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La Croisette at Phnom Penh Riverside
The sign out front says since 1997. In Phnom Penh years, that’s practically ancient history. Restaurants along the Riverside tend to swap hands faster than a pair of loaded dice in a back alley crap game. La Croisette? Still standing. Which means they’re doing something right.
This isn’t cheap eats. Thirty bucks here buys you what, back home, would barely cover a round of drinks and a starter. But that’s the deal, you come for the show as much as the food. The setting is prime time Riverside: traffic coughing by on one side, the muddy Mekong drifting on the other, and you in the middle, playing expat high roller with a craft beer or cocktail that actually tastes like someone went to culinary school and got straight A's.
The menu is singular, deliberate fusion without the confusion. Western standards with local kicks, cocktails balanced with the kind of precision you don’t often find in this city’s bars especially at the edge of the notorious red light and nightlife district. If you’re trying to impress a date, splurge on yourself, or just remind your wallet what pain feels like, this is the place.
Uniformed security keeps the Dickensian side of Phnom Penh’s street kids and hustlers from cutting in on your indulgence. It’s decadent, maybe even a little absurd, but that’s the Riverside in a nutshell: traffic roaring, river rolling, and you, caught somewhere between the two, enjoying a rare moment of relative 4 star tourist calm in the chaos.
Three decades in the game and La Croisette still knows how to hold the stage. Treat yourself for a change and enjoy the fruits of your labor.