Best restaurants in Kep

Kep is tiny, a sleepy seaside retreat that people come to for one thing above all, which is crab. The famous crab market is a row of stalls right on the water where you pick your crab live and it comes back stir-fried with Kampot green pepper minutes later, eaten at plastic tables with rice and a cold drink. Around it are a handful of seafood restaurants and a few upscale kitchens attached to boutique hotels, plus simple Khmer places along the road.

Do not overthink it. Crab with pepper, grilled fish, squid, prawns, maybe a Kep-style seafood curry. A generous seafood lunch runs about 8 to 15 USD a head, less if you stick to one dish and rice. Most visitors day-trip from Kampot, 30 to 40 minutes away, or stop on the way to the coast. If you stay the night, sunset from the crab market or a hotel terrace is the whole point. Weekends and the December to February high season are busiest.