish paste in almost everything, and Kampot pepper on the crab. Three days through wet markets, family kitchens, street grills and riverside bars.
The 1937 art-deco dome opens 07:00–18:00. Skip the jewellery aisles for the west-wing food hall: kuy teav noodle soup, num banh chok rice noodles with green fish curry, and iced coffee with condensed milk from 3,000 riel.
A no-frills pork-broth noodle shop that locals queue at from dawn. Kuy teav comes with pork liver, minced pork and prawn; add bean sprouts, lime, chilli paste and sugar from the tray yourself. Cash only, open 06:00–14:00.
The market's northeast corner is a low-ceilinged canteen of 20-odd stalls: num pang pâté baguettes, grilled pork with rice (bai sach chrouk), fresh mango with chilli salt, and Kampot pepper sold loose by the 100g.
A leafy pedestrian alley off Street 240 lined with small kitchens and craft-beer taps. Cambodian-owned spots pour Kingdom and Riel brews alongside snack plates of pomelo salad, grilled squid and prahok ktis with raw vegetables.
Morning classes start with a guided market walk to buy galangal, lemongrass, turmeric and prahok, then cook fish amok in banana leaf, chha kroeung and a green mango salad. Runs roughly 09:00–13:00, English-speaking chefs.
Chef Luu Meng's flagship for refined Khmer cooking in a garden courtyard on Norodom Boulevard. The amok trey arrives in a banana-leaf cup, and the som lor machu kroeung sour soup and Kampot pepper beef are the benchmark versions in town.
Set in a colonial villa with a pool, Romdeng trains former street youth through the Friends International programme. The menu covers regional Khmer dishes plus the famous crispy fried tarantulas with lime-pepper dip. Open 11:00–21:00.
Open-air rooftop above the riverfront looking straight at Wat Ounalom and the Tonlé Sap. Cocktails lean on local ingredients — Kampot pepper, kaffir lime, palm sugar — and the bar stays open past midnight with light Khmer tapas.
Streets 278, 288 and 57 wake up with bai sach chrouk carts — charcoal-grilled marinated pork over broken rice with pickled cucumber and a bowl of clear broth. Vendors set up 06:00 and pack away by about 10:30.
Cambodia's baguette sandwich, a French colonial holdover: crisp bread filled with pork pâté, house-cured ham, pickled papaya and carrot, chilli, coriander and a squeeze of soy. Carts cluster near the corner with Norodom.
The riverside market where Phnom Penh kitchens buy prahok, fermented fish paste tubs, dried Tonlé Sap snakehead, palm sugar discs and river prawns. Busy 06:00–17:00, with snack stalls selling num kroch and sticky rice in bamboo.
The quay fills with charcoal grills of squid, chicken wings and beef skewers eaten with pickled vegetables, then the night moves to Bassac Lane off Street 308 — narrow bars pouring rice-spirit cocktails and Cambodian craft beer.