Love Philly? So do we. Let’s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today.
Philadelphia has the nation’s fourth-largest Cambodian community, with at least 11,000 and perhaps as many as 20,000 residents. Many of them live and work in South Philly’s Whitman section, where the unofficial Cambodia Town neighborhood centers on Seventh Street between Morris and Ritner.
The corridor hosts a cluster of restaurants, grocery stores and neighborhood businesses that draw locals and visitors seeking authentic Khmer dishes and products, as well as cultural institutions like the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia and the Preah Buddha Rangsey Temple, an ornately decorated Buddhist temple at Sixth and Ritner streets.
Mifflin Square Park, across the street from the temple, is a popular gathering spot that was redesigned and renovated by the Trust for Public Land and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, or SEAMAAC, in 2024.
Temple events occasionally take place at the park, along with movie nights, health fairs, sports events, and other activities. In the past, the park hosted food vendors, although in recent years they have moved to the nationally renowned Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park, a couple miles to the south. That seasonal market offers a variety of Cambodian, Vietnamese, Lao, Indonesian, and other regional cuisines.
A highly diverse community
The community was established in the early 1980s, when a wave of Cambodians fled the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime that was ravaging their country.
Many refugees from the conflicts in Cambodia and Vietnam arrived at a resettlement staging area in Harrisburg and were drawn to Philadelphia by its supportive nonprofit sector, cheap rowhouses and job opportunities. More Cambodians who had settled elsewhere subsequently moved to Philly to be part of the vibrant community.
Formerly a Jewish neighborhood, the area has been described as among the most diverse in the city, with white, Black, Latino, Chinese and Southeast Asian residents, including Burmese, Bhutanese and Indonesian immigrants. Mifflin Square Park is frequented by families from more than 77 countries of origin who speak 55 languages, according to SEAMAAC.
In fact, a push to semi-officially dub the corridor Cambodia Town was dropped several years ago after resistance from long-time Black residents and others, although the name persists informally.
Long-time dining favorites
Some of the city’s best-known Cambodian restaurants are now outside the neighborhood. Those include Mawn, the James Beard Award-winning eatery in Bella Vista, and Sophie’s Kitchen on Washington Avenue, whose owners previously had a restaurant on the corridor.
However, Cambodia Town favorites also continue to delight diners. See below for our suggestions.
Heng Seng Restaurant
2217 S 7th St.
Diners at the snug, three-decade-old Heng Seng praise the Phnom Penh-style kuyteav soup, a traditional breakfast dish with a mild pork broth and noodles that can be spiced up with optional condiments and eaten any time of day; you can also get the noodles dry, with soup on the side. Other menu highlights include hu tieu nam vang soup with vegetables, shrimp, and thin rice noodles, and rice congee, served in big bowls with chicken, pork and shrimp, and often eaten with a side of deep-fried dough.
I Heart Cambodia
2207-2209 S 7th St.
ne of the neighborhood’s relatively newer restaurants, I Heart Cambodia gets raves for its big menu of noodle soups, Khmer salads and other specialties. Visitors often praise the papaya salad appetizer with bits of crab in a sweet, tangy fish sauce; the meaty, well-seasoned fried quails; and a variety of shareable crispy fried fish dishes like Trey Chhian Chhoun — tilapia with sweet and sour sauce and black bean sauces.
New Phnom Penh
2301 S 7th St.
Another old favorite (despite its name), New Phnom Penh’s noodle soup gets enthusiastic thumbs-up, especially the combination bowl with fish cake, pork liver, shrimp and other meats. People also love the intensely crispy spring rolls, the bo luc lac (beef cubes), and the very low prices.
