Sambo Khmer & Thai is the answer. Whole grilled fish, crab by weight, prawns off the charcoal, and more reviews than any other seafood kitchen in Siem Reap at a 4.8 average. Order the fish whole and ask what came in that morning.
36
Restaurants ranked
3
Kitchens compared
$1–$5
Mains from
Siem Reap sits three hundred kilometres from the coast, which is the first thing to understand about eating seafood here. Nothing on this list swam in the sea this morning. Crab and prawns come up by road from Kep and Sihanoukville overnight, arriving in the markets around dawn, and the good kitchens buy that day and sell it that day. The kitchens that do not are the reason seafood has a mixed reputation in this town. Ask when it arrived and watch whether the answer comes back quickly.
There is also a second seafood scene here that has nothing to do with the coast at all. The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and it sits forty minutes south of the Old Market, which means river fish in Siem Reap is genuinely local in a way that ocean crab never is. Amok, the steamed fish curry in banana leaf, is built on it. This ranking scores each kitchen on its Google rating weighted by review volume, then splits the list by what it actually does well: the institutions, the Khmer tables where the fish is the point, and the smaller rooms worth knowing about.
Looking for the wider list?
Seafood is one slice of the Siem Reap food scene. Our main ranking covers Khmer kitchens, French bistros, Italian, Japanese and street food across every budget.
See the 14 best restaurantsThe five kitchens that carry the town's seafood reputation, with the volume, the ratings and the supply lines to back it up.
12 cafes →
Local rooms built around river fish, grilled squid and crab by weight. Less polish, more honesty about what came in.
12 cafes →
Smaller, newer or more specialised. Where residents send friends who already ate at the obvious places.
12 cafes →
Map of all 14 restaurants
The institutions
The five kitchens that carry the town's seafood reputation, with the volume, the ratings and the supply lines to back it up.
| # | Restaurant | Kitchen | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Sambo Khmer & Thai | Khmer & Thai seafood | $ | (2,500+) |
| 🥈 | Old Maison Eatery | Modern Khmer | $$ | (900+) |
| 🥉 | Le Cul-de-Sac | French bistro | $$ | (300+) |
| 4 | Damnak Mahob Khmer Restaurant | Khmer fine dining | $$ | (300+) |
| 5 | Aaraama | Contemporary Khmer | $$ | (300+) |
1Sambo Khmer & ThaiEditor's pick
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Whole grilled fish and crab, the most-reviewed seafood in town
2Old Maison EateryBest atmosphere
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Small kitchen, highest-rated on real volume
3Le Cul-de-SacBest atmosphere
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: French treatment of imported fish, an institution
4Damnak Mahob Khmer Restaurant
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Tasting menus built around river fish
5Aaraama
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Refined plating, fish the kitchen actually sourced
Khmer tables where the fish is the point
Local rooms built around river fish, grilled squid and crab by weight. Less polish, more honesty about what came in.
| # | Restaurant | Kitchen | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | PINAKPOU Restaurant | Khmer seafood | $$ | (400+) |
| 7 | Thy Phalla | Khmer grill | $$ | (400+) |
| 8 | Pot & Pan | Seafood hotpot | $ | (600+) |
| 9 | Romiet Restaurant & Bar | Khmer restaurant | $$ | (300+) |
| 10 | Neary Khmer Restaurant | Khmer restaurant | $$ | (1,000+) |
6PINAKPOU Restaurant
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Kep crab when it arrives, ask before you order
7Thy Phalla
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Grilled squid and prawns, garden seating
8Pot & Pan
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Hotpot and steamed fish, big tables
9Romiet Restaurant & Bar
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Steamed fish in banana leaf, quiet room
10Neary Khmer Restaurant
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Amok and river fish at local prices
Worth knowing
Smaller, newer or more specialised. Where residents send friends who already ate at the obvious places.
| # | Restaurant | Kitchen | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Home Crab | Crab specialist | $$ | (300+) |
| 12 | Romchong Restaurant | Khmer restaurant | $ | (300+) |
| 13 | River Square 24 Restaurant | Riverside dining | $$ | (150+) |
| 14 | Williams Fish and Chips | Fish and chips | $$ | (100+) |
11Home CrabBest value
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Kep crab is the whole point
12Romchong Restaurant
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Local crowd, seafood by weight
13River Square 24 Restaurant
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Highest rating on the list, small and new
14Williams Fish and ChipsBest value
blog.bestSeafood.col_bestFor: Battered fish done properly, the homesick answer
How to tell if the seafood is fresh here
In a landlocked town the honest test is not the fish, it is the question. Ask what came in this morning and a good kitchen answers in one sentence, usually naming the market and sometimes the boat. A weak kitchen offers you the full menu regardless.
The second test is the whole fish: filleted fish hides age, whole fish does not, so order it whole and look at the eye and the gill. Sambo, PINAKPOU and Home Crab all pass this without hesitation, which is most of why they rank where they do. The third test is price movement.
Crab from Kep is a commodity with a real market price, and a kitchen that charges the same for it in April as in October is either very good at planning or not selling much crab.
Tonlé Sap fish and why amok is different here
The lake south of town produces more freshwater fish than almost anywhere else on earth, and that is the seafood Siem Reap can honestly call local. Amok, steamed in banana leaf with coconut, galangal and kroeung paste, is built on that fish, and it is the one dish where the version you eat here is closer to source than the version you eat in Phnom Penh or Bangkok. Damnak Mahob and Aaraama treat it as a serious dish rather than a tourist obligation, and both plate it with the care usually reserved for imported protein.
Neary Khmer and Romiet serve the everyday version at a third of the price, and it is honestly not a third as good, which is a rare thing to be able to say.
Where to eat crab in Siem Reap
Kep crab, cooked with the green Kampot peppercorns still on the stem, is the single best thing the Cambodian coast sends inland. Home Crab builds its whole menu around it and is the obvious first stop, both because the kitchen knows the dish and because volume means turnover, which for crab matters more than technique. PINAKPOU gets it when the supply allows and will tell you plainly when it does not, which is worth more than a menu that never runs out.
Expect to pay by weight, expect the price to move with the season, and expect the good version to arrive messy, hot and unfilleted. If it arrives in a neat pile of picked meat, something happened to it hours before you sat down.
What seafood costs in Siem Reap
A plate of grilled squid or prawns at a Khmer table runs $5 to $8, a whole grilled fish for two lands between $10 and $18 depending on size, and crab is sold by weight at $12 to $25 a kilo depending on the season and the supply. The French and fine-dining rooms roughly double that: Le Cul-de-Sac and Damnak Mahob are $20 to $35 a head before wine, and they earn it through sourcing and technique rather than portion size. Williams Fish and Chips sits outside the whole argument at around $7 for battered fish that tastes like the thing you were homesick for.
Prices climb slightly between December and February and after heavy rain, when the road from the coast slows down.
Seafood by area
Wat Bo and the eastern side of the river hold the kitchens that locals rate: Sambo sits there, and so do several of the Khmer tables where the fish is the point and the room is plain. Wat Damnak, quieter and further south, is where the two fine-dining options sit, and it is a genuinely pleasant fifteen-minute walk from the Old Market rather than a tuk-tuk necessity. The centre and Pub Street area carries the tourist-facing rooms, which is where the risk of paying resort prices for road-freighted fish is highest.
Riverside has the newest arrivals, River Square 24 among them, still small enough that the kitchen buys what it can sell.
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How we ranked these 14 restaurants
Directory data
Ratings, addresses, opening hours and coordinates come from our own Siem Reap directory, refreshed from Google Places.
Weighted scoring
Each kitchen was scored on its Google rating weighted by the logarithm of its review count, so a near-perfect score on a small base does not displace a 4.8 across thousands.
Local correction
The list was then split by what each kitchen actually does, because in a landlocked town the difference between a crab specialist and a general menu with crab on it decides the meal.
Browse every restaurant in Siem Reap
Our directory lists verified restaurants with addresses, ratings, opening hours and reviews, filtered by kitchen and neighbourhood.
Open the directoryFrequently asked questions
What is the best seafood restaurant in Siem Reap?
Sambo Khmer & Thai, on the weighted score. Whole grilled fish, crab by weight and prawns off the charcoal, with more reviews than any other seafood kitchen in town at a 4.8 average.
Is seafood in Siem Reap actually fresh?
The ocean seafood arrives overnight by road from Kep and Sihanoukville, so it is a day old at best. The freshwater fish from the Tonlé Sap is genuinely local. Ask what came in that morning and judge the kitchen by how fast it answers.
Where do I eat Kep crab in Siem Reap?
Home Crab builds its menu around it, which means turnover, which for crab matters more than technique. PINAKPOU gets it when supply allows and says so when it does not.
What does seafood cost here?
Grilled squid or prawns run $5 to $8 at a Khmer table, a whole fish for two is $10 to $18, and crab is sold by weight at $12 to $25 a kilo. Fine dining roughly doubles that.
What is amok and should I order it?
Steamed fish curry in banana leaf, built on Tonlé Sap freshwater fish. It is the one seafood dish that is genuinely local here, so yes.
Is there anywhere to eat fish and chips?
Williams Fish and Chips, around $7, battered properly. It sits outside the freshness argument entirely and that is the point.
Which seafood restaurant is best for a special occasion?
Le Cul-de-Sac for the French treatment, Damnak Mahob for tasting menus built around river fish. Both are $20 to $35 a head before wine.
Do I need to book?
For the two fine-dining rooms, yes, especially between December and February. Everywhere else on this list takes walk-ins most nights.
Is seafood safe to eat in Siem Reap?
At the places on this list, yes. Volume is the best proxy for safety here, because a kitchen that sells out daily is not storing anything long.
When is the best time of year for seafood here?
November to March, when the road from the coast is quickest and the lake fishery is at its most productive. Heavy rain slows the supply and the good kitchens simply take things off the menu.