Street 104 & the RiversidePhnom Penh, Cambodia · 2026 guide

Street 104 and the Riverside are really one place: a short hostess-bar block and the riverfront it opens onto. Street 104 runs west from Sisowath Quay toward the old French post office, and the entire bar section is about fifty metres long with roughly a dozen venues in it — you can stand at one end and see the last sign at the other.

It is the oldest surviving cluster of its kind in the city, and it feels it. Where Street 136 is bright and busy, 104 is darker, smaller and more clubby, and a higher proportion of its customers are men who live here. The one thing that has genuinely changed in recent years is the arrival of a supersized venue: The Factory 104 trades seven nights a week from about 7:30pm with VIP rooms, a pool table and a jacuzzi suite, which is not something the street had before. Around it are the small rooms that have been there for years, most with a bar, a pool table and a handful of women working.

The Riverside itself. Sisowath Quay runs a mile and a half along the Tonle Sap from Wat Phnom down past the Night Market to the Royal Palace, and it is the part of Phnom Penh that looks like a holiday. The waterfront is a wide promenade with a park strip; the inland side is a solid rank of restaurants, pubs and hotels. Happy hours typically run 16:30–19:30 and knock a third to a half off — Touk does half-price drinks in that window with a river view, Le Moon on the roof of the Amanjaya at the Street 154 corner is the sunset drink people photograph, and Sundown Central on the Lavanya rooftop does the same trick with cheaper food. Juniper, the gin bar around the corner on Street 130, pours $3 cocktails in the early evening and has a rooftop of its own. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, the colonial building with the open arches at the Street 178 corner, is the institution — an expensive beer by local standards and worth it once.

How the evening is supposed to go. Sunset on a rooftop or on the Quay from about six. Dinner somewhere on the waterfront. Then walk inland on Street 104, 130 or 136 — they are all within four blocks — and see which rooms are busy. That is the standard Phnom Penh night, and almost every long-stayer here does some version of it.

Prices, as of August 2026. Draft beer in the hostess bars on 104 is $1.50–3, the same as everywhere else in the centre, with ladies’ drinks $4–6. On the Quay you are paying tourist prices: $3–5 for a beer in a riverfront pub, $6–9 for a cocktail on a rooftop, less than that inside the happy hour. A meal on the water is $8–15 for Western food and $3–6 for Khmer.

Who it suits. Men who want the drinking and the daylight in the same square mile. It is the best base in the city if you like a long, easy evening rather than a late one — you can start on a rooftop with the sun going down over the Tonle Sap and be in a bar on Street 104 fifteen minutes later without getting into a vehicle. It is also the most sociable end of town for a man travelling alone: the Quay pubs are full of expats who will talk to you.

What it does not do. It is not a late-night scene. Most of Street 104 is winding down by 1am and the Quay is quiet before that; for after-midnight, walk or ride ten minutes south to Street 51. It is also the tourist heart of the city, which means the pavement includes touts, tuk-tuk drivers offering things you do not want, and beggars, some of them children — an unpleasant thing to be firm about, and the right answer is a polite no and a donation to a real charity rather than money on the street.

Safety. The Riverside is the single worst spot in Phnom Penh for snatch theft, precisely because it is where the foreigners walk. Riders on motorbikes take phones out of hands and bags off shoulders, including from people sitting in open tuk-tuks. The fix is dull and it works: phone away while you walk, bag on the shoulder away from the road with a hand on it, nothing left on an outside table, and if someone grabs, let go. Watch your drink in the busier bars, stick to bottled beer and known spirits brands, and book your ride on an app rather than taking the one that pulls up. The rest is the usual: check the tab, agree the fare first, and read the red flags guide before anyone tells you about a sick relative.