Amanjaya

Eating

The K West steakhouse on the ground floor acts as the bar, sitting room and brasserie. It overlooks the Tonle Sap river and a small terrace was being built during our visit. Breakfast is served informally in here from a buffet: freshly-sliced fruits and freshly-squeezed juice, yoghurts and pastries, bacon and eggs.

During the day, the bar doubles as a café. It’s popular with ex-pats and fills at weekend; you can order just about anything you can think off from a coffee or a shake through to European beers, French wines and Taittinger Champagne. The restaurant is also open for lunch and dinner, its menu favouring Western dishes (fish and chips, club sandwich, French onion soup, barbequed tiger prawns). They also do a good line in steaks.

Spin around the city and you'll find some stylish restaurants serving great Khmer food. Best of the lot is Mallis, where you either eat around an extremely pretty ornamental pond or trade the view for air con on the first floor. Nearer to home is Metro (100m from the front door), where you can stop for a drink or dig into modern European cooking, overlooking the river. Topaz, the sister restaurant of Mallis, offers excellent French food and has a good wine list. Elsewhere, don’t miss FCC (Foreign Correspondent’s Club) for the best bar in town (go for the first-floor seats with river views) and if you're hungry, order one of their pizzas. If you head off to see Wat Phnom (a temple on Phnom Penh’s only hill), drop into Raffles on your way back for a cocktail in the Elephant Bar; the piano plays at night. Finally, get in a tuk-tuk and head off to Le Jardin in the romantically-named BKKI District (AKA NGO Land). It may be a bit out of the way, but this garden café is rather alluring and you’ll get great sandwiches and the best ice cream in town; there’s also a playground for kids.