Where to eat CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 Oensingen: Restaurant zur Lotus

Restaurant zur Lotus

Hauptstrasse 29, Oensingen

What we ordered: For two people: complimentary shrimp crackers with chili sauce as appetizers. We also ordered two salads, one papaya and one mango. As an entrée, we ordered the Saturday special, pho, a brothy rice noodle soup, also known as ka thiew in Cambodian. My friend had beef pho/ka thiew, whereas I had chicken. This was served with greens and bean sprouts as a side as well as three sauces: fish, chili and soy. To drink, we consumed four Saigon beers between us.

Cost:  117 CHF / €120 / $130

Restaurant zur Lotus is a lovely, popular spot approximately 800 meters from the Oensingen rail station on the outskirts of Olten. While quaint and cute, Olten itself is a bit of the butt of jokes among the Swiss. It is their version of Gary, Indiana or Elizabeth, New Jersey in equivalent American terms, a peripheral place of industry of little importance to the elite. Though Olten does not smell and lacks the heavy industry as this is Switzerland, every country needs to point at some place as the end of the line of sorts. In other words, Olten is exactly the sort of place you want to venture out into for proper and authentic so-called ethnic cuisine.

Our first attempt at Cambodian dining was in Aarburg, also outside Olten, a few weeks prior. That effort fell flat for a few reasons. While the food at the now closed Khmer Art Café and Restaurant was on point and totally authentic, it turns out it was their closing weekend. But it was at the now shuttered Khmer Art Café and Restaurant that we were served the national dish of amok trey, or curried white fish steamed in banana leaves, an order requiring advance notice.

Before they informed us that we would be among their final customers considering we were alone in the restaurant on a Friday, I wondered if it might be a front. The truth, alas, was far sadder and ordinary. We include them in this write up both to wish them well and acknowledge that sometimes location and local tastes are not compatible, however exquisite the food. As we left, a mediocre looking pizzeria just across the street was packed. Perhaps the location across from a popular local pizzeria doomed them? After all, the Swiss enjoy few things more than pizza and the company of other Swiss people. 

It was a sad moment in our global culinary adventures and a reminder of why so many Albanians and Turks, from countries with wonderful food, along with many others, end up offering pizza and other international fare in their restaurants over cuisines from their native cultures. As much as this is a project about immigrants and their successes, we must also acknowledge the defeat and sorrows immigrants experience in new lands.

On this note, we turn to Restaurant zur Lotus, which has absolutely taken the requisite steps to meet the customers in the location of Oensingen. While the décor was delightful and Cambodian, the cuisine was also meant with Swiss tastes in mind. The food was very nice, but the menu was less pure Cambodian and more accommodating of what one expects when one goes out for “Asian” food.

Restaurant zur Lotus notes on its Instagram page that it is the marriage of Cambodian and Vietnamese, replete with a shiny diamond ring emoji to signify the joining of these two national cuisines. When I went with a friend to lunch on a Saturday, they were very excited that I inquired about the most Cambodian options available, before steering us towards mango and papaya salads for appetizers and pho soup (the internationally recognized Vietnamese name), the Saturday special.

The food, while totally pleasant, lacked for our purposes a bit in the element of discovery. Mango and papaya salads, while healthy and delicious, can be found on most Thai restaurant menus in America. While I learned that Cambodians also eat pho, they call it ka thiew and it is allegedly more pungent than its Vietnamese sibling.

The mango salad was garnished with just a bit of cilantro, basil and chili whereas tomato was included to garnish the papaya salad. Both were served with a smattering of sweet chili sauce on the side. They were plated in a bouquet or basket of edible crunchy rice which after a few bites, we were encouraged to eat with the salad.

The pho or ka thiew soup was likewise delicious and quite nice on a cold spring day. It was served with bean sprouts and basil on the side in a simple basket with spokes that came together in a cone shape. Accompanying the dish were fish, chili and soy sauces. The soup offered a healthy amount of meat and came in a reasonable portion. It was satiating and warming. After the meal, the waiter offered us hot hand towels before joining his colleagues at a corner table for their lunch between mid-day and dinner service.

With friendly service, quality and fresh ingredients and a bit of something for everyone along with healthy turnover, Restaurant zur Lotus is a worthwhile place. During the week, a lunch buffet is also on offer.

How to get to Cambodia from Switzerland:

Google will not provide driving directions from the Swiss capital Bern to Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, however it will provide walking directions for those game for an extremely dangerous 2,6661-hour, 11,793-kilometer hike through some of the most perilous terrain on earth including eastern Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bizarrely much of this route appears to be on a highway and is beyond foolhardy. People with less ridiculous ideas have gotten themselves killed attempting far lesser grand adventures, so do not do this by any means. If you are tempted or need an object lesson in what can go wrong and what you probably do not wish to happen to you or your loved ones, look up Pippa Bacca and avoid becoming the next one.

There are no direct flights from Zürich or Geneva to Phnom Penh. The shortest flights on Thai through Bangkok clock in at just over 14 hours. Swiss Air offers connections with Bangkok Airways and Singapore Airlines. Other routes are available with Austrian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways.

From Geneva, Swiss Air also offers routes with Bangkok Airways and Singapore Airlines, but all routes make at least two stops. Additional routes under twenty hours are possible with a combination of airlines including Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Lufthansa, Malaysian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Thai and Turkish Airlines. If you do not care how long it takes to get to Cambodia, China Eastern, Emirates, Etihad, KLM and Qatar Airways offer additional routing possibilities.

How many Cambodians are in Switzerland: About 900

Distance between Bern and Phnom Penh: 9,623 km

Distance from Restaurant zur Lotus to Phnom Penh: 9,595 km

Learn how to make Cambodia's national dish, amok trey, and about its origins.

Follow our social media pages @swissglobaldining on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube