Victoria Angkor Resort
The Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa is one of Siem Reap’s most popular luxury hotels, welcoming thousands of guests each year as they make the short journey to see the spectacular temple ruins of Angkor Wat.
Built in a 1930’s French colonial style but with all the modern luxuries from the 21st Century that you might need, including a huge saltwater swimming pool, free WiFi and a cocktail bar that makes a great place to relax after a busy day sightseeing.
We checked in for a few nights to check out how they adapted to having a couple of vegan food loving travellers to stay. They spoiled us (like all their guests) with nightly gifts left in our room and we liked the laid back feel that the hotel had, but how did they cope with our veganism?
The Vegan Food
The Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa has already begun to embrace the different needs of those who travel by having a separate ‘Vegetarian Menu’ that contains some vegan options and a ‘Fitness Menu’ that can also be adapted.
We tried several dishes with a few being our standout favourites which we’d recommend if you visit; plus if you’re looking to stay healthy whilst on holiday they all ticked the box for being healthy and delicious. All of the dishes on the ‘Vegetarian Menu’ and ‘Fitness Menu’ have the nutritional information labelled underneath them which was very interesting to see and is a great feature of the menus.
Our standout favourites included ‘Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls with Sweet & Sour Dip’, they were light and fresh as you’d hope and full of rice noodles, vegetables and herbs with a sweet and tangy peanut and lime dipping sauce.
From the soup choices our favourite was definitely the ‘Chilled Gazpacho Garnished with Vegetables Brunoise’. It was zingy and fresh, had a wonderful herbal element but was hugely rich and sweet with fresh tomatoes and finished off with a little spiciness. This is the perfect dish for a hot Siem Reap day or night and came in a portion so big that it was almost a meal in itself.
The ‘Fitness Menu’ contains a simply named dish ‘Mediterranean Lentils’ which is simply awesome (and contains more than the entire amount of protein needed by an an adult man in one serving!). No need to worry about not eating a balanced diet when away from home here and luckily the taste matched the great nutritional stats. It was packed with flavour and well cooked, hearty lentils and also contained avocado, spinach leaves, artichoke, tomatoes and asparagus. The olive oil dressing was laced with fresh garlic and the whole dish was seasoned well; this is indeed a salad to seek out if you’re in town.
In addition to the tasty and healthy vegan food, the Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa stock vegan wine from Australian winemakers Yalumba (who’s entire range of wines are vegetarian and vegan friendly, which is labelled clearly on the bottle as well as their website). Vegan wine lovers can enjoy some of Yalumba’s great quality, cruelty free wines during their say too (and after a hard day of temple sightseeing you will certainly have earned it).
The vegan breakfast offering was good, although we advise making sure that you inform the staff that you require vegan food in advance, and asking them to prepare your food freshly for you to make sure it’s suitable for you.
We ate fabulous platters of vegan sushi with fresh wasabi and soy as well as a light an healthy noodle soup.
The Vegan Essentials
The conditioning shampoo and shower gel available in our room was already decanted into ceramic dispensers (much better for the environment!) so there was no labelling available for us to check; we advise packing your own vegan guaranteed supplies.
There were non-feather pillows in our room and the duvet was also animal free (excellent stuff!).
Finally, the in-house spa had a range of treatments averrable that did not involve the use of animal products; invigorating Khmer massage anyone?
The Vegan Food Quest Verdict
Check in at Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa for some healthy vegan luxury that is perfectly located for temple sightseeing at Angkor Wat, enjoy the wonderful nightly gifts, the amazing saltwater pool and most importantly, the healthy, fresh vegan food on offer.
Don’t forget to treat yourself to a glass of that vegan friendly wine if you are a wine lover too.
We were guests of Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa but please rest assured that their generosity in hosting us didn’t influence our views
Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa
Central Park
Siem Reap
Cambodia
Telephone: +855 63 760 428
Email: reservation@victoriahotels.asia
Cost From: £80 / $120 per night (May 2015)