When was the last time you actually wanted a tour of a restaurant before you ate?
Le Liban is the newest Lebanese cuisine in town and it is set in a huge ex-embassy compound that has taken the owners a year to renovate. What they have created is an amazing testament to what you can achieve if you have vision. Is that a Bedouin tent in the middle of Phnom Penh? Yes? Is that a traditional Khmer wooden house (painted funky purple) really a sheesha bar? Yes. Are those immaculate outside gardens with fountains really that immaculate? Yes. Is that plain concrete wall really painted with a trompe d'oeil that makes it look like an ancient, ivy covered sandstone wall? Yes.
Are those banquettes all really lined with imported silks cushions that look like they have come straight out of a Lebanese Bizarre? Absolutely. Is Le Liban really big enough to host major parties and even possibly a wedding to remember? For sure. The space is simply fantastic.
Our host Mansour showed us to our lovely private banquette and we were soon ordering from the mouth watering menu. We chose the mixed mezza platter for 3 and as he left for the kitchen, Mansour mumbled something about “not eating too much bread”. When the first large communal plate arrived it was brimming with chickpea and eggplant humous’, tabouli and stuffed vine leaves and generous baskets of Lebanese bread which we gluttonously used as dipping shovels. When the second platter arrived with all the meat dishes I quickly understood the comment about the bread. I was already close to exploding and there was yet more to come! We washed all this delicious fair down with a beautiful Lebanese Rose and some beers and the bill came to $90 but in reality, we could have fed a party of 5 comfortably.
The food was fantastic in both taste and portion size and I really felt for those two hours like I was out of Cambodia and into Lebanon.
Le Liban Restaurant et Jardin
House 3 / St # 466
Tel :092 483 759
The Phnom Pen is based in the capital