Hailing from a city consumed by gourmet burger chains, I’ve grown accustomed to craving pimped-up patties.  In this series, I hit the streets of Phnom Penh to sniff out the very best burgers on offer.

Serie A Italian Burger
100% beef patty, with lettuce, tomato, red onions & pickle, topped with pepperoni, mozzarella and finished with Pesto
$7.50, served with a side of fries and coleslaw

The Burger Joint

One of Phnom Penh’s best known sports bars. Score has a huge array of TV screens around the bar showing sporting events from round the world simultaneously.  The pool tables in the corner and huge big screen add to it’s charms – and of course, there’s a varied menu to satisfy fans of all sports.

In the popular BKK1 area, this is a hub for events – often staying open until the small hours of the night if there’s a particularly big sports occasion to be watched. It’s always recommended to message them in advance to double check your chosen game / fight / match-up will be on screen though – as there can be loads of demand from other sports fans!

The Burger

As I was sat next to a Roma fan, with the Roma and Napoli games side by side on the screens in front of me, I opted for the Serie A Italian Burger.

Starting with the classic Score burger, it’s then topped with pepperoni, mozzarella and finished with pesto to introduce some classic Italian flavours.

There’s a nice varied handful of the expected burger choices here, with pricing as you’d expect for a popular BKK1 venue.

On the Side

The presentation is worth mentioning. The Burger and sides came out on a wooden board, with a portion of fries nestled within a mini metal frying basket. It was like the original birth of the hipster gourmet burger craze, which hasn’t been too common around Phnom Penh.

An additional side of coleslaw was a nice surprise. The mayo was fairly light and the coleslaw had a nice fruity crunch to it.

The fries were grand, thin and crispy with American mustard appearing on the table for me for extra flavour. I’ve heard good things about the poutine, but on this occasion I wasn’t filling up before the main act.

First Impressions

I liked the classic gourmet presentation. With sports bar I’ve never been fully confident that the quality will be great – as often it’s a case of cheap, cheerful, easy grub. However, Score looked to impress with a stylish looking burger arriving across the bar alongside cold Cambodia pint number 3 (they’re very attentive when your glass runs low).

The pepperoni was fairly thin, a nice tang echo’d through without overpowering the flavour combination. The meat was slightly sweet, a nice flavouring to accompany the hearty flavours of their 100% beef creation. Fairly filling, I was able to savour this creation rather than my usual ability to hoover down a burger in 90 seconds if I’m ravenous enough.

The pesto was the only disappointing part – purely because there was only a tiny spec dead centre on top of the melted mozzarella. I’m sure you could request extra pesto, which I’d recommend as it adds a good flavouring to the overall mix.

The Verdict

A pleasant surprise, from kicking off in the ordering process to scoring with every mouthful I’d give the Serie A Italian Burger 7/10 –  a good all rounder that will satisfy during any sports event, although perhaps not your first choice for a burger if it’s just for dinner. The burger is not just complimented with it’s sides and presentation, or it’s homage to Italian food, but the atmosphere during a busy night of football (granted it was mainly English Premier League fans in the bar) made it thoroughly enjoyable.

And Roma won too, so that was nice.

5, Street 282, BKK1, Phnom Penh

Looking for different flavours? Check out other reviews in this series here:

Frazer Vs Burger: Bushtucker @ Fatboy’s

Frazer Vs Burger: Inferno Burger @ Lone Pine