Phnom Penh: Raffles Hotel Le Royal – Afternoon Tea at Elephant Bar

The other day I went with Kanary and her family + Yary for Afternoon Tea at Raffles. Raffles Hotel Le Royal is almost 100 years old, and for a long time, this was the only luxury hotel in Phnom Penh, and thus the place, where all the celebrities stayed, when they were visiting the city. Through the years, the hotel has had several names, and historically, it was simply known as Le Phnom. The Khmer Rouge forced the hotel to close for many years, but it reopened, and is today run by Raffles Hotels & Resorts.

The Elephant Bar at Raffles is probably one of the most famous bars in Phnom Penh, and if the walls could talk, I think you would be able to hear some rather amazing stories. The afternoon tea is served in the Elephant Bar, so we had a lovely afternoon in the beautiful surroundings.
Afternoon Tea is $18 (Nov. 2022) and for that, you get a selection of small bites and pastries, along with your choice of tea or coffee. You can choose between Khmer or Classic afternoon tea, so we ordered a couple of each, so we could taste both. I was the only one having tea (I had a very nice oolong),while the others went for different kinds of iced coffee. When Kanary’s iced latte arrived, she immediately noticed, that the straw was a sustainable rice flour straw from Only One Planet Cambodia, and we had a lot of fun, waiting for the straw to go soft (it stayed hard for a lot longer than the useless paper straws you sometimes get), so we could eat it:)
Some places are serving way too much food for afternoon tea, but at Raffles, I think the size of the set was really good, and the quality of the individual items was overall high. However, I wish they would serve clotted cream, or whipped cream, or just butter, for the scones (which btw. were excellent), instead of the weird white goo that looked suspiciously similar to the cheap canned stuff that has nothing to do with cream. Otherwise, everything was really nice and the staff were great, so if you are in Phnom Penh, you should definitely consider stopping by Elephant Bar.

PS: Elephant Bar has one of Asia’s largest selections of gin (over 100 different types), so if tea and pastries aren’t your thing, you can go a little later and have one of the signature gin cocktails instead.

Elephant Bar, Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh