Craft Beer at Embargo Phnom Penh. Needing a quick city fix we headed to Phnom Penh for the weekend and ended up searching back alleys for some good IPA!
Siem Reap is a good place, but sometimes you seek the pleasures only a big city can bring you, such as sushi and craft beer (not together). Sashimi was dealt with on the first night, day two involved intense shopping before we began to get hungry.
Late lunch was had at Cousins Cafe, a French burger restaurant. For ten bucks Rowan declared it on his top 5 burgers of all time, I didn’t partake, so cannot comment.
Embargo Bar Phnom Penh
Our mood now onto quenching our first we went looking for the legendary Embargo Bar which involved asking numerous people for directions, lack of google maps, and lots of back alleys before we finally arrived. In many ways the “journey” reminded me of the old Great Leap Brewery back in the day.
Layout of Embargo
The bar itself is two floors, snug, open plan and of the simplistic style that goes so well in craft beer bars. The second floor even has an old games emulator, featuring the Simpsons when I went up for the toilet.
The two owners were present when we were there an American and a Finn who met in Thailand before deciding Cambodia would be cheaper and easier to set up a bar. I found the place very expat friendly, but without any click like bullshit.
What beers do they have at Embargo Bar?
Beers wise I’m not really into the whole IPA thing, but the selection was good, mostly made in Cambodia and even included the COVID-19 beer, which I was assured was good, if not rather hoppy.
My night was made by the fact they had a draft “hard lemonade” which at 5% got my evening started and was not too acidic.
The overall craft beer scene in Phnom Penh.
The only very small negative is they don’t yet brew their own beer, but hey Rome wasn’t in a day. There are though a number of other great bars in Phnom Penh that do brew their own beer. Embargo Bar is nice, but far from the only place to try decent beer in the city.
And as for the name Embargo Bar? Does it have hidden meaning? Is it a political statement? Go there and ask the owners.