Four Seasons Restaurant, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Four Seasons Restaurant

Sivatha Road

(opposite Pub Street)

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Four Seasons

Whilst there are many Cambodians of Chinese origin, and even more Chinese tourists these days, good Chinese food is not necessarily easy to find in Siem Reap. It is not just good Chinese food that is hard to find either, like many popular tourist destinations that started off as small sleepy villages there is a) not really a well established restaurant scene and b) many restaurants seem to approach business here with a sort of "our-customers-are-just-one-shot-tourists-that-never-come-back" attitude and not much attention is paid to good food.

Luckily, some things do not change; especially when it comes to Chinese restaurants: they are either called "Four Seasons" or "Ming Dynasty", the Chenglish is impossible to decipher ("Fried spared with bitter lemon" anyone?) and the interior is not very inspired.

Menu for Chinese Restaurants worldwide all come from the same factory it seems.

Who cares as long as the food is good though. The Four Seasons has a reputation of making very good noodle soup and is a popular place for breakfast. I went for dinner this time and, whilst ordering the soup anyway, I also wanted to see what else the menu has to offer.

The menu has a good 15 pages but from the taste I would assume that everything on it is prepared fresh. Prices are quite reasonable with most dishes in the USD 4.00 - 8.00 Dollar range for meat and vegetable dishes. Most seafood dishes have daily prices and some items need to be ordered in advance; I should think that these dishes cost considerably more (the prices for those are in Chinese). I have no idea what drinks cost as I never did get to see a drinks menu and subsequently stuck with the "Red Tea" that the staff kept on pouring.

The famous noodle soup; go for the pork thoufh.

Ordering is not too easy as the wait staff speak absolutely no English. However, the restaurant manager(?) was around and he spoke excellent English and I managed to get my order squared aqay. The couple of times I have eaten herepreviously I have had the Fried Dumplings. Stuffed with herbs and minced meat they are really delicious and I ordered these again. As I had very bad Sweet-and-sour pork in another restaurant a couple of days ago; I thought I'd see if they can do it better in this restaurant. With all the oil and fat I had Broccoli with oil sauce to add some more calories.....

The dumplings are great.

The soup came first and was really quite good. The noodles are hand-made and prepared to order and the broth is delicious. I would suggest that you stay away from the duck and order the soup with pork instead; the duck was pretty much bones only.

Nothing instant about the noodles here.

The Sweet n' sour pork came next. Much better than what I had had a couple of days earlier. The meat was obviously battered and fried to order, and it was meat; not just gristle and fat. The sauce was a tad to lemony for me; I prefer the "sour" to come from vinegar instead of lemon juice.

Sweet and Sour pork, no Chinese restaurant that does not have this on the menu.

The broccoli was excellent and luckily there was no oil in sight. Instead it was steamed to perfection, still crunchy, with just a little soy sauce. I love broccoli and I think the reason so many people dislike it because they have only had the cooked-to-death variety, leaving a great vegetable mushy and bland.

The dumplings once again did not disappoint. Piping hot and not oily at all. Not too sure what the herb is they use in the stuffing, but it certainly is good.

Portions are quite big and there is complimentary steamed rice with the main courses constantly being replenished by the staff. Service was good, apart from the communication difficulties. Actually, the service was almost a little to attentive; the waitresses would stand right by the tables and punce as soon as they thought there was something to top up. Well intentioned but a tad intrusive.

The restaurant can get very crowded during the high season and the lay-out of the restaurant can make dining a very noisy experience; especially if there are a couple of Chinese groups present. Not an issue during the current low season but you might want to come fairly late when Siem Reap is busy; the Chinese groups come early. Even when it is quiet the Four Seasons is not the place for a romantic tete-a-tete as the restaurant has absolutely no charme whatsoever.

No design awards to be won here.

I would not go as far as saying the Four Seasons has outstanding Chinese food but it certainly is one of the better choices in Siem Reap. If you know of any really good Chinese restaurant, or any good restaurant for that matter, in Siem Reap then do leave a recommendation.

Food: ***

Ambience: There isn't any.

Value for money: ****

Recommended: Yes.

Coriander, Thai Restaurant, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Coriander Restaurant

185 Bui Vien Street, District 1

Ho Chi Minh City

Opening hours 09:30 - 13:30

There are not many Thai restaurants in the Pham Ngu Lao area, actually this is the only one I recall seeing. I had not planned on eating here as the exterior is little inspiring to be honest. However, the Mumtaz, where I had planned to eat, was full and this was opposite the Mumtaz so I gave it a shot.

Very basic interior.

The interior was cleaner than the outside let me expect and the staff where on me in a flash to hand me the menu. The choice is fairly large without being too large and has all the run-of-the-mill Thai favorites: Pad Thai, Khao Pad and curries. Surprisingly enough they also have Spaghetti on the menu; perhaps a concession to the backpackers. I would have liked to see more curries as their choice is limited to Green and Red curry.

Spaghetti in a Thai restaurant?

Prices are quite reasonable with starters in the VND 35,000 - 60,000 range, salads and rice dishes around VND 60,000, curries VND 70,000 and main dishes from VND 35,000 to 150,000 (the latter a whole sea bass). Drinks are also not expensive, a fruit juice will set you back VND 20,000 and the cheapest beer, Sai Gon Green, costs a measly VND 12,000. If you want a drinkable beer than a large bottle of Tiger is only VND 20,000.

Order taken, I settled back with my coconut juice and tried to read. This was no easy task as the staff and owners were engaged in a very lively discussion. Vietnamese culture tends to border on the noisy but this was ridiculous, my ears were ringing by the time I left the restaurant; so much for a quiet lunch break. My theory is that the constant noise so prevalent in Vietnamese cities has resulted in most people being borderline deaf; thus the constant shouting.

Food arrived quickly and the portions were more than generous. I had asked for deep-fried shrimp patties to be served as a starter but, as usual failed and everything was served in one go. The patties were not bad though, not as rubbery as they often are; I would have liked a little more kick though. The sauce that came with the patties was out of the bottle and sweet like heck. It would have been nice to have some fish sauce, Thai or Vietnamese, with chillies. When I first came to Vietnam fish sauce was served as a matter of principle (and it still is so in Thailand); regrettably many restaurants have shifted to Maggi or something similar; a sauce that is just salty and tastes like crap really.

Fried shrimp patties.

The spicy beef salad was quite good though again lacking the necessary punch that is part of Thai cuisine. I pass that particular restaurant quite often and see that it is popular with Vietnamese punters; my guess is that they keep the food moderately hot for that market.

The salad was pretty good.

I had ordered pan-fried minced pork with Holy Basil and fried egg as the main dish. Not bad at all and this was the one dish that had a at least a little zest to it. As mentioned earlier the portions were way too large for me; like many Asian cuisines, Thai food is best eaten in a group so one can sample a little of everything.

Pan-fried minced Pork.

It would be more than a slight exaggeration to say that this was the best Thai food I ever had. However, considering its location in the backpacker area (where good food is a bit of a rarity) and the prices; I still think it is a solid choice and an alternative to all the restaurants lining Pham Ngu Lao and Bui Vien serving the same pseudo-Vietnamese food. Should the need for Thai food strike again, and should I be too lazy to head for the arguably better restaurants around Dong Khoi, I will certainly be back.

Food: ***

Ambiance: *

Value for money: ***

Recommended: For a quick Thai fix, yes.