San Jose Dining: Chez Sovan

Chez Sovan Cambodian Restaurant
2425 S Bascom Ave
Campbell, CA 95008
408.371.7711

As I discussed in my earlier post about Cambodian food at Phnom Penh in Cleveland, I’m a freak for spicy and exotic stuff. A local buddy of mine suggested that while I was in town I check out the San Jose equivalent to Phnom Penh, Chez Sovan in nearby Campbell.

Cheryl and I finished our day of Project Management 101 drudgery at our Morgan Hill Training center, leaving the cows grazing in the parking lot and headed up the highway to the San Jose/Campbell area. San Jose has a ton of Asian restaurants, particularly Thai and Vietnamese, but Chez Sovan has the distinction of being the only Cambodian in town.

Restaurant entrance

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Cleveland Dining: Phnom Penh (UPDATED)

Phnom Penh Restaurant

13124 Lorain Ave
Cleveland, OH 44111
(216) 251-0210

1929 W 25th
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 357-2951

Web Site: http://www.ohiorestaurant.com

I happen to be a huge Asian food fan — be it Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese or Korean, I’m immensely attracted to the firey chiles, the fresh herbs, the strange vegetables and the confluence and exotic spices and strange condiments used in these cuisines. And when I get to try dishes from this region that I normally don’t have access to where I live in the New York Metro area, I jump at the chance to do it.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been travelling back and forth to Cleveland — a city that for the most part I would classify as sorely lacking in decent food. Cleveland is a meat and potatoes town, a city where chain restaurants reign and are even test marketed. But there are definitely pockets of great ethnic food in Cleveland, and you have to know where to find it.

One fine example of this is Phnom Penh, which is a Cambodian restaurant with two locations in Cleveland. Cambodian food is something that I have absolutely no experience with, as we don’t have any restaurants that I know of that represent the cuisine in New York or New Jersey. The best way I could describe Cambodian is it has all the herbal notes and heavy reliance on fresh produce and the funkyness of Vietnamese, but with all the explosive chili fire of Thai. Like Thai, many of their dishes are curry-like and served over rice or rice noodles like the Vietnamese do. Like the Thai, they use tamarind, galangal, and kaffir lime. Like the Vietnamese, they use Star Anise as well as Cilantro/Coriander. What sets Cambodian apart from both of these cuisines is its signature Khmer spice paste, Kroeung, which is used in many of their native dishes and made up of a combination of Lemon grass, Kaffir lime, Galangal, Turmeric, Rhizome, Garlic, Shallots, and Dried Red Chillies

Phnom Penh’s Lorain Avenue location. The restaurant is very small and barely has enough space for 3 cars to park in front in its tiny lot, so you might have to park around the corner or across the street.

The Lorain Avenue branch is not much to look at. But that’s not what you’re here for.

Ready for some seriously spicy and exotic food in Cleveland? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.