Aerial view of Siem Reap night-market stalls and visitors below.

Siem Reap · Since 2013

Siem Reap Food Tour: the city after dark, one bite at a time

Climb on the back of a Vespa or into a vintage Jeep and let a local guide take you to the rice-wine still, the real street-food market and the family kitchens most visitors walk past, finishing with a Khmer dinner and a cocktail.

4.9★·319verified reviews

Food Tour

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TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice2024
Cited byCondé Nast Traveler
Featured inLonely Planet · Elle Québec · Guide du Routard
Member ofCambodia Tourism Association

The temples close at sunset. That is when Siem Reap starts cooking. Rice wine, the night market, a dinner you'd never find alone.

The after-dark food tours

Both Siem Reap food tours run after dark with your own local guide, by classic Vespa or vintage Jeep: a welcome rice-wine tasting, the real street-food market (insects optional), a full Khmer dinner and a cocktail to finish. Private or small group, prices per person.

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JOIN IN | EVENING TOUR | 4 hours

Siem Reap After Dark Food Tour

Explore Siem Reap's Street Food Scene with our Cambodian Cuisine Tour. Chat with a Local Guide Through Vibrant Markets and Stylish Bars.

Details

$ 78

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Local vendor in an orange shirt handing grilled street-food skewers to a smiling guest at a Siem Reap night market during the After Dark Food Tour

4 hours - Jeep or Vespa - Private

Siem Reap After Dark Private Food Tour

Explore Siem Reap’s culinary secrets by night—privately, and in style.

Details

$ 98

Everything good happens after the sun goes down.

What a Siem Reap food tour is really like

A Siem Reap food tour is an evening, not a meal: you ride the city after dark and eat your way through it, guided by a local who knows where the good stuff is. It starts with a welcome drink and a tasting of Cambodian rice wine at a family distillery, then the real street-food market, grilled lemongrass skewers, num banh chok noodles, fresh fruit, and the adventurous corner of crickets and silkworms if you're game. From there it's a full sit-down Khmer dinner, fish amok or lok lak, the dishes Cambodia is built on, often with live local music, and a cocktail or dessert to finish before you're dropped back at your hotel. Khmer food is its own thing, milder than Thai, built on the lemongrass-and-galangal paste called kroeung and the fermented depth of prahok, more fragrant than fiery. A guide makes the difference: they get you to the stalls locals queue at, order the right things, and turn a row of unfamiliar food into a night you'll talk about. We have run these after-dark tours since 2013, by Vespa and vintage Jeep.

Two visitors examining grilled insects at a night-market stall in Siem Reap

Why eat with us

The street food locals trust, found for you by someone who eats here.

The best food in Siem Reap is not on the tourist strip, and the stalls worth eating at are the ones with a local queue. Your guide knows which they are, orders for you, and tells you what you're eating, so you try the real thing without the guesswork or the upset stomach.

Vendors locals queue forWe eat where the turnover is high and the food is cooked fresh in front of you, the safe way to try real street food.

As adventurous as you likeCrickets, silkworms and frog are there if you want them, never forced. There is a full Khmer dinner whatever you're brave enough to try.

The whole evening, sortedRice-wine tasting, the night market, a sit-down dinner and a cocktail, strung together so you just turn up hungry.

Half the fun is the ridePillion on a classic Vespa or in a vintage Jeep, Siem Reap by night between every stop, hotel door to hotel door.

Tell us what you do and don't eat → we'll build the night around it.

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What you'll taste

The dishes Cambodia is built on

Khmer food is its own cuisine, milder than Thai, less sweet, more herbal and fermented, and most of it is unfamiliar even to seasoned travellers. Here is the lay of the land, so you know what you're looking at when the plates start arriving. We order the right things and tell you what they are; you decide how far down the menu you go.

The signatures, worth crossing town for

Fish amok: Cambodia's signature dish: freshwater fish folded into a mousse of coconut and the herb paste kroeung, steamed soft in a banana leaf. Fragrant, not spicy.
Beef lok lak: Pepper-marinated beef seared and piled on fresh salad, with a Kampot-pepper-and-lime dip on the side. The crowd-pleaser.
Kuy teav: The classic Khmer breakfast: a light pork-broth rice-noodle soup with herbs, bean sprouts and fried garlic.
Num banh chok: "Khmer noodles", fresh rice noodles under a green lemongrass-and-fish curry gravy with raw vegetables piled on top. An everyday national dish.
Bai sach chrouk: Thinly sliced grilled pork over rice with pickles, often a fried egg. The breakfast you'll smell before you see.
Samlor korko: The "national soup": many vegetables and green kroeung thickened with toasted ground rice. Deeply Khmer.
Prahok ktis: A rich dip of fermented-fish prahok simmered with coconut cream and minced pork, scooped up with raw vegetables. The flavour locals grew up on.

The night market, as adventurous as you like

Grilled skewers & BBQ: Charcoal skewers of beef, chicken and fish, lemongrass-marinated, off the grill. The heart of the market.
Crickets: Deep-fried and salted, they genuinely taste of peanuts. The most common edible insect, and the easiest first try.
Frog, snails, silkworms: Real Khmer market snacks, there if you want them. Grilled frog is more dinner than dare.
Fried tarantula: Famous further afield in Skuon, north of Phnom Penh, where it's a local specialty. In Siem Reap it turns up as a novelty for the brave, not an everyday food.
Sugarcane juice & fruit shakes: Fresh-pressed sugarcane over ice, and blended tropical-fruit shakes (tikalok), to wash it all down.

Sweet things & what to drink

Khmer sweets: The ones to try are properly Cambodian: num kom (steamed coconut-and-palm-sugar dumplings), nom plae ai (sticky-rice balls with a molten palm-sugar centre) and cha houy teuk (a coloured jelly-and-coconut iced dessert). Mango sticky rice you'll also find in season, though that one is Thai by birth.
Cambodian rice wine (sra sor): Clear, village-distilled rice liquor, lightly sweet, where the evening starts. Siem Reap's best-known version is infused with fruit and spice.
Palm wine & Angkor beer: The fresh, lightly fermented sap of the sugar palm, and the local lager Cambodians drink over ice.
Iced Khmer coffee: Strong dark-roast coffee over ice with condensed milk. The other national drink.

What ties it together is two things: kroeung, the pounded paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and kaffir lime that gives Khmer food its perfume, and prahok, the fermented fish that gives it its depth. Once you can taste those two, the whole cuisine makes sense, which is exactly what an evening with a guide is for.

Real reviews from the night tours.

Verbatim from Google and TripAdvisor. Trimmed for length only, never reworded.

We had the BEST after-dark food tour. So fun, and such a fun way to start our time in Siem Reap. We had rice liquor, all the adventurous foods in the night market, a yummy "proper dinner" and cocktails in a cool bar. Highly recommend.

Becky Youman

After Dark Food Tour

November 2024

Totally amazing experience! The night market with its wild variety of foods, we had delicious protein including frog, meatballs and crickets, and desserts. Everyone was friendly and having a great time.

K D H

After Dark Food Tour

April 2025

Best food tour we have been on in our time in Vietnam and Cambodia. Fun, interesting and delicious! Our team was authentic and relatable, which was the difference.

Fiona B

Food tour

December 2024

Logistics.

Who's in your group: Choose private (just your party) or the small-group tour (max 8). Either way, a local guide and your own driver for the evening.
What you eat & drink: A welcome rice-wine tasting, street-food tastings at the night market (insects optional), a full sit-down Khmer dinner, and a cocktail or dessert to finish. The private tour includes all food and drinks, alcohol included.
How long & when: An evening: pickup at 6 PM, back by about 10 PM. The private tour runs a little longer with an extra stop.
Vehicle: Classic Vespa (ridden pillion behind a driver) or a vintage Jeep. Siem Reap by night between every stop.
Is it enough for dinner?: Yes. Between the market tastings and the full Khmer dinner, you will finish the night full. Come hungry.
Dietary needs: Tell us when you book: vegetarian, allergies or anything you would rather avoid, and we adapt the stops and dishes. Khmer cooking uses fish sauce and prahok, so notice helps.
Pickup: Hotel pickup and drop-off in Siem Reap, included. Cold towels and water on the private tour.
What to wear: Light, breathable clothes and comfortable closed shoes, market ground can be uneven, and a light layer for the ride.
Cancellation: 14+ days before: full refund. Less than 14 days: 50%. Less than 5 days or no-show: no refund.

Private or small group?

	Private After Dark	Small-group After Dark
Who's with you	Just your party	Up to 8 guests
Stops	Rice wine, night market, full Khmer dinner, cocktail/dessert + a speakeasy finish	Rice wine, night market, Khmer restaurant with live music, cocktail bar
Drinks	All food + drinks, alcohol included	All-inclusive, "all you can eat"
Pace	Yours, fully flexible	Set, sociable
Extras	Cold towels + water, licensed insured vehicles	Guide + driver
From (per person)	$98	$78
See it	Private →	Group →

Akim Ly pointing out local dishes to two guests at a Siem Reap night market during the After Dark Food Tour

Why us

Sharing is the point. Food is the excuse.

The fastest way into Cambodia is at a plastic table on a night market, eating something you can't name with someone who can. That is the evening I wanted visitors to have.

We don't take you to the tourist restaurants. We take you where we eat, and we order the way we order.

Akim Ly · Founder, Adventures Cambodia · Read Akim's full story →

The questions private guests actually ask.

An evening of tastings, not one meal: a welcome rice-wine tasting, street-food at the night market (grilled skewers, Khmer noodles, fruit, and crickets if you're game), then a full sit-down Khmer dinner like fish amok or lok lak, and a cocktail or dessert to finish. You will not leave hungry.

Only if you want to. The night market has crickets, silkworms and frog, and trying them is half the fun for some guests, but nothing is forced. There is plenty of grilled meat, noodles, fruit and a full Khmer dinner whether or not you touch a bug.

Generally no, milder than Thai. Khmer cooking is built on the fragrant lemongrass-and-galangal paste called kroeung and the savoury depth of fermented prahok, so it is aromatic and balanced rather than fiery. Chili is usually served on the side, so you control the heat.

Cambodia's signature dishes are fish amok (a mild coconut curry steamed in banana leaf) and lok lak (stir-fried beef over fresh vegetables with a lime-pepper dip), alongside num banh chok rice noodles. The tour is built to get these, plus the street-food snacks, in one evening.

Khmer food is milder, less sweet and less chili-forward than Thai. The flavour comes from kroeung, a fragrant paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and kaffir lime, and from fermented prahok, so it is aromatic and savoury rather than fiery. Chili is usually on the side, not in the pot.

The evening opens with a tasting of Cambodian rice wine, the clear, lightly sweet village spirit, and ends with a cocktail or two. In between there's water and soft drinks. Local Angkor beer and fresh fruit shakes are easy to add.

This is exactly what a guided tour is for. We eat at busy stalls with high turnover where the food is cooked fresh in front of you, the safe way to try street food, and you drink bottled water throughout. Going with a local who knows the vendors is the lowest-risk way to eat the real thing.

Yes, with notice. Many Khmer dishes are meat or fish based and prahok is fermented fish, so tell us when you book and we plan vegetarian or vegan stops and a meat-free dinner. The more notice, the better we can do it.

Tell us when you book. Khmer cooking uses fish sauce, prahok, peanuts and soy often, so for allergies we need notice to choose stops safely. Standard street food is not halal by default; we will be honest about what we can and can't adapt for your night.

It can be, especially the private tour, where we set the pace and the stops around your family, and kids often love the novelty of the market. It is an evening tour with some alcohol stops, so mention ages when you book and we shape it to suit.

It is an evening tour: pickup at your hotel around 6 PM and back by about 9.30 PM. The private tour runs a little longer with an extra stop. You ride between stops by Vespa or vintage Jeep.

Yes. Between the street-food tastings and a full sit-down Khmer dinner, you will finish the night full, so come hungry and skip dinner beforehand.

Yes, hotel pickup and drop-off in Siem Reap are included. Your guide and driver collect you at the start and bring you home at the end.

Both, your choice. The Vespa is ridden pillion behind an experienced local driver; the vintage Jeep is driven for you. Vehicles are licensed and insured, the drivers do this nightly, and guests consistently say they felt safe, the night ride is part of the experience.

For most first-timers, yes. A local guide gets you to the vendors worth eating at, orders the dishes you'd never find alone, explains what you're tasting, and lowers the chance of an upset stomach. It is the fastest way to actually understand the food here, not just look at it.

You can, and it's cheap and fun, but without the language it's hard to know which stalls are good and what you're ordering, and the risk of a bad pick is higher. The tour trades a bit of cost for vetted stalls, the full Khmer dinner, the rice wine and cocktails, and someone to explain it all.

It's one of the best first nights here: you get your bearings, eat well without research, and your guide becomes the person you ask about everything else in town. If you're badly jet-lagged, the private tour lets you start a little gentler and set the pace.

Light, breathable clothes and comfortable closed shoes, market ground can be uneven, plus a light layer for the breeze on the ride. No need to dress up.

14 or more days before the tour: full refund. Less than 14 days: 50% refund. Less than 5 days before, or a no-show: no refund.

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