A quick online search (keeping it investigative here at The Advisor HQ) makes shocking reading for dog-loving Phnom Penhites; there are, putatively, no dog-friendly eating establishments in the city. Apart from PyongYang North Korean Restaurant, of course, but that’s a whole different food review right there.
“Sorry!” gushes bringfido.com, with the kind of pseudo-chagrin in which the North American service industry specialises. “There are no pet-friendly restaurants in Phnom Penh. If you happen to know of a dog-friendly restaurant in Phnom Penh, use the form below to tell us about it and you could win a $25 restaurant.com gift certificate good at nearly 10,000 restaurants nationwide!” Unless you eat that $25 gift certificate, it looks like you and Fido might starve in this town.
But as Henry, Charles and Claude breakfasted at Brown Coffee and Bakery this week, things looked very different. Henry is a Brown regular, accompanying his human Laura Joy Kiddle almost daily for a cappuccino and a dandyish flirtation with fellow canines. Brown staff draw the line at letting animals inside their hallowed AC-ed halls, but they do smile kindly at your caffeine-crazed canines and exclaim ‘So cuuuuute!’ just enough to ensure you leave feeling like some sort of blushing bride from the censored pages of the Bestiary.
The Shop on Street 240 is Claude and Charles’ regular breakfast haunt, where they’re often joined by Subi, a matronly spaniel. Once again, the dogs are technically restricted to the outdoor area, although it’s not unknown for Claude to be found in dangerous propinquity to the patisserie counter. Staff are dog lovers and will tell you tales of their own much loved pooches; recklessly pretty Rithy has five dogs of his own and lavishes so much attention on the doggie diners that he has been known to leave Claude and Charles’ owner wishing momentarily she were less human and more canine.
Java is a terrific lunch option for you and your dog, because you can sit upstairs on the balcony and therefore cease to feel as though you’re spending your life in some sort of patio-ed purgatory. It’s the unending patience of the staff which makes your doggie dining experience here so charming: waiters run and chase your manic poodle progeny, remembering their names from visit to visit, solicitously enquiring after their health if you appear without the fluffy ones in tow, and assiduously providing drinking water and shady places for puppies to nod off.
If you feel like a more solitary lunch (let us not beat around the proverbial shrubbery: if you lunch at Java you may – nay will – have to converse with every single person you know and have ill-advisedly snogged at some point) then Nature And Sea on Street 278 welcomes dogs and people equally. Dogs more so in fact because the waitress is mad about them, and slightly less mad about having to schlep up and down in the tropical heat carrying cheese crepes all day. Doggies love to torment the resident cats up here overlooking Wat Langka, and since the kitchen is on a different level all those Health and Safety bores can rest assured there will be no ‘dog germs’ (which are in fact mythical) near your food.
Should you be lucky enough to score a date with a human in this town and would like to take your dog along to emphasise your fun and frolicsome nature (or just for protection; one never knows, after all) there are plenty of options. Local legend Yumi provides romance, Japanese izakaya-inspired delicacies and lashings of banoffie pie. Chef/manager/owner/all-round good-egg Caspar Von Hofmannsthal says: “As Yumi is a casual dining restaurant, we have many customers who bring their dogs with them. We do ask them to be on a lead so as not to disturb other guests and only dine in the garden for hygiene purposes. We are, however, happy to provide cool water for the dogs to wash down their meals with.” Charles disregarded the water rule entirely, but luckily the photographic evidence of his whisky sour rampage has been destroyed by his judicious mother.
Le Jardin, recent winner of The Advisor’s first annual poll of Best Place To Take Your Kids, is in fact also the best place to take your dog. That baby gate and sand pit were in fact (probably) put in place to keep your doggies safe and sabay while you quaff French wines, pretend to read Le Figaro and pretend, for some precious time at least, that you are not responsible for dogs.
If you’re in the mood for something a little more formal, Deco on Street 352 fits the bill of fare. Its large outdoor area and coo-coo-ca-choo ambience make it an equally good option for dogs and dating. Charles and Claude poodled their way inelegantly through succulent lamb burgers, sticky toffee puddings and negronis decadently, before falling off their bicycle in a totally unrelated incident on their wobbly way home. Deco was charming to the canine reprobates from start to finish and, once they’ve recovered from the Campari, Charles and Claude will certainly be returning for more.
So, we expect you shall at this moment be frantically taking up your pens and writing to bringfido.com to correct their errors. After all, folks, those $25 gift vouchers may be limited.