Last week the Train Cafe Phnom Penh seemed to all over the worldly news, not just in Cambodia, but many major news networks picked up and carried the story about the “train to nowhere”. Now I love trains, but even more than a love of trains I like to check out bandwagons – what indeed was this Train Cafe Phnom Penh? Was it any good, or was it a hipster hell?
Where is the Train Cafe Phnom Penh?
Would you guess, but it is at Phnom Penh Railway Station, home of the Royal Cambodian Railways. Now the Royal Cambodian Railways are not exactly on par with say Vietnam, or China, but they will take you to Kampot, which gets you to Kep, and of course Sihanoukville that gets you to the wonderful Koh Rong.
To read about Koh Rong click here .
Sadly the limited trains have been on a bit of a hiatus since the start of the pandemic, but if the way things looked today are anything togo by they are making a comeback. Yet we did not come here to talk about Train Cafes in Phnom Penh.
What’s all the hype about the train Cafe in Phnom Penh?
OK, so again spoiler alert it is in a repurposed train carriage and as well as genuine moving trains there are a couple of old trains and tracks to take pictures of. If you are a train geek you will like it.
And the good news is that you do not even have to be a train geek, note to single men out there the main demographic seems to be 20 something ladies that come here to get the perfect hipster photo. We literally saw a group of girls having a photo shoot next to a train. Proof if ever any was needed in the sheer strength of the media!
To read about Bokor Hill click here .
The train cafe Phnom Penh – what’s the menu and the ambience?
Again to repeat ourselves, but is genuinely in an old train caring, meaning that the sits are falling apart, not all the comfortable and you have surly staff. Yes it is a legitimate train experience! At least for us Brits anyway/
The menu at the Phnom Penh Railway cafe all costs between $1-2 and consists of mostly coffee’s, tea’s, hot chocolate and all the regular passion fruit and green tea type combo’s that you tend to expect from an establishment like this.
And the food at the Railway cafe? Don’t exactly come here on an empty stomach. It is nit that they do not have food, it is the food pretty much insists of ramen and Pringles. Don’t get me wrong, both are decent, but with all the hooplah I had thought that a culinary delight might await me.
Ambience wise – this is where the cool kids come to take photos.
Overall on the the whole Train Cafe Phnom Penh
A thoroughly OK place, but a very simple concept and one I have seen many times in many countries. There is no need to go out of your way to come here, but if you are passing through, or better still getting the train then it is well worth a visit. It is though not exactly worth going out of your way for.
Why did the Train Cafe Phnom Penh become such a sensation? Quite simply because sometimes there are just slow news days, it really is that simple.
Oh and you can now buy your train tickets from the platform in Phnom Penh! Can’t say better than that.
Check out the Royal Railways Cambodia Website for ticket information.
