Angkor Chef

Downtown, San Francisco Bay Area · Cambodian · $$

Channy Laux survived the Khmer Rouge, reached Nebraska in 1979, and spent three decades as a Silicon Valley engineer before opening this downtown San Jose dining room in 2023. Sauces are built from scratch with spices brought from Cambodia and produce grown by local refugee farmers, which is why the somlaw machu kroeung tastes sour and herbal in a way the softened versions never do. Cambodian cooking gets flattened into a milder Thai far too often, and an hour here corrects that.