Dead Fish Tower - Siem Reap - Restaurants, Cafes & Food Reviews

popular foodhouse with multiple tiers and levels in an open air environment. the architecture is quirky and squeaky at times. you can choose to sit on chairs at the ground levels or on mats on the upper tiers. food was ok and music was played throughout, but no life bands on the night we were there though for whatever reasons. there is a crocodile pit on the ground level with a sign stating "don't play with them, they run faster than you" or something hilarious to that effect. there must be like 12 or more crocodiles lazing in the pool, but one can't be too sure in the dark. i can't forget the quirky statue at the store front.

recommended a visit just for the architecture of the place.

Located on Sivatha Street, one's very first impressions of this jolly little haunt comes from the sign at the enterance, proudly proclaiming: "Doesn't serve dog, cat, rat or worm!"

So far, a good omen, thought my companions and I. So in we trooped, as yet unaware of how attached we would come to be to this place. As if the name "Dead Fish Tower" was not enought to love..

The Restaurant is large and spacious, with plenty of room to move. The place is multi-levelled, with stairs running up and along a numer of flat platforms, furnished with plenty of cushions and low tables. Dining on one of these platforms, is, I think, not really advisable if you decide to take the staff up on the absurdly cheap cocktail buckets as you may potentially have a little mishap on one of the platforms (there really aren't any safety measures in place to prevent plummets), or have difficulty getting down the stairs again.

The gauntlet to the toilets involve crossing a crocodile pit where the crocs look lazily up at you, occasionally snapping their jaws if you make too much ruckus.

The food here is excellent. By far the best nosh we had during our one month stint in Cambodia. It was so good that we came here pretty much every night whilst in Siem Reap, and on several occasions the male member of our party polished off no less than two hand a half main course meals, dessert and a cocktail bucket. The Amok and the Ginger Chicken are superb. Eat them whilst reclining on your platform's cushions and watching the Apsara dancing being performed on the neaby stage platform, it's kind of hard to not think "It's good to be King".

Cost? well, between three people stuffing themselves senseless that we had to catch a tuktuk back to the hotel because we were feeling so full we couldn't bring ourselves to walk.. I think there was only one occassion when we paid over US$40 total. And that was because we had two extra people with us (taking our party to 5) and consumed far too many cocktail buckets. I think all the main meals cost less than US$5. You just can't beat cheap, tasty food in a fabulous environment.

And to top it off, you can go down to the gift shop and purchase a Dead Fish Tell no Tales Tee afterwards, to boast about how you have visited one of THE best places to eat in Cambodia!

The Dead Fish Tower is a very popular restaurant in Siem Reap. It's quite an atmospheric place, especially for Asian standards and the owners have spared no effort to make it look like 'THE place to be' in Siem Reap. As such you will not be surprised that this is a popular spot. Seemingly we must have caught them on a bad night.

Some of our choices for meals were (again) not available. My Amok Fish was okay but the others weren't quite satisfied with their dishes. This perfect example of Khmer chaos climaxed when we tried to buy two T-shirts that were on display but they did not have the actual shirts available in various sizes. Still, we had some fun feeding the crocodiles (there were in total 64 in the restaurant). Still, I doubt if this is a healthy place to live for such a large family of crocks.