If you live in Vancouver or if you are planning a visit and love Vietnamese food, you have to make a trip to Phnom Pehn. This restaurant, like many great food stops, has a very unassuming exterior as soon as you walk through the door you realize something is different here. For one thing, from opening to closing, the place is packed (and there is generally a line)! So be prepared to wait for approximately 30 minutes for a table. Secondly, this is the most multicultural crowd you’ll see anywhere. Most customers are asian but they aren’t just Vietnamese but they Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Thai…..their commonality is that they all recognize great Asian cooking.
The food here is incredibly fresh and the tastes are tantalizingly harmonious. As a westerner, I frequently find Asian restaurants to be inconsistent with their liberal use of spices (especially chilis!)….they lack a harmony and all you get is that one note but not Phom Pehn. At PP the food is almost symphonic in it’s harmony! The shrimp is always cooked perfectly, the fried foods are never greasy and the prices are surprisingly reasonable for such high quality food.
Give it a try and you will quickly see why people flock to their door!