Hidden near Takmao town, the New BoeungChhouk restaurant is a getaway for people who want to eat delicious food, nap in a hut by the pond and enjoy live music. It is a perfect getaway to release stress, especially for those who do not like to travel far.
The restaurant’s owner, ChheurnChanthorn, 30, spoke to The Post about his restaurant.
“This place used to be BoeungReang before, but when I arrived, I wanted to change to planting lotus flower because of its beauty. Lotus flowers are offered to Buddha, it means good, and I think it can attract visitors too,” he says.
As a person who likes to go to other restaurants and loves fishing, Chanthorntook the experiences he learned from those places and integrated it with his design ideasfor his restaurant.
“I noticed that other places have plastic water tanks, so I came up with an idea to float the water tank. The walkways around the restaurant now have bridges to cross from one hut to the other, making it unique.
“Also, we designed the hut with flowers and a handrail and at night it is very beautiful because there is light shining on the water. It’s very new and attractive,” he says.
Now opened for five months, New BoeungChhouk receives around 100 visitors daily. The place is full on weekends, making it hard for visitors to find a seat sometimes. Each hut can accommodate up to 10 people.
Open from 8 am to 11 pm, New BoeungChhouk has a large space spanning across half a hectare of land. It is highly secure, so visitors do not have to worry about their property being stolen.
The pond is 3,000sqm large. During the rainy season, it is 4-5m in depth. This falls to around 2m during the dry season. This pond has a variety of fish such as hypophthalmus, catfish, river fish, tilapia, and more. Visitors can also rent fishing equipment for $1.50 then buy the caught fish for $3 per kg.
The restaurant’smenu consists of its specialties such as grilled whole chicken ($15), sour Khmer soup with pork rib ($8.50) and sour BoeungChhouk soup ($7.50).
Customers can order fried dishes from between $5 and $6.25. There are also many other Khmer dishes such as grilled beef, fish paste, and mashed shrimp with green bananas.
Chanthorn says he often receives praise for the restaurant’s food and service standards.
“This is because we serve freshly cooked food. We don’t pre-cook food and reheat it afterwards. So sometimes when there are a lot of customers, the food service is slow, but we are trying to improve this,” he says.
BoeungChhouk restaurant is located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh’s KohKrobey village, in SangkatPrekThmey, Khan ChbarAmpov. It is 500 meters from the PrekSomroung bridge (turn left) and about 3km from Takmao town. Contact them via tel: 098 880 868/ 071 209 868 6.
