Alamo Cafe - Tex-Mex and American Food in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Discussions about restaurants, cafes, coffee shops or bars in Cambodia. Feel free to write any reviews you have, whether its the best burger you've had in Phnom Penh or the worse pizza in Kampot, we want to read it! Discussions about Khmer dishes are also in here, or you can leave your own. If you own a restaurant, feel free to let the expat community know about it here so that we can come check it out. Found a favorite cafe or have a place we should avoid? Tell us about it. Asian recipes & questions are always welcome.
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Cam Nivag
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Cam Nivag »

Arget wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 9:03 pm

So reading through your drivel.
You enjoyed the food you ordered.
You did not read the menu when ordering and did not ask for fries.
You wanted something they were out of stock.

So you write " I was very disappointed with the food and the service."

This is a crap way of joining a online forum by having a go at a small business that you "had read and heard a lot good things about the food."

Heed the prior advice on good news and bad news. =@
Participation on the forum should be encouraged. This post is not "drivel." It was an informative first post, giving a detailed review of what was good and what was bad about an experience at a restaurant aimed at Westerners. The OP read the menu, and ordered off the menu. The restaurant was out of stock of 2 of the 6 side dishes, that's a fair criticism.

The menu says the main dishes come with a choice of fries or side salad, and the OP was never offered the choice (and never informed the staff of his preference). We don't know if the staff just assumes everyone wants salad or if the restaurant was also out of french fries.

Let's not turn the site into the Kampot Noticeboard, where honest reviews of businesses owned by friends of the admins are only welcome if they are glowing and any other opinion is shouted down or censored or belittled as "drivel."
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Arget »

And this drivel is coming from you?

Save the righteous stuff for someone who gives a fuck what you think.

The OP said the food was good but shot the establishment down. To what end if not looking for a "freebee"

Sorry CN I disagree with the you about a lot of your comments.

Feel free to be the great and wise legal knowall of Cambodia and even the world but get real sometimes.

All this and I had an early night and no beer.

Have a great day all.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Cam Nivag »

Arget wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 7:53 am
The OP said the food was good but shot the establishment down. To what end if not looking for a "freebee"

Sorry CN I disagree with the you about a lot of your comments.

Feel free to be the great and wise legal knowall of Cambodia and even the world but get real sometimes.

Perhaps the poster shared his genuine opinion of the pros and cons of the restaurant's food and service, not with the hidden agenda of trying to get a freebie, but for the benefit of readers of the site. Not everything in life has to be a wacky conspiracy theory, sometimes the simplest explanation is correct. I learned that at great wise knowall school.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by ryker »

Freebie? As I stated I don't even live in Cambodia anymore, I won't have another chance visit the restaurant for at least another six months. You really think this some plan to score 12 dollars worth of food 6 months or a year from now? What kind of people are you around?

I posted the review because I was excited to try the place and let down. I also don't stay in central PP when I visit, I'm about an hour outside the city, so I try to plan my non-khmer meals wisely on my trips. But none of that information seemed necessary to add.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Alamo Cafe »

ryker wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:12 pm Last week during my visit I tried this place for the first time, as it opened after I left Cambodia. I went on a Friday around 12:30 for lunch.

I was very disappointed with the food and the service. Admittedly, I had high hopes as I had read and heard a lot good things about the food.

While I was looking at the menu, I was told they didn't have their famous mac n cheese or the croquettes, both things that I was planning on ordering, I was bummed but just found some other stuff to order.

I settled on the jalapeno poppers and the ribs. I ordered both for takeaway. The staff did not ask me whether or not I wanted fries or salad, I assumed they all came with fries but that's also my mistake for not reading the menu so clear. When I got home and opened the boxes, I realized they had both come with salad. A very simple salad that I assume was given instead of fries either because they were out of fries or because its much easier to make a salad. Maybe that's why they didn't ask which one I preferred.

The ribs and the poppers were good. Only downside was that one jalapeno popper had no cream cheese inside, I understand this a small thing but on top of them already being out of their famous mac n cheese and the croquettes, it was annoying.

I'm aware they were closed the previous weekend for a wedding (because I tried to go eat there on that weekend) but surely 4 days after being closed for the weekend they should be able to keep the product in stock.

Im willing to try again next visit and understand this may have been a one-off.
Sorry, I just saw this post or I would have responded sooner. While I appreciate people standing up for us, I have no problem at all with this post. You gave what certainly appears to be an honest opinion and report, and that is all I ask for. If you had been dining in, we would have appreciated you telling us first and giving us a chance to fix our mistakes, but I certainly don't expect anyone to drive back over after a takeaway or delivery order.

I'd like to start by apologizing for what happened. You were the victim of really bad timing, but that in no way makes your experience acceptable. We woke up the day after our wedding to discover that our large commercial refrigerator was not working. We had just stocked up on meat and cheese a couple of days earlier (in the middle of wedding prep) because Mrs. Alamo knew that she would be taking time with her visiting family right after the wedding. We lost everything in it except for the cider, but were glad to discover it was a blown power strip not a blown compressor. We WILL run out of the mac and cheese occasionally. Smoked items have a two day lead time and we can't always judge it correctly. We had two kilos of cheese sitting in the fridge ready to be grated and smoked first thing Monday morning, and it was just a greasy mess by the time we discovered the problem. Even though this happened on Sunday, we had so much going on that it was Tuesday or maybe even Wednesday before everything was completely restocked. That was partly our fault and partly due to unreliable suppliers. We came really close to closing on Monday, but hated to do so after we had already been closed for 3 days and specifically said on our Facebook page that we would be open.

My wife (who IS Alamo Cafe--I just help with the online stuff) was away a lot this past week with visiting family who came for our wedding, and left her sister and our son in charge far more often than usual. While both are quite competent when it comes to cooking food, they do not have the boss's customer-focused attitude or English language ability. The menu does say that all main courses come with a choice of fries or salad, but they absolutely should have asked you.

As for the cheese-less jalapeno, all I can say is that luck REALLY was not with you that day. I have never heard of that happening, and I eat a lot of them myself.

I hope you do come back and let us try to get it right. I'm sorry that it will be so long until you have a chance to do so. If you will send me a message through our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/alamocambodia before you come, and if the Pages Manager app works correctly and I actually get notified, I'll check first to let you know if we have everything you are wanting, and make sure that you get a free drink and extra large portions.
Great food for dine-in, delivery, or take-away. Call 085 540 525.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Deefer »

Cam Nivag wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 6:03 pm
Duncan wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:39 pm And always remember this..... If it's good... Tell the world. ..
.
If it's bad or your unhappy tell the manager.
Why? Why not tell the manager if it's good and tell the world if it's bad? That way, you don't have to have an awkward conversation with a possibly defensive, dickhead manager who thinks you're trying to get a free meal.
I fully agree that in general practice, should the matter be of a minor nature, this can be immediately and amicably resolved by informing the restaurant staff. To not say anything, then to go back to your residence and become an avenging keyboard warrior is not the way to go about it.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Alamo Cafe »

I'm in the strange position of having to defend the person who criticized our business, but the way I read this, I don't think he realized he had salad instead of fries until he got to where he was staying, and that was somewhere outside Phnom Penh--and he certainly did not know until he started eating that one of the jalapenos was missing the cream cheese.
Great food for dine-in, delivery, or take-away. Call 085 540 525.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by prahocalypse now »

ryker wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:12 pm
I settled on the jalapeno poppers ...
The ribs and the poppers were good. Only downside was that one jalapeno popper had no cream cheese inside...
Poppers are inhalants which were really popular in gay bars in the 1970s and 1980s.

They relax the anal and throat muscles and thus were often used by the passive guy in an anal sex encounter and by those men who were deep-throating guys with really big penises.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by Arget »

your subject matter knowledge is extensive and specific . I guess you did a lot of research.
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Re: Free drinks for CEO members from Alamo Cafe in Phnom Penh

Post by that genius »

Arget wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:51 pm your subject matter knowledge is extensive and specific . I guess you did a lot of research.
Sounds like he's been around the world.
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