On our honeymoon earlier this year, Dan and I had hoped to have dinner at the famous Cuisine Damnak Wat; however, it was closed during our visit to Cambodia!! In looking for a comparable restaurant, I came across The Sugar Palm in Siem Reap. While I am not at all confident it is comparable to Cuisine Damnak Wat, The Sugar Palm was an excellent choice for dinner on our honeymoon!
Made it!
The Sugar Palm is set in the Wat Damnak neighborhood of Siem Reap. We took a tuk tuk from our hotel, and we ran into a bit of difficulty finding the restaurant. Eventually we arrived, just in time for our dinner reservation.
To our enjoyable surprise, the Sugar Palm is a quite modern restaurant, especially for Siem Reap! I would describe the setting as modern tropical, complete with ponds and a bridge outside the restaurant.
Interior of the Sugar Palm!
More interior.
Outdoor seating area.
We sat down and ordered sparkling wine (hello, honeymoon!). The staff spoke pretty good English and everyone was very friendly. To start for our meal, we ordered, the tastiest pork spring rolls. Like the fried rice, I was loving the spring rolls in Cambodia, and these were exceptionally good. Like, really good! It was something about the way that they were fried. I loved them!
Pork spring rolls!
For dinner, since I was loving the fried rice so much, I went with chicken fried rice. Like the spring rolls, this was particularly tasty fried rice! It also looked quite pretty!
Fried rice.
As usual, Dan ordered a little more local, going with a pork soup with some sort of noodles. It was certainly interesting, and Dan seemed to like it!
A more local meal.
A close up of the noodles.
For dessert, we split the banana fritters (I think I was subconsciously trying to recreate my The Hut Natural lunch) with rum raisin ice cream. These were good but not as good as the one’s at The Hut Natural.
Banana fritters. Yum!!
STEAL OUR DINNER
The Sugar Palm Restaurant and Bar: Street 27, Siem Reap, Cambodia,
(opposite Pannasastra University). T: +855 (0) 12 818143. Open Monday – Saturday 11h30 – 14h30 and 18h – 22h. Closed Sunday and Khmer New Year. We easily made a reservation online here; unclear if they are necessary. The Sugar Palm has a second location in Phnom Penh.
ON A BUDGET
The Sugar Palm is not expensive for big city standards, but it is pricey for Siem Reap. I would categorize The Sugar Palm as being one of the nicer restaurants in town, where smart dress (for Siem Reap) is expected. However, there are plenty of budget options all over Siem Reap!