Chez Sovan Express

I tried this place out with my wife a couple of months ago based on the positive Unilocal reviews and I have to say that I was pretty disappointed.
We ordered chicken curry, eggplant tofu, and their signature dish «Amok».
The chicken tasted like wood. It had been microwaved too much and the texture and taste was severely affected.
The eggplant tofu wasn’t anything special.
The Amok was pretty good, except it was too sweet.
In fact, I think there was a singular note in all of the food at Chez Sovan Express, a sweetness that I didn’t particularly enjoy.
I was surprised by the glowing reviews about the service. Maybe I hit them on the bad day, but the person at the counter was indifferent and my wife and I were definitely looking clueless when we first walked in. I don’t really count bad service against my rating unless the service is extremely bad, so *shrug*.
Anyway, I doubt I’ll be going back unless I’m stuck at Restaurant Row and nothing else looks appealing in the slightest :^P

Restaurant Row doesn’t have many restaurants left, but this little place that remains is a great place for lunch. I usually hit Chez Sovan about once a week… lucky I work at Restaurant Row. I love the pork chops and the stir-​fried spicy chicken. The ka tieu (noodle soup) is really good too.
Kelly (the owner) is very friendly and the staff is so easy to talk with. The prices aren’t crazy expensive like some places around town, where the prices seem to climb every year. The lunch crowd is usually workers in the area and the wait time isn’t that bad at all. If you want to eat there you can sit inside or outside. There are many outside tables around Restaurant Row also.

I do enjoy this place, even more so because I’ve exhausted all the other options around this area for work lunches. I like the combo plates where you can choose up to 4 choices that come with rice. I usually get the 2 choices and my favorites are the spicy chicken, eggplant tofu, chicken salad or chicken curry.
It’s really busy during lunch so call in your order or expect to wait 5 – 10 min or more for your food if they have to cook up a fresh order. Service is very friendly and everything here is plate lunch prices. (about 6 – 7 bucks a plate depending on what you order. A few things cost more but most are in that range.)

Needed a place to eat at restaurant row and after strolling around chose this place out of all the others (most of the restaurants here are opened for dinner only). I’ve never had Cambodian food so I thought I’d give it a whirl.
The counter girl (which was the owners daughter) is very friendly. I asked which dishes she’d choose from and she said that if its my first time here I should get the combo plate since I get to try more. Well, that was some pretty good logic there so I went for that for $ 6.25. I got the vermicelli noodles (tossed with chicken, cabbage, onions, and carrots) and the spicy chicken and upgraded from white rice to imported jasmine rice for 75 cents. Mom had the mini vermicelli noodles (why does she keep ordering the same thing I get? She’s done that the last 3x we’ve gone out… doesn’t she want variety? Oh wait, that’s the pig coming out of me again. lol)
There’s only the mom cooking back there and with an increasing line from it being lunch time I must say, she handled herself well. Food didn’t take very long and in no time we were sitting outside eating our food. The noodles had an interesting flavor. I’m sure it was tossed with shoyu but there was a tinge of sweetness to it. Not in a bad way, though, but I wondered if the mom put a little sugar on the vegetables (my mom and I do it when we sauté vegetables to bring out the sweetness of it). The spicy chicken was good as well, though nothing is ever spicy enough so, of course, I had to dunk the chicken in siracha. The jasmine rice was steamed perfectly and went well with my meal. Overall, a decent place.