THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Kampuchea

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Kampuchea Restaurant Review:

Many noodle bars hew to a Japanese aesthetic and cuisine, but Kampuchea serves Cambodian cuisine and noodle soups, the only restaurant in New York City to do so. Ratha Chau, previously of Fleur de Sel, mans the stove here. The kitchen is open like a classic noodle bar, but the décor couldn’t be more different; it’s jazzy and chic, lined with brass pots and dark wood, with big picture windows looking out on Rivington Street. Ultimately, it’s the look of the place (and the variety of colorful cocktails) that’s more focused than the cuisine. The “Kampuchea” num pang, or Cambodian sandwich, is made of pâté, ground pork and house-made headcheese. The eponymous noodle soups are a mixed bag; the ingredients are all of a high quality (including exotic items like oxtail and Chinese sausage) but they don’t always interact well. Instead of creating a soup with distinct individual flavors, they can be one-note, so much so that it is hard to tell the Phnom Peng soup from the Hanoi chicken noodle. We do like the chilled flat noodle soup of tiger shrimp, pork belly, chives, cucumber, lettuce, hoisin and chili sauce.