Angkor Restaurant

Angkor Restaurant
4884 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC

First, an apology to reader Annie. See, some time ago, when I wrote about Takarabune, Annie mentioned it was her neighborhood and mentioned about other good eats in the area. However, when I found a possible good eats, rather than dropping an email to meet at that place, I chose to go on my own… -_-;;; Still, there was another issue: is Angkor Restaurant really a good eats place to begin with? I guess it would have been safer to go by myself, then…

As seen in the picture above, one things pops right away: Cambodian. As a result, it would be close to impossible not to make comparisons to that one Cambodian restaurant in Vancouver, that one restaurant that even people like Anthony Bourdain liked: Phnom Penh. And, after walking in, I noticed some flower arrangements at the entrance (something you see often when Asian shops just open). What was a bit “surprising” was the fact one of them was from Phnom Penh! But now, back to the restaurant itself. I am not sure if it is for good or bad but, the day I went, it felt bare. Bare as in five tables only (4 seats on each table) in a space that could have easily fit another two or three tables plus another two or three two seat tables. I won’t make any guesses as to why but, during my meal, customers kept on walking, usually a good thing, except that, including me, three of the tables were one cover tables! I guess they are still working on these issues… Now, to the food itself, or rather, drink:

Normally, when you walk in to these Asian restaurants, the drink of choice will be either ice water or tea. But, how about a glass of cold tea? In a way I was debating if I should call it iced tea but it was a bit too weak to call it such, not to mention there was no lemon on sight (oddly, there was sugar on the table, see picture below!). Regardless, it was something interesting.

No explanations for this picture, I hope! And the sugar is on the far right.

One thought I always had about restaurant’s menu is their length: A long menu is not necessarily a good thing. Sure, some people argue that it gives you lots of choices; however, it makes decision taking difficult, not to mention it might be painful for the kitchen. In Angkor, things are kept simple by having only 20 items – half of them noodles, with the soup and dry version listed as separate items. And those 20 items include drinks! So, that ends up making things easy for me as well. In my case, I ordered…

Phnom Penh Rice Noodle Soup, which has sliced pork, ground pork, pork liver, pork heart and prawns. It also came with a side of bean sprouts. Pho anybody? While it did not have any of the other herbs (thai basil would be the first one to come to mind), I don’t think it was necessary. The soup had a good savoury flavour and the greens on top it made up for that missing thai basil. But, no, it does not stop there. Notice in the picture above those yellow specs? It was fried garlic! Yes, the soup was lightly loaded with garlic goodness! The noodles were soft, slightly past the al-dente point but, in this case, I did not care about it that much. Now, notice the list of meats that come with the soup. Yes, to those not used to it, it has a lot of offal goodness but, unfortunately, I don’t think I tasted one of the listed meats. Prawns are in plain sight as well as the pork (they were the “white” parts). The liver was there thanks to that strong flavour and the heart thanks to the consistency. However, I am not sure if there were any ground pork. Could it be it sunk to the bottom? Or mixed too much with the noodles I didn’t even noticed? One thing that might bother some is the amount of meat: there weren’t that many pieces. But, regardless, I found it was well balanced, specially if you consider it was $6 for this small bowl.

As mentioned above, comparisons with Phnom Penh must be made and what is Phnom Penh’s signature dish? Yes, chicken wings. There was absolutely no way I won’t order it. Similar to Phnom Penh, it is served with a lemon juice based “dip”. Some will argue they need to work a little bit on presentation but that is not something I would worry too much about. I know that, if you compare the visuals/colour with the one in Phnom Penh, you might say it looks slightly different. Believe me, it is not; I will blame the lightning conditions! But, putting that aside, after the first bite, it was quite similar, if not almost the exact same garlic/pepper-y flavour and juices starting to flow out experience, as in Phnom Penh. The only slight difference I could “taste” was the crispyness, Phnom Penh was slightly more crispy. Despite crispyness is a critical part of fried food, I won’t put too much emphasis on it, thanks to the garlic goodness clinging on the wings…

Overall, I am really enthusiastic of this place. Unlike my visit to Phnom Penh were I almost had to give it a thumbs down because the Pho failed misserably, Angkor delivered in both dishes. So, Annie, if you want to go to this place, drop me an email!

Tagged under: Cambodian • Chicken • Soup • Vancouver