The best fried noodles in Phnom Penh, where can you get them and how good are they? We’ve previously covered Cambodian fried noodles as a unit – usually it is referred to as lort cha, although this actually refers to a specific noodle. The correct name would be mi cha, although mi cha covers the whole fried noodle spectrum!
You can read about Cambodian fried noodles here .
So, where can you get the best lort cha and mi cha in Phnom Penh
Best Fried Noodles in Phnom Penh
A noodle is a noodle is a noodle right, well partly right, but in actual fact like any dish quality varies. You can have mi cha in firn dining restaurants as well as street food carts,
In this respects we will cover the best Cambodian fried noodles in Phnom Penh from a street food level. We are the Street Food Guy after all. And this where the definition of street food gets a bit more cloudy.
To read what street food is – click here
Essentially though you do not have to be on the street – you can be a hole in the wall type establishment, which is exactly where we found the best Cambodian fried noodles in Phnom Penh.
Fried Noodles on Street 178
It is at the bottom of this street, which runs in parallel to both the infamous Street 172 and the Royal Place where we found a classic Khmer hole in the wall place that literally had lines outside every time we passed. If a restaurant has lines of locals waited to be served, or seated you know you are onto a good thing.
To read about the bars of Street 130 click here .
We’d tried the take-away version, but headed down for a sit-down style meal. On a Thursday it was not so crazy bust, so we were seated early. These places pretty much serve variations of fried noodles, predominately lort cha that are cooked out the front (on the street) and then served in quick fire to the revolving number of patrons.
Best fried noodles in Phnom in Phnom Penh – the choices
Again the choices are fried noodles, I went for meat,egg and vegetable lort cha, which were then doused with fish and hot sauce, with my partner getting mi cha – with the yellow noodles, with a cut Khmer pork style sausage added – here it is in Khmer (សាច់ប៉ាតេ).
Drinks wise is where I give Khmer street restaurants some great kudos in comparison to other countries in the world, whilst one person was out front cooking up a Phnom Penh fried noodle storm, it was another persons job to feed through sugar cane and make juice, a quintessential Khmer street drink! Of course coconut was also on the menu. When you’re eating best fried noodles in Phnom Penh washing it down with sugarcane juice is a must.
To read about getting coconut delivered in Cambodia click here .
And that was it, Khmer fried noodles, fast food style and knocked back with some fine sugar cane juice.
How to find the best fried noodles in Phnom Penh?
As stated the restaurant is near the bottom of Street 178, maybe 3 up from the road one riverside – the restaurant is called (លូ ចាន់ នំគូឆាយ វាលមែន) But you merely need to look for the people frying up a noodle storm and the hordes of locals waiting to be fed.
I am sure there are other places that would lay claim to the best fried noodles in Phnom Penh, but when it comes to fast Khmer food by the riverside this place takes some beating. And that is our take on the best fried noodles in Phnom Penh.
Nest stop? Looking for the best Num Pang by the riverside, surely another tough task, but well worth the effort.