Two items on Orkun Cha’s menu immediately caught my eye – Staustced Frog Thigh and Cevic with Kos Kong – but I settled for the seafood. This mysterious dish proffered its own brand of adventure, promising a rainbow mélange of ‘pepers’: green peper, red peper and green sweet peper. I was excited to see exactly how many types of ‘pepers’ would appear alongside the seafood and settled in to wait while my companions made their way past the Purrspring Rolled and Deep Fry Chicken Ving – one ordering duck breast with joice honey sauce, one selecting the filet de loup de mer (sea bass) and the other opting for the safer lok lak beef.
At Okun Cha Gourmet Bar, the spotlight isn’t on the meal; it’s on the menu. It’s also on the neighbourhood because it’s located smack bang in the middle of Street 136 (aka Girlie Street, to the uninitiated), with a goldfish-bowl view of ladyboys preening at Candybar on one corner and bargirls fluttering around Mr Butterfly on the other.
Inside, the friendly staff – all attractive young Cambodian women in tight jeans who work the floor to an iTunes playlist of Backstreet Boys, Lady Gaga and moody techno pop – deliver dishes to patrons lounging in padded booths amid blue velvet curtains and kaleidoscopic neon lights, all observing the street show from behind the floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s like the minnows watching the sharks.
The restaurant was recommended by our neighbours who waxed lyrical about their coulant de chocolat (a wonderfully decadent slab of chocolate soufflé filled with warm molten chocolate) and I have to say it’s worth the trip down the walk of shame for this luscious morsel.
While I wouldn’t describe the cuisine as first-rate, I’d give it three stars out of five. Service is a tad on the slow side and the lengthy menu features no less than 63 items (and 13 desserts), including French, Khmer, Thai, Italian and Chinese selections.
For meat eaters, there’s roasted lamb ($18.50), T-bone ($18.50) and entrecote ($14.50) and, for pescatores, sea bream ($7.50), grouper with garlic pastis sauce ($7.50) and grilled tiger prawns ($11.50) which, although a bit squishy in texture, are tasty and well seasoned . There’s also a selection of pizzas and pasta dishes (from $5.50 to $8.50) as well as salads, soups and Cambodian plates.
The ‘fried seafood’ is a tasty assortment of shrimp, fish and other swimming things, with fresh Kampot pepper sprinkled liberally throughout the dish – a great deal for only $5. My companion declared the lok lak average, saying it probably came from an athletic cow, and the succulent portion of sea bass ($7.50) with a delightfully crispy skin was declared the best dish on the table.
The grand finale, of course, has to be the chocolate dessert, but be warned: patrons are cautioned it takes “12 minutes to prepare” so you may want to plan ahead. At least 12 minutes. Or, if you don’t want to wait, order the banana sleb.
Okun Cha, #28 Street 136; 023 224532.