dennis.ca

Phnom Penh
500 Hazeldean Road, Kanata, Ontario
Type: Cambodian/Thai
Rating: 8 out of 10

My girlfriend and I dropped in for an early (5:00pm) dinner on a Saturday afternoon. I previously visited a number of times for weeknight take-out. We were the only people in the restaurant.

We started with the crispy shrimp appetizer, which was quite good. The shrimp was fresh and wasn't too heavily battered-down. This was followed by soup, S3 (very spicy). This is indeed very spicy -- but very flavourful. I wish the bowl were a little bit larger!

We both ordered C1 (red curry chicken), hers mild and mine extra spicy. If you have any tolerance for spice, do not order the mild version of this dish; at that level of dilution it is essentially chicken in a cream sauce. The spicy version, however, is fantastic. Both arrived with a full order of rice, lots of chicken, and a nice presentation.

We also ordered pad thai, which was passable. I prefer the recipe at some other local spots (e.g., Sukhothai). I can't really pinpoint the problem -- perhaps too much fish sauce -- but something seems a bit overpowering with this dish.

Service was top-notch (as you'd expect with nobody else in the place). Everyone was very accommodating and the kitchen was very responsive. Ambiance is better than you might imagine for a strip mall restaurant.

Total price for three main dishes, two orders of soup, three drinks (one alcoholic) and one appetizer was a meager $64 before tax.

Overall, this is definitely a spot worth checking out -- especially if you want to sample Cambodian dishes that a normal Thai restaurant might not offer.