Nyam Penh

Bacon Cheeseburger at T-Bone Steakhouse

I had a chance to meet up with a friend for lunch  at T-Bone Steakhouse which located on the corner of Streets 360 and Monivong. I’ve been there for a couple of occasions and had a great steak both times but in all honesty, I haven’t been too impressed with the place. Then about a couple months go, I ran into Dene from SEA Globe at a party and told me to check out their burger.

I am impressed now.

The decor in the place is very clean in a sedate, clinical kind of way. After ordering drinks, we were given a bread basket with a watery marinara dipping sauce. It was pretty tasty but I wished it had a bit more body to it.

The bread basket

We ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger ($7.00) and their daily lunch time special ($9.90). We got the burger cooked medium rare but opted against ordering the burger with 2 patties which will run you an extra $2. It also comes with a nice side salad to start.

The daily special includes their salad bar and a changing meat dish. Today’s was grilled beef skewers with a BBQ sauce. The salad bar is pretty decent with about 4 salads to choose from. I had a great caesar salad and a tomato salad that had a fantastic basil balsamic vinagrette dressing that was great to dip the bread into.

A little salad before the main course

After 15 minutes or so, we got our main dishes. Since we were sharing the meal, we cut the burger in half and took a look.

Mmmmm... medium rare......

Cooked to a bit above medium rare, it was the best burger patty I have had in Cambodia, hands down. It was beefy, juicy, seasoned perfectly and had the perfect meat to bun ratio that I like in my burgers. The menu didn’t advertise the size of it, but I estimate the patty to be a 1/3 pounder. It had the typical lettuce, onion and tomato garnish along with a nice slice of american cheese and a rather chewy slice of bacon on top. The fries were nice and crispy and the sauce that came with it was a ketchup/mayonnaise mix that went great on the burger. The only complaint I would have is that I wished the bacon was a bit crispier (for texture) and the bun was a bit sweet.

The beef skewers

The beef skewers were huge! I tried to pick one up just using one hand and the skewer almost snapped in two from the weight of it. The BBQ sauce was a nice tangy concoction and was a great dipping sauce for the beef. The beef was cooked medium which is just a bit more than I would have liked it but it still managed to stay juicy inside. Also, I kinda wished I had the option to choose the temperature of the meat.
All in all, T-Bone delivers the goods (meat!!!) as a steakhouse does. Though it is a bit expensive, the burger is a winner and is definitely worth a return trip for.

- Vinh

Here is a little take of the place from my lunch buddy:

While it seems counter intuitive to order a burger at a steakhouse, I was game for the opportunity.  Vinh and I met at T-Bone for lunch to try out a burger and the lunch special.  We ordered the bacon cheeseburger and the beef kabobs for lunch.

The burger was cooked well (we ordered it medium).  It was a good sized piece of meat and it came with onions, lettuce, and tomatoes.  It tasted great and I ate it quickly.  The bun wasn’t as spongy as I would have liked and it fell apart a little when we cut it in half, but overall the burger was very tasty.  Unfortunately it did not come with many condiments, but since it tasted good on it’s own, the burger did not need much accompaniment.  The burger was served with fries and was preceded by a small salad.  Definitely worth ordering again.

The beef kebab as the lunch special was also really good.  There were three chunks of beef interspersed with grilled vegetables on each skewer.  The kebab was also served with fries and it came with a small bowl of barbecue sauce.  The meat was cooked very well and the sauce added a nice touch.

Between the two, I think I’d be more likely to order the kebab first, but the burger was very nice.  Definitely worth coming back to T-Bone again, not sure why I haven’t for so long.

- Prateek

While I wasn’t able to make it for the lunch with Vinh, I did get a chance to try the T-Bone burger recently and I felt to compelled to throw my 2-cents in when the ‘best burger patty in Cambodia’ title was throw out. The T-Bone burger was fine but I wouldn’t call it the best in Phnom Penh let alone Cambodia. I would list Alley Cat, Garage and Mike’s ahead of T-Bone (yes, I’ve tried Freebird).  And I still haven’t had a burger in Phnom Penh that can hold a candle to the american burger at Cafe De La Paix in Siem Reap.

- Bryse