The best fish and chips in Phnom Penh? Well how about the best fish and chips in the whole of Cambodia? Well that is what I feel about Box Office Phnom Penh and this is for very good reason.
Located halfway between the riverside and street 172 and the poshness of Bassac Lane and TTP, this restaurant that also doubles as a craft beer bar and comedy club is a bridge between two worlds.
What is the fish and chips scene in Cambodia?
While fish and chips is a regular feature on many menus in Phnom Penh and beyond it is not usually done that well, And why is that you ask? It is mainly because most places serve oven cooked French fries with fish that is often an abomination.
OK, soles clear things up here, just like McDonalds is not Burger King, so too a French fry is not a chip and the chip is the most important part of fish and chips.
In England this moves on to almost religious like importance with there even being a correct way to eat fish and chips.
Sadly there is currently no fish and chip shop in Cambodia, although it is an idea I am truly considering!
The best fish and chips in Phnom Penh
Box Office is an English run restaurant bar and as previously mentioned comedy club. The menu here is epic and includes much more than just fish and chips, with one being able to describe it as an English restaurant of sorts.
This means that aside from fish you can get sausage, pie and a whole heap of other stuff with your chips. Thus included picked eggs and pickled onions, which are pretty (not as good as mine) and are from what I can gather the only ones sold in Cambodia.
Chips wise again I would argue that I make a better batch but in fairness to Big Office these are real chips and not fries that have the right mount of grease to them. Thats right I want and demand not just grease on my chips, but also the correct dressings and vinegar.
Malt vinegar was indeed provided, as were optional extras such as gravy and chip shop curry sauce for one dollar. Kudos to the chip shop curry sauce which also might well be the best in Cambodia. Note I do not say the best curry sauce, but the best chip shop curry sauce, something you perhaps have to be British to understand.
And the drinks?
The drinks at Box Office are a real compliment to Box Office with out being considered one of the best places one the capital for craft beer for quite a while.
It is certainly bette than Embargo who have become very much up their own arses. All the best beers are represented here, which included Fuzzy Logic and pretty much everyone who ended up the Kampot Beer Festival.
And the comedy?
I have only once been to witness the comedy at Box Office and it was when they had what was essentially a trainee night. Yet despite this it was pretty good, even if they repeated the one “Vietnamese Barang Joke” that everyone does.
So, while I might have came here for the fish and chips there is much much more to warrant a visit to Box Office Phnom Penh