Khema Restaurant La Poste
House 41 Street 13, Phnom Penh

Service 3.5/5
Food 4/5
Value for money 4/5
Ambience 4/5

Khema Angkor Restaurant
Achar Sva Street, Corner Street 22 Siem Reap

Service 3/5
Food 3/5
Value for money 3/5
Ambience 4/5

A few years ago, when I was working in Siem Reap, I went to Khema on Pasteur Street a few times and always enjoyed both service and food. It wasn't cheap back then, but I though value for money was pretty good.

Thus, when my girlfriend visited me a few weeks ago, we decided to go for brunch at the Khema Restaurant La Poste. When we arrived, there were just two other tables but ordering was certainly not straightforward. The first waitress that came to our table did not speak English and did not understand that we wanted the "free flow" Brunch. Is that actually a thing? How do you free flow eggs? Anyway, ditto the second waitress, who also did not speak English. They actually both looked like trainees and seemed very scared. Finally, a very friendly waitress with excellent English came along and we managed to order our food.



The brunch is USD 21.00++, so make that 25 Dollars net per person. It does include beverages, so we ordered a hot Cappuccino and an iced Latte. The coffees took a rather lengthy 20 minutes to make and the Latte came as a hot Latte. Not a big deal, but there were a total of 7 guests in the restaurant; should not have been difficult. Anyway, the waitress apologized and offered us a couple of complimentary juices.

The food was very good, apart from the soup of the day, which was inedible, as it was way too salty. The sausage that came with the fried eggs was fantastic; if anyone knows where they get it from... (Just realize I did not take a photo of the eggs and, in particular, the sausage. It was huge.



So. overall not too bad with good food, spotty service (I had to continuously refill our water as none of the staff did); and a restaurant that was boiling. My girlfriend is not a big fan of A/C, but she was melting as well.



Fast forward to earlier this week when I visited my daughter in Siem Reap. We needed breakfast and my daughter likes the breakfast there. There were five of us, and we ordered across the menu. Even though we were the only guests, food took very long and arrived very far apart. This is something I hate. What do you do? Start eating whilst everyone else is waiting? Wait for all the other food to arrive and eat cold eggs?

I had ordered the English breakfast, which was a little disappointing and resembled nothing like the photo in the menu. I got a tiny slice of toast and two stamp-sized pieces of bacon. At USD 11.00++ not exactly a bargain. A couple of people had "bai sach chrouk" at USD 5.50++. It was proclaimed OK, but the general consensus was that the lady next to our house made it better and at only 6,000 Riel a plate.




To fingernail-sized pieces of bacon....

We had a few glasses of watermelon and orange juice, exorbitantly priced at USD 3.50++ for a tiny glass. I was therefore not happy to see that on the bill the orange juice was no USD 4.50. When I questioned this, I was told that it was because of tax and service charge, which is obviously bushit as the takes are added at the end of the bill. They then blamed a system error but I left the restaurant feeling that they were trying to rip me off.

A very mixed experience in both locations and I might not be back any time soon.

hanno wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 11:43 am


To fingernail-sized pieces of bacon....

That's fine dining for you

Big plates, tiny food

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:02 pm

hanno wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 11:43 am


To fingernail-sized pieces of bacon....

That's fine dining for you

Big plates, tiny food

Are we classing khema as fine dining these days?

Have been to the PP ones a few times. I think the free flow breakfast and lunches are very good value for money.

The service is quite often poor, and if you are in a rush not the best place to go. But if you can take a leisurely breakfast or lunch and are hungry it's not bad.

I do think quite a few of the dishes are on the saltier side

cautious colin wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:05 pm

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:02 pm

hanno wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 11:43 am


To fingernail-sized pieces of bacon....

That's fine dining for you

Big plates, tiny food

Are we classing khema as fine dining these days?

Have been to the PP ones a few times. I think the free flow breakfast and lunches are very good value for money.

The service is quite often poor, and if you are in a rush not the best place to go. But if you can take a leisurely breakfast or lunch and are hungry it's not bad.

I do think quite a few of the dishes are on the saltier side

I'm hardly a gourmand, but it's a step up from blue dolphin

[quote="Jerry Atrick" post_id=590284 time=1681625360

I'm hardly a gourmand, but it's a step up from blue dolphin
[/quote]

True, although you're setting a low bar there

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:09 pm
I'm hardly a gourmand, but it's a step up from blue dolphin

The setting certainly is, not so sure about the breakfast.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:26 pm

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 1:09 pm
I'm hardly a gourmand, but it's a step up from blue dolphin

The setting certainly is, not so sure about the breakfast.

That maybe true. But it's never a good idea to go to a 'higher end' restaurant for certain things.

Definitely English breakfast and a traditional Cambodian breakfast are best at a cafe or roadside stall respectively

I liked Khéma Pasteur when it first opened, a three course lunch with a glass of wine was about $20 iirc.

A nice piece of fish



But they stopped including drinks and offered glasses of wine @ $6 where a bottle of equivalent quality would cost $8 here. You looked at the other diners drinking tap water or diet coke and couldn't help thinking they were trying to bring you in with the cheap menu and then make money on the booze. And failing.

I never liked Khéma la Poste, would describe it as faux French airport cuisine. Service was always terrible, dishes arriving at random as mentioned, often cold and in minuscule portions. Navarin d'agneau about a quarter of the size of a Naga $5 curry. And the freeflow marketing thing impacted the quality.

But the random serving of dishes is a general problem in Asia. Their dining culture isn't so much processional as communal, often a bit of a free for all involving shared dishes. Over the years in many restos (and some good) it was always prudent to order just one course at a time.

Stravaiger wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 7:08 pm
But the random serving of dishes is a general problem in Asia. Their dining culture isn't so much processional as communal, often a bit of a free for all involving shared dishes. Over the years in many restos (and some good) it was always prudent to order just one course at a time.

This is very true.