Street 172 Phnom Penh is notorious, sometimes notoriously good and sometimes notoriously bad. It has somewhat of a bad reputation, basically to is most famous for being a cheap place for men of a certain vintage to retire to. Housing here is cheap, there used to be lots of girly bars and the restaurants are cheap and western orientated for the most part. In fact you can get a roast dinner for about $3, not the best in the world, but not god awful.
The best bars on Street 172 (the good)
Bar wise Sundance is one of the best places to drink on the street, as well as having amazing poutine. For context a a beer is $1, as opposed to 50 cents on most of the street. They even have a sign stating you must spend $1 per hour to stay there, pretty funny overall.
The Big Easy – I have been here a few times and they have a 2-4-1 happy hour from 6-10 pm. Two Long Island Iced Teas is good by me at $4. Sadly the roast dinner was off when I visited, but the bangers and mash were decent. Great place to watch football, when the authorities have not closed them down….
Best restaurants on Street 172
This is a funny thing, the two best restaurants are almost cardboard copies of Western franchises that do not exist in Cambodia, namely McDonalds and Subway. For a Big Mac head to The Vibe, for a Subway head to Molly’s and meet the wonderful Molly – she truly is a character.
To read about the Vine click here
To read about Molly’s click here .
Then you have Golden Home Guesthouse it really is quite scuzzy, but cheap beers, a roast $3 and many many characters. Staff are very friendly, particularly if you have an Ann Frank policia lockdown incident. Enough said.
The bad of Street 172
At the end of the street there used to be a nefarious massage parlour opposite of which is a derelict building full of squatters. This generally means that there are people of unsavory character and ladies of limited means looking to meet gentlemen of moderate means. No harm in all this, but it does give the street a slimy feel.
The Ugly of Street 172
The north the street used to be where the girly bars were, but Covid has clearly taken its toll here. What is left looks like Beirut. On my last visit I visited The Sandwich shop and got to listen to Barang saying how great Mugabe was. If you are on 172 and need a sandwich do yourself and everyone a favor and go to Molly’s.
To read about the Sandwich shop click here .
And then there is Dirty Old Sailor the place where you get stuff. I’ll leave it at that, I have no issue with “stuff” I just don’t like the overall vibe.
And that is the is the quintessential guide to Street 172 Phnom Penh, truly the good, the bad and the very very ugly.