You know you’re onto a winner when the road is clogged up by a maze of bikes belonging to the crowd of diners inside. That pretty much sums up the scenario outside Sovanna’s every night as both Khmers and expats pack into the bustling and restaurant to tuck into the mountain of dishes on offer on the extensive menu.
And if the obvious signs of its popularity – let’s not forget Sovanna II is just down the street – aren’t enough to lure you in, then the smell of the Khmer restaurant’s legendary grilled meats wafting from the sizzling barbecue at the entrance is sure to get you through the gates, salivating as you go.
Inside, it’s alive with the clatter of plates and chatter from large groups of diners huddled around the many tables. Outside is a tropical garden with giant trees separating tables, vines creeping up the walls and plants scattered about. Despite the constant stream of people, there always seems to be an abundance of friendly waiters poised to show you to a table that is swiftly cleaned before you’re seated and handed a menu. And what a menu it is.
It could easily take hours to decide what to eat. In fact, this beast is the dining equivalent of War And Peace, with a healthy smattering of the weird and wonderful thrown in for good measure. Some of the more unusual dishes I’m too scared to try are grilled heart beef (20,000 riel; $4:80), bull stomach (25,000 riel; $6), fried stomach with red tamarind (23,000 riel; $5:50) and roti frog (23,000 riel; $5:50).
Promising to be more adventurous next time, we skipped these and went straight for large helpings of the restaurant’s renowned grilled pork (large: 16,000 riel; $3:80) and roasted beef (large: 20,000 riel; $4:80), fried mixed vegetables with oyster sauce (large: 15,500 riel; $3:60) and the grilled whole fish (25,000 riel; $6). As soon as we’d placed our order, the Cambodia beer girls appeared at our table armed with as many bottles of ice cold beer as they could carry and a bucket of ice.
First out was a complementary tray of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and carrot covered in ice to keep it fresh. Next was the pork and, yes, it lived up to its reputation. Delicately thin slices were cooked to perfection, the barbecue giving them a delicious smoky flavour, and there wasn’t a scrap of fat to be found. The beef was also cut into thin slices and was surprisingly tender, but not quite melt-in-your-mouth, and the full fish was a fancy feast and came sizzling on a hot plate with lemon, garlic and vegetables adding to the flavour.
Even though there were three mouths to feed and the food was exceptionally good, we struggled to demolish the plates and ordered the bill. Including too many beers to count and far too much rice, the total came in at the bargain price of 98,500 riel – the equivalent of about $23:50. And it’s that kind of value that keeps me coming back to Sovanna time and time again.
Sovanna, #4 Street 21; 012 398 281