What Is Alley Cat in Phnom Penh and Why Does Phnomenon Mention It?

Alley Cat is a dive bar in Phnom Penh that Phnomenon mentioned when it marked its fourth anniversary. The post framed the bar’s four years as unusually long for a Cambodian bar — “70 years old in Cambodian bar years” — and noted that it had outlasted “much healthier bars” while serving Mexican food and gigantic hamburgers. Phnomenon raised it because the blog was also turning four, making the bar a comparison for longevity rather than a review.

What Phnomenon actually said

The relevant post is short and does not read like a standard venue review. Its claims are:

• Alley Cat is a dive bar in Phnom Penh.
• It had recently celebrated its fourth anniversary.
• Phnomenon described that as “70 years old in Cambodian bar years.”
• The bar had outlived “much healthier bars.”
• It subsisted on a diet of Mexican and gigantic hamburgers.

The post is grouped under “Uncategorized” and is dated 30 June 2014 in the page evidence, though the visible post text itself does not provide a full operational history, address, opening hours, or current status.

Why the blog brought it up

The connection is the shared anniversary. Phnomenon says the bar recently turned four “much like this blog.” In other words, Alley Cat appears as a local reference point for durability: both the bar and the blog had survived four years in Phnom Penh.

That framing matters more than any food recommendation. Phnomenon is not saying Alley Cat is the best bar or that its Mexican food is worth a special trip. It is using the bar’s survival as a wry measure of how quickly venues in the city tend to come and go.

What the mention does not establish

The Phnomenon post does not provide:

• A street address or neighborhood beyond “Phnom Penh.”
• Current opening hours or whether the bar still operates.
• Prices, drink lists, or a full menu.
• A tasting report or first-hand assessment of the food.
• Any statement about who owns or runs Alley Cat.

So if you are looking for a practical guide to visiting, this post is not that. It is a brief anniversary note, and its useful content is the longevity comparison and the description of the bar’s food and character.

How to read it in context

Phnomenon describes itself as covering Khmer food, restaurant reviews, and recipes from Phnom Penh. The Alley Cat post sits alongside other short items on the site, including a note about a new Cambodian food blog and a post about Kingdom Brewery’s second microbrew. The Alley Cat mention fits that pattern: a local food-and-drink observation rather than a formal review.

If your question is “Should I go to Alley Cat?”, the Phnomenon post alone cannot answer it. What it does answer is why the bar appears on the blog at all: it was a four-year-old Phnom Penh dive bar with Mexican food and large burgers, and its anniversary lined up with the blog’s own.