The MOST undervalued restaurant in the world – Lum Orng in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Lum Orng bills itself as Cambodia’s first farm to table restaurant, and I could not be more impressed. Its also included in the World’s 50 Best Discovery directory. As our Uber left the city limits of Siem Reap and entered into dirt road territory, I started to wonder if this was a legit restaurant. After some time, we arrived at an oasis in the middle of nowhere. The restaurant, according to staff, is located in this remote area to accommodate the garden. Here was the entrance and menu for the evening:

The meal started with an amuse of ground pork which was beautifully presented and very tasty:

The next course of “fish & pomelo” was like a sashimi with pomelo adding freshness and acidity. Very refreshing.

At this point, everyone in my group grew excited about the dishes to follow. We could not stop raving about the food so far. Also, service, as I experienced in most of Cambodia, was very fast and efficient. No long pauses between courses. I started to realize this was a very special restaurant, and for U$45, there is no where in the world where you could eat such world class food at this price. It may be the MOST undervalued restaurant in the world. On top of that, EVERYTHING was delicious. My daughter ordered a smoothie and it was mind blowingly good. I don’t normally order smoothies with dinner, or at all, but I had to have one too. Then, one by one, everyone in my group ordered a smoothie. Then I saw other tables order smoothies. We ended up ordering every flavor! (the mango smoothie in the dining room is in the featured pic of this post).

Back to the meal. The sweet and sour fish had an amazing sauce, and perfectly crisp skin with seaweed adding just the right hit of umami

The next course, the langoustine, was perfectly grilled, with an excellent broth that used a little heat that came out just a bit. Extremely well balanced dish with sweet, salty, and umami coming through with great flavors.

Following this was the fish and basil dish. The fish was perfectly fried and another homerun.

Before the final course was a palate cleanser. They topped the sorbet with fish flakes and I think this was one of the misses of the night. The strong savory fish taste did not work well with the other ingredients. This was supposed to cleanse the palate of savory flavors so they should of just let the lime sorbet do its job.

The final dish was a beef ravioli which was good, but the ravioli was overcooked. I noticed this a lot with pasta dishes in the country in general.

The meal ended with dessert which was ok.

Overall, this was a fantastic meal. I would highly highly recommend it, and would not hesitate to go back and try a new tasting menu.