Doors, #18 Street 47 & 84:
5pm – 7pm Monday to Friday: 2-for-1 Tiger draught; $2 tapas
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a hipster in Phnom Penh must be in want of a hangout. From the effortless cool of the interior design, through the live music soundtrack provided by Klap Ya Handz, to the hipster-friendly tapas menu (Chicken Rock & Roll, anyone?), the concept behind Doors is plain: a laidback, creative space designed to appeal to hungry hipsters like you.
The FCC, #336 Sisowath Quay & Street 178:
5pm – 7pm: 2-for-1 Angkor draught beer, wines by the glass, cocktails, spirits, smoothies and soft drinks
The FCC rightfully lays claim to being one of the oldest bars in Phnom Penh. Since opening in 1993, the three-storey colonial mansion has been the quay’s greatest must-visit destination, offering cheap draft and panoramic riverscapes of the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. These days, The FCC does a whole lot more than serve gum-shoe journalists on shoe-string budgets. The riverfront bar and restaurant now includes 10 guest rooms, the Cafe Fresco brand and a lux hotel in Siem Reap. But just like those early days of Untac, The FCC remains nearly every visitor’s first port of call, Phnom Penh’s most perfect terrace to wash down a vermillion sunset and launch the night.
Sharky Bar, #126 Street 130:
5pm – 7pm: $1 draft; $2 cranbukas and margaritas, $1 beer grab, $1 Kingdom Max & Dark (buy 3, get 1 free)
Indochina’s self-declared ‘longest-running rock ‘n’ roll joint’ is every bit as in-your-face edgy as the now-defunct CBGB’s in New York on which it’s based and was once the den of choice of the country’s most notorious war lords. “By 1996, Sharky’s was full of arms dealers and soldiers,” says Big Mike, one of its many larger-than-life owners, who cut his management teeth at CBGB’s during the 1970s just as punk rock was ripping its way out of music’s womb. “It was very, very rough. We had six rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the office; 12 RPGs, a box of 96 hand grenades and about eight to ten handguns – and everyone had to learn how to use them.” When the civil war finally blew itself out, the former Hell’s Angel vowed to transform Sharky’s into a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll joint. Today, the mortar shells on show are spent (used, incidentally, for serving up the bar’s signature Mortar Shell cocktail) and so are most of the women, but the spirit of punk rock is as alive as it was in ’77.
The Exchange, #28 Street 47 & 84:
5pm – 7pm: 20% off all drinks
In some other reality, The Exchange would serve as the local steakhouse where floor traders breaked for Black Angus burgers and two-martini lunches. Men in banker vests and poker hats would chomp cigars and talk dizzyingly about bulls and bears and double witching hours. Here on Planet Cambodia, however, where the stock exchange counts but two members, The Exchange, is more simply one of the capital’s uptown watering holes.
Tepui @ Chinese House, #45 Sisowath Quay & Street 84:
5pm – 7:30pm: free tapas with everydrink order
An unlikely marriage of oriental design and occidental architecture, Chinese House is today home to one of the capital’s coolest hang-outs. This colonial-era mansion was built in 1903 by Chinese food merchant Tun Bunpa, on land that had previously been the property of one of the sons of Phnom Penh’s founding father King Ponhea Yat. The house fell briefly into external hands – including those of an Australian art historian – between 1975 and 2008, when it was bought back by none other than Bunpa’s great granddaughter. Currently the preserve of several Venezuelan foodies, it’s been transformed into an effortlessly chic restaurant/bar/gallery combo: a must for connoisseurs of every hue.
Showbox, #11 Street 330 & 113:
6:30pm – 7pm: free beer
As befits the city’s most celebrated grunge/punk/metalhead hangout, 30 minutes of free beer for everyone EVERY DAY!
Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard:
9pm – 10pm: 2-for-1 cocktails; 10pm – 11pm: 2-for-1 long drinks
Ahhhhh, zee Germans. Only they could create what is in effect a house about a house. Yet within the walls of that house about a house lurk some of the capital’s most creative souls. From beat poets to punk rockers, from painters to sonic sculptors, all can be found propped against the bar on any given day discussing elements of existentialism and the suchlike. And, let’s be honest, art exhibitions never tasted better than when being washed down with the finest German fare.
Duplex, #3 Street 278:
4pm – 7pm: Buy 1 get 1 free appetisers; $3 Cambodia draught jug, $1 Cambodia draught glass
Duplex cleverly combines bamboo walls and organic furniture with a well-lit, super flash bar. It’s spacious and relaxing: think uplifting music and an elevating vibe. It occupies rare middle ground between pre-drinking and the late-night clubbing scene. A playlist full of underrated modern hits and chilled ambience create a place where you can loosen up while prepping to party hard.
Frangipani Royal Palace Sky Bar, Street 178 & Sothearos Boulevard:
5pm – 7:30pm: 50% off Angkor draught beer and cocktails
Gleaming white, with French colonial arches and smartly dressed staff, Frangipani Royal Palace is the kind of place to put your 20-something friends who pass through town looking for laughs and memories. Show them to the rooftop Sky Bar at sundown, where ’80s hits from INXS, REM, U2 and other giants of last-century creak through a single tinny speaker; lightning shows crackle in the eastern sky and the clouds hang so it feels like you could stretch up and grab one. Panoramic views extend from the National Museum to Wat Phnom. Cocktails start at $4.50 (high enough to keep the riff-raff out; low enough that a Jackson can still carry you).
K West, Street 154 & Sisowath Quay:
6pm – 8pm: Buy one get one free (excluding champagne and wine)
One of the most civilised spots in the city for doing business over a beverage, K West is the sort of place where the truly sophisticated enjoy cerebral discussions about Sören Kirkegaard’s influence on modern existentialism while sipping whisky old enough to order its own.
Zino Wine bar, #12 Street 294:
5pm – 7pm: 35% off wine, cocktails and juice
When French novelist, poet and playwright Jules Verne packed fictional adventurer Phileas Fogg off to circumnavigate the planet, it was to be a full 80 days before the rascal returned from his mission. Amateur! In one evening at Zino, you can hop from Spain to Italy to France to Morocco and back without breaking a sweat. The menu, by a Michelin-starred chef, is global; the wine references number more than 100. Slate floors, split levels, a sweeping staircase and tables in intimate corners only add to the sophistication. Be on your best behaviour, or as near as damnit.
Bougainvillier Hotel, Sisowath Quay & Street 154:
5pm – 7pm: 2-for-1 Angkor draught, wines by the glass and cocktails
Inside, the unmistakable scent of lemongrass permeates a jungle of wooden Buddhas, giving Bougainvillier something of a spiritual feel. Leopard-print seats and peaceful music mark this indoor safari, a welcome escape from the mayhem on riverside. The bar is softly lit and stands in front of a huge mirror, reflecting the armada of different liquors on display. Private enclaves and too-comfy-to-get-up seating creates the ideal atmosphere for intelligent conversation over a few skillfully mixed drinks.
Public House, Street 240 1/2:
5pm – 7pm: Buy 2 cocktails, get one free 3 for 2 on cocktails and beers
Getting drunk in the daytime carries a certain air of delinquency that’s absent when tipping in the evening. Drinking at night is customary; everyone does that. Only a true reprobate shoots The Man a middle finger and gets sloshed while the rest of the world works. Luckily, Public House appeals to the morally superior glutton in all of us.
Bar Sito, Street 240 1/2:
5pm – 7pm: Buy 2 cocktails, get one free 3 for 2 on cocktails and beers
Chicago mob boss Al Capone would have appreciated a place like this. Dark wood panelling; exposed brickwork and a subterranean ambience evoke the spirit of Prohibition in 1930s America. It was a time when square-jawed gangsters roamed the streets armed with Thompson submachine guns, while anti-prohibitionists, known as ‘wets’, swarmed speakeasies in defiance of the nationwide ban on booze. These high-class hang-outs were more often than not owned by the likes of the man called Scarface and reeked of the indulgence that went hand-in-hand with criminal enterprise. Such is Bar Sito, Spanish for ‘small bar’ – the newest creation by the brains behind Chinese House and Botanico. Slip on your fedora and slice open your cheek: it’s time to let loose your inner mobster.
Eclipse Sky Bar, Floor 23, Phnom Penh Tower, Monivong Boulevard:
5pm – 7pm: 30% off cocktails
High: it’s a wonderful place to be, just ask any stoner. For everyone else, there’s the city’s burgeoning sky bars – perfectly elevated perches in which to get pissed (altitude can actually increase the effects of alcohol; just sayin’). For an unparalleled combination of booze and views, the Eclipse Sky Bar, which sits atop the Phnom Penh Tower, offers a 360-degree panorama of the city from sufficient loftiness to make your knees go weak.
Metro Rahu, #159 Sisowath Quay:
After 11pm: 50% off Sake
Hinduism is not a realm for the fainthearted. According to legend, Rahu is one half of a serpent lopped in two by a vengeful god before he could swallow a stolen mouthful of divine nectar. From time to time, the serpent’s decapitated head opens its maws and swallows the sun, bringing about an eclipse – until the sun falls out of the soggy end of his severed throat, that is. Believe it or not, this isn’t the most disturbing thing about the Riverside eatery of the same name. An exercise in minimalism, Rahu – dedicated to Asian fusion and label gazing – houses what is perhaps the city’s most talked-about work of art. The angry scowl of a young monk peering from the eatery’s far wall would be almost inescapable were it not for the half-price Sake on offer after 11pm.
Pontoon Pulse, #80 Street 172:
9pm – 11pm: 2-for-1 beer and cocktails
Pontoon Pulse is the second leg of Pontoon Club – and the more laidback of the two. The Pulse makes it easy to feel every bit like a luxurious gangster chilling at his private club when the speaker’s blasting Notorious BIG and the interior looks like something out of a P Diddy music video. Happy hour is rather lonely, with staff busy getting everything in order before crazy hour, but it’s spot on for taking your well-dressed posse for a discreet 2-for-1 special before heading out to the dance floor and sweating it out in less subtle ways.
Alice’s Pub, #92 Street 144:
11am – 3am: $1 draught beer
Alice Pub excels at being THE destination for white, English-speaking men in their mid-thirties looking for a place to sit around and talk about… I don’t know: things that white men in their mid-thirties talk about (football? Going bald?) You can’t blame them, either: situated high up on street 144, among food stalls and the less lucrative guesthouses, Alice Pub sparks that Cheers-esque glow every pub on the planet has been trying to emulate since the eighties. And be honest: sometimes you just wanna go where everybody knows your name.
Motor Café, #76 Sothearos Boulevard:
Sundays 2pm – 7pm: down 330ml of draft beer in less than eight seconds to win… more beer!
If you love the smell of nitrous oxide in the morning, you might want to consider easing off the gas just long enough for a stylish pit stop. Here, no sooner have you set foot through the door than the latest motor sports coverage lunges at you from a TV screen set in the floor. This is not a place for the slow of pulse. At one end of the bar crouches a race-ready Yamaha R1 motorcycle; in a glass case across the room, a mean-looking Harley-Davidson low rider. Sofas? So last season. Park your posterior instead in one of the Recaro, Sparco or Bride racing bucket seats. House cocktails betray the owner’s main passion in life: take the magnificently titled Lamborghini Waterfall, a $6 concoction of vodka, Baileys, Blue Curacao, sambuca and Midori. The Knight Rider (vodka, gin, lime, orange juice and ginger ale) is a slightly less reckless way to wash down one of the sushi sets. For the especially strong of constitution, there’s the ‘8-second rush’ – a drinking challenge held every Sunday from 2pm to 7pm, in which you must down 330ml of draft beer in less than eight seconds to win… more beer.
Jaan Restaurant, Street 106 & Sisowath Quay:
4:30pm – 7:30pm: 75c draught beer, $2.50 cocktails, $1.75 vodka cocktails
Jaan Restaurant, cheek by jowl with the ever-noisy night market, stands its ground resolutely after dark and doesn’t bat an eyelash at busloads of tourists and screaming kids – all of which are quickly forgotten when you sit down to breathe the same air as the many infatuated couples drawn to this spot. How best to describe Jaan? ‘Loveable.’ With easy-on-the-ear radio hits playing (think Jason Mraz) and tiny lights twinkling like Christmas baubles among the plants, it’s the perfect locale for the lazily inclined. Just kick back, watch the human scenery scroll by and dream yourself into boozy oblivion.
Equinox, #3a Street 278:
4pm – 8pm: $2.50 cocktails, $3 jug of Angkor draught
As befits a bar named after the twice-yearly occurrence when the Sun hits its zenith above the equator, night is given equal weight as day at Equinox. This two-storey labyrinthine bar boasts not only the capital’s widest live music repertoire, with everything from bachata to punk to raga dub, but also what is perhaps its most seasoned sound engineer. Ohio-born Anthony Mrugacz has racked up 35 years in the music industry, touring almost as many countries with, among others, Burning Spear, Alpha Blondie, and the Pixies. His is a deliberately tight ship: limited space creates a sense of intimacy between bands and fans, and killer acoustics keep gigs ringing in your ears for days.
Frost, #10 Street 246:
6pm – 11pm: $20 (men)/$10 (women) all you can drink
The interiors are stark white; the light a soft, cool blue. Seats are made from cubes of faux ice and covered with silky faux fur. Tempered glass tops a long white bar and silver chains hang from the ceiling, a salacious hint to after-hours cocktail pleasures. The two classics on the menu are the Amaretto Sour and the French favourite Ti Punch, both made with local sugarcane juice. The other dozen cocktails are built around fresh local fruits and generous pours, served in a funky assortment of glassware and designed to knock you off your barstool.
Elephant Bar, Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Daun Penh Boulevard:
4pm – 9pm: 50% off draught and bottled beer, cocktails and spirits
When you walk into Raffles Le Royal looking for Jackie Kennedy’s legendary pre-war hangout, you’ll know you’re in the right place when the piano player gives you a warm smile and a nod. Here, in one of the most historically significant hotel bars in town (entrepreneurs, writers, journalists, royalty and intrepid travellers of all stripes have stalked its corridors, including French writer, statesman and adventurer André Malraux) happy hour doesn’t last a mere 60 minutes, but a whole five hours. With everything from its signature Femme Fatale cocktail to the finest cognac slashed to half price, it’s the perfect place to taste the champagne high life on a beer ‘n’ chips budget. Now that, ladies and gentleman, is true class.
Mekong River Bar, Street 118 & 5:
7pm – 12pm: 75c Angkor draught; 5pm – 12pm: $1.75 cocktails
Flanked by parked tuk tuks, lost backpackers and passing beggars, Mekong River Bar puts you squarely in Phnom Penh at its most vibrant. Designer interiors and correctly spelled menus might be conspicuous in their absence (a cold Mogito, anyone?), but the booze is cheap and, after all, isn’t that why you’re here?
Grand River, Street 178 & Sisowath Quay:
4:30pm – 7:30pm: $1 draught beer, $2:50 cocktails and wine
The Grand River pays homage to the latte-looking Mekong River next to which it nestles. With a peculiar mixture of concrete walls, artsy art and strategically placed coconuts (your table), it’s a chic, welcoming alternative to the usual riverside haunts. And don’t let the Lady Gaga scare you away: if you stay long enough, there are some descent singer-songwriters on that playlist too. Promise!