Phnom Penh & Gastronomy : Khéma La Poste, the address where France comes to call
- Coin gourmand
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
On Phnom Penh's historic Post Office Square, inside a restored colonial building, a restaurant rewrites, plate after plate, a postcard of a life lived elsewhere.
On Phnom Penh's historic Post Office Square, fully restored in 2004, the 1890 Central Post Office still shows off its cream and butter-yellow façade, the emblem of the old French quarter. A few streets away, inside a colonial building that once served as the back offices of the Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine, a shipping company founded in 1881, a rather different kind of correspondence has taken up residence: the daily, edible kind that Khéma La Poste sends out to anyone who walks through its doors.
The brand, familiar to Phnom Penh residents through its bakeries and cafés scattered across the city, finds its most romantic address here. The generous menu refuses to pick a single allegiance: it seats Parisian brasserie cooking at the same table as an Italian trattoria, lets tartare rub shoulders with carpaccio, and closes out with Cambodian breakfast and business-lunch staples. A deliberate patchwork, much like the city itself.
Starters and freshness
The menu opens with a wardrobe of composed salads — the Chef's Salad, layered with sliced ham and emmental, and the Siena, built on seasonal vegetables lifted with a citrus vinaigrette — before moving on to more elaborate plates. Tartare holds pride of place, offered in half a dozen versions: salmon and smoked seabass over a gazpacho emulsion and burrata cream, seabass marinated with coriander and finished with a touch of caviar, or a classic Parisian beef tartare, built to order with capers, shallot and egg yolk.
On the soup side, the house plays comfort and elegance in equal measure: a pumpkin velouté veiled in parmesan foam, a French onion soup gratinated with gruyère, or a truffle cappuccino that borrows from the hushed register of grand dining rooms. But it's the lobster bisque, served with its own gratinated crab ravioli, that delivers the chapter's most indulgent moment — the dish you order without a second thought.
The pasta counter
Unapologetically Italian in spirit, this section of the menu leans into fresh pasta and slow-simmered sauces. There's a carbonara faithful to the Roman canon, spaghetti vongole with a whisper of chilli, a bolognese lasagna gratinated with aged parmesan, and duck-filled plin ravioli draped in gorgonzola cream and a foie gras jus — the section's most refined note. Heartier appetites will find paccheri with braised pork and pecorino cream, or a Toulouse sausage with mash, a deliberate nod to southwestern France.
Meats, the house's backbone
This may be where Khéma La Poste states its French roots most clearly. The Steak Frites Café de Paris, the house's signature dish, arrives at the table under a small flame that keeps its herb-butter sauce warm — a piece of theatre familiar to anyone who has dined in a Parisian brasserie on a weeknight. Around it orbit an unfussy sirloin and fries, a beef fillet with sautéed potatoes, and a classic Beef Wellington, wrapped in foie gras and mushrooms under golden puff pastry.
For tables that like to share, the Australian rib-eye, grilled to order and served with seasonal vegetables and roasted potatoes, is the centrepiece — pictured above, right. Those after something more delicate can turn to the grilled rack of lamb with its rich jus, while the charcuterie and cheese platters, built for a long aperitif, close out this carnivorous chapter with some elegance.
Fish and seafood
The seafood section opens with a pan-seared John Dory fillet in champagne sauce — a noble, firm-fleshed fish handled with all the care it deserves. Salmon appears in several guises, herb-and-turmeric crusted, with spinach ravioli, or simply grilled, while the sea bream, prepared à la grenobloise, returns to French bistro classics: brown butter, capers and lemon. Mussels marinière in cream, served with golden fries in their own pot, remain the ultimate table-sharing dish — the one ordered to sit at the centre of the table.
Desserts, the last word
The house doesn't stray far to close the meal: dark chocolate fondant with a molten centre, chocolate mousse with an amaretti crumble, warm apple tart with cinnamon ice cream, profiteroles under hot chocolate sauce — reassuringly classic French pastry throughout. A more contemporary note slips in with the pistachio tiramisu, layered with mascarpone shortbread and crushed pistachios, closing the meal on an Italian flourish that echoes the pasta chapter.
From early morning through the lunch rush, the address simply shifts register: a Free Flow Breakfast brings together French pastries and Khmer dishes at one unhurried table, while a more streamlined Business Lunch menu welcomes the district's time-pressed office crowd. Which makes Khéma La Poste a three-speed address — morning café, midday canteen, evening table — all under one colonial roof.
Facebook — facebook.com/KhemaLaPoste
Telegram — t.me/KhemaLaPoste
Google reviews — g.page/r/CRk310dc6wdeEBM
TripAdvisor — Khéma La Poste listing, Phnom Penh
Prices shown exclude 7% service charge and 10% government tax. Menu and visuals: Khéma La Poste, via Thalias Menu.
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