Kroya

Shinta Mani Club

We’re on a Vegan Food Quest to find, eat and write about the best vegan food in the world, this time our wonderful, plant-based, foodie adventure took us to Kroya at the wonderful Shinta Mani Club in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Let the luxury vegan eating begin…

Kroya, designed by famous resort architect and interior designer Bill Bensley

Kroya is the signature restaurant at Shinta Mani Club, one of Siem Reap’s coolest luxury hotels. The vegan food at Kroya not only matches the excellent service you’ll experience if you’re staying at Shinta Mani Club, but it may well be amongst the best food that you’ll taste in Siem Reap.

Shinta Mani Club

Think Khmer classics and Western favourites, delicious little tasting plates where you can sample a range of dishes and desserts that showcase the wonderful flavours of Cambodia in every spoonful.

Don’t believe they can create all this magic by only using plant-based ingredients? Well, read on…

The Vegan Food

We ate at Kroya 3 times and each time we were presented with a specially prepared vegan tasting menu. It means we ate lots of delicious dishes, but it also means that we really got to test out the skills and creativity of the team who without fail produced dish after dish of amazing vegan food.

Who doesn’t love amazing vegan food?

Each course came out as a selection of mini dishes which meant that by the end of each meal we’d eaten our way through so many little delights that our brains were in overdrive. So many good flavours, so many great textures, so many clever combinations… hard to pick our favourites.

Our first trio of starters

To begin with we ate dishes like fresh spring rolls topped with crispy garlic and filled with fresh herbs and vegetables and succulent confit tomato sat on a smooth, rich needle mushroom and aubergine pate enriched with herbed olive oil. Or rich, nutty, buttery avocado mousse with beetroot carpaccio.

Perfectly seasoned avocado mousse served on beetroot carpaccio with herbed oil and orange

We were treated to almond crusted potato cakes made from soft potato and vegetables which went perfectly with the crispy, nutty outside and the accompanying beetroot and coconut puree.

Was this the tastiest potato cake we’ve ever eaten?

We were served soups that were velvety smooth and bursting with flavour like a roasted tomato soup which was seasoned to perfection and garnished with coconut cream, or a duo of cold smooth carrot soup served with a zingy, fresh tomato gazpacho; and let’s not forget the fresh and flavoursome salads that accompanied the selection of starters.

Fresh & zingy pomelo salad

Main courses showcased the very best of Khmer cuisine; traditional ‘amok’ curry made with pumpkin and apple to create a sweet, creamy aromatic delight full of lemongrass and coconut flavours.

Served with a tofu and mixed local herb salad, lemongrass fried rice, coconut and taro cakes local Chinese kale sautéed with garlic and fresh, green Kampot peppercorns; thoughtfully  paired dishes that gave us a chance to try so many wonderful new ingredients.

Traditional Amok curry at Kroya

Delicious root vegetable curry with a crispy basil leaf

We loved the way that foods we’d seen before were prepared in different ways to give them a new twist, like the rice cakes made from fried slices of bamboo sticky rice and black beans.

Lightly fried rice cakes with black beans – sweet with creamy coconut

And we were blown away with the mushroom based dishes that were packed full of deep, rich, spicy flavours as well as coconut palm sugar sweetness and tamarind sourness.

Another delicious mushroom dish that was packed full of flavour, topped with courgette fritters

But it wasn’t just Khmer food that was delicious at Kroya, the Western inspired dishes were also very good.

Spaghetti tossed in a rich roasted tomato sauce with herbal flavours mixing with fresh sweet garlic; a mini panini filled with rosemary roasted peppers, aubergine and onions and a stack of chunky, crispy chips.

Fresh tomato sauce with spaghetti – simple but delicious

Plus a mixed vegetable dish made from broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot and mushroom that was packed with smoked chillies, pickles and cashew nuts in a powerful sweet and sour, bbq-like sauce; all seriously tasty.

We loved this mixed vegetable dish

Then there was vegan dessert, or rather ‘vegan desserts’ plural

Sesame seed crusted balls filled with yellow bean and served with raspberry sorbet topped with a honeycomb crumb and a guava puree; flambeed banana with passion fruit sorbet and a sweet coconut rice pudding flavoured deliciously with sesame and ginger; apples caramelised in palm sugar with kaffir lime leaves, with strawberry sorbet and banana and coconut sticky rice steamed in banana leaf parcels.

We LOVE vegan desserts 🙂

Strawberry sorbet with caramelised apples flavoured with gorgeous kaffir lime leaf

Perfect desserts to complete perfect meals

The Vegan Food Quest Verdict

Make a reservation at Kroya to eat stylish food inspired by traditional Khmer cuisine that’s made by an exceptionally talented Chef and served by some of the friendliest restaurant staff you might ever meet.

Order the ‘Vegan Tasting Menu’ to sample a full range of delicious and creative dishes, where you’ll be amazed and delighted from appetisers to dessert.

Or spoil yourself and check in for a few days like we did and enjoy day after day (and meal after meal) of sublime vegan delights, here you can read all about our stay at Shinta Mani Club.

We were guests of Kroya @ Shinta Mani Club but please rest assured that their generosity in hosting us didn’t influence our views

Kroya
Shinta Mani Club
Junction of Oum Khun St and 14th St
Siem Reap
Cambodia

Telephone: +855 63 761 998