Norry at Kampuchea

Went after a long afternoon Soho shopping trip and was delighted by the menu. The hostess and wait staff were attentive despite it being full on Friday night service. They was not a long wait for our orders so we were able to hang back and enjoy the décor and people watch on Allen street. The drinks are great but small for the price. Lots of infused-​liquors with fig purée, kashir lime, cucumbers, absinthe and more. Both my date and I had the Oxtail Tamarind sandwiches, which were divine, with green mango salad. Our only complaint is the spicyness of the salad. For dessert, they offer a chocolate granache and Stumptown Coffee, my favorite. Overall, it was a great dining experience amidst all the bars in LES.

Norry and Kampuchea are one establishment for all intents and purposes. Unfortunately, the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts. Very long wait made more annoying by the presence of several vacant tables and spacey hostess. The waitress was great though.
Sangria was tiny and watery, food was also watered down in flavor and spice for the American palate. I would have rather gone to Saigon Grill.

After attending the Faile/​Bast Deluxx Fluxx Arcade my friends and I went straight to this gem. I lived in the LES for a while and for some reason never went there. Which is good, because I think I would have spent too much money eating here. Like every day.
The catfish sandwich was recommended to me and holy crap… by far the best sandwich I ever had. I got real emotional there because my mouth was orgasming. But that could have been because I was pretty tipsy from drinking one glass of Gin/​Tonic (hey bartender, thanks for being so generous on the gin!), while we were waiting the longest time for the food to arrive (which is why I only gave 4 stars). The chips accompanying the sandwich were amazing. I think they were sweet potato. Whatever it was, I stuffed it all in my mouth.
It’s a real cozy place with a great crowd and great service. I can’t wait to come back sober.

Great dessert and wine! Went in for dessert with a group and we all ordered something different so we got to try it all. Bought the cheapest bottle of wine and it was excellent. Great atmosphere too!

want to hear a funny story?
Accidentally ate in The Norry because I thought it was just a newly acquired/​revamped section of Kampuchea. As I sat at the table and perused the menu, I was thoroughly disappointed because they did not have my favorite fare.
Proceeded to order The Norry cocktail to ease my despair, Catfish Sandwich, and Pork Belly appetizer.
Lo and behold the dishes were brought out by the chef himself and couldn’t have been more exquisitely prepared!
Maybe I missed the sign outside, but there needs to be adequate differentiation between the two eateries.

Pretty ambiance but the wait here is crazy and not to mention the service sucks!
Waited forever to get seated and then when we sat down, nobody gave us a food menu. Only drink menu and that took another 20 minutes to flag down someone for a real menu.
Either they are short staff or the waitstaff just sucks in general.
I only came here after L telling me about this place even after hearing bad reviews about Kampuchea. Cambodians that I know doesn’t care for this place and nor do they think it’s authentic.
But whatever, I thought I give it a whirl and check this place out with K.
K ordered the Numpang Oxtail — K liked it but K is easy to please and doesn’t know a poor version of a Vietnamese sandwich. The sweet potato chips were okay tasting.
I didn’t know what to order so I asked the waitress what she suggest. She said either the mackerel or the poached chicken.
I am not a fan of mackerel so I went with poached chicken but then I felt like changing it since the waitress didn’t really sell it to me with her delivery style. But at the end, I stuck with it and this dish was disgusting. I assume it would be… POACHED CHICKEN… I mean does that sound good to you? But hells, this was the waitress favourite dish on the menu. I don’t why she would have recommended this dish to anyone — it’s basically boiled chicken with some damn broth in it and threw in some measly bits of rice.
I didn’t even want to try their desserts!
NEVER AGAIN!

Went to The Norry because of the following new articles:
1) Village Voice —
2) Time Out New York —
I got really excited because the only «Cambodian» food I had was at Numpang for sandwiches.
The articles noted above both talk about food… but the food are actually served at Kampuchea… so my review will be at Kampuchea Unilocal page.
Overall, the food was OKAY… it didn’t seem authentic Cambodian to me. I left a little bit hungry, and I STILL have no idea what Cambodian food is except for the Cambodian sandwiches. All of the dishes we got seem Asian Fusion to me.
So anyway, 4 stars go to the drinks served at The Norry Bar and for its great atmosphere. Woot!

We stopped by here for an early dinner. Because it was early almost nobody else was there, it was pretty empty, but I bet it would fill up later in the night. It has great décor and our waitress was friendly. There’s plenty of cheap food options if you’re looking for something fast and inexpensive, but there’s also pricier main courses that would probably be more substantial. On the whole, though, it’s not that expensive, while being great food for what amounts to a bar. I liked the oxtail sandwich with cucumber that I had — it was almost like eating a barbeque sandwich with coleslaw. The music definitely had nothing to do with Cambodia but I’m not complaining.
And as always it’s fun to hang out in the LES.

OMG, this was a beautiful experience. Small plates — sweet breads PERFECTLY prepared and mussles in spicy broth were phenomenal. Crafty cocktails — fab.
I felt as if I were in a hotel outside of New York. We ate at the bar. Can’t wait until I can return for a full dinner.

Oddly enough, some of the best hip-​hop music i’ve heard in NYC was within the walls of the Norry. What was a well deserved 4 star experience got bumped up to a 5 with the likes of MF Doom, De La Soul, Mos Def, Atmosphere, and many other word slayin MCs. The unsuspecting and beautiful bartender would casually walk over to a her ipod and continually drive another nail into my heart as she cranked out smash hit after hit, always a sucker for a girl with a tough music selection. I’m also always surprised with the amount of popcorn hip-​hop that is played in this city, a city that is recognized as the birth place of hip hop has fell to the titans of Viacom and is now plagued with what is mainstream music, anyways, I digress.
I was discussing a spicy drink I had several weeks back with the bartender when she suggested I try a drink on their menu which also had a kick. Unfortunately I forgot the name but it used Thai chillies and it was pure fire. I’ve never been much of a cocktail guy, I usually like my liquor straight but this was extremely spicy, flavorful, unique, and all tied up in a package that punched. I’ll definitely be back for another go.
I also had a few small plates. The cat fish sandwich with lemongrass and a side of sweet potato chips, some Brussels sprouts with chorizo, and a mango salad, all well done, and all very much enjoyed.
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I’ve been back a few times since I started this review and since my first visit. While the atmosphere is still cool, the aforementioned music selection is no where to be found. Still a good place, but the music isn’t as impressive, so back to 4 stars.

philip might be the cutest baby-​faced bartender on the planet
ever!
and boy can make a cocktail, seriously hand-​shaken like a pro
food is yummy…
cocktails are stellar
vibe is awesome
what more do you want out of life???

I love Num Pang and I quite enjoy Kampuchea so I was excited to see The Norry open up. I went with a few friends this past weekend and sampled some of their small plates. Everything was quite delicious and the ambience was really nice. It was not overly loud with music and I always love sitting on high tables. My only complaint was that our waitress kind of sucked really bad. Twice she forgot to bring drinks we had ordered and it always took forever and a day to flag her down for anything.

A recent trip to Cambodia surprised me by contributing a new, interesting cuisine to my list: Cambodian food was not quite like any other Asian I’d had before, with the attention to detail famous in Vietnamese dishes (in turn courtesy of the French) combined with offbeat flavors and, dare I say it, a large helping of umami. I was sad on the flight back because I knew NYC held no true Cambodian restaurants, with the only major one claiming any provenance of Cambodia being Kampuchea.
I hadn’t been to Kampuchea, but I thought it would be a good time to visit to its newly-​minted bar area, the Norry. Of course I wouldn’t expect hearty Cambodian food like I’d just had in its native environment, but maybe there’d be some sort of satisfyingly resonant notes in the casual fare. I convinced a convive to accompany me and showed up for a walk-​in at about 7:30 on a Thursday. We relaxed at the bar proper first — I downed one of the Norry’s namesake cocktails, a nice use of Maker’s Mark sweetened with lemongrass — and looked over the menus for both the Norry and the slightly more haute Kampuchea. The price points were nearly the same, actually, and I was tempted to try to slide over into the formal dining room. But I held back and soon enough we were seated at a wooden corner table in the bar.
It was curiously quiet despite the fair number of patrons, perhaps a testament to some subtle soundproofing methods I couldn’t discern. And the lighting was as finely honed as one would expect from a relatively hip but coolly professional LES establishment. Service was prompt and helpful as my convive and I decided on sharing several plates. The sandwiches on the menu did look pretty good, but since I’d had some before at Kampuchea’s sandwich shop spinoff Num Pang, we stuck with some not-​all-​that-​Cambodian-​sounding choices: fried chicken, pork ribs, mussels, and brussel sprouts with Chinese sausage.
I wanted to like the food more, not just because of the whole Cambodian business, but also because the place had an interesting but not overly challenging menu (valuable ammunition in certain dining situations). Alas, most everything was just… fine. The fried chicken turned out to be well-​executed chicken fingers, the breading pleasantly light. The pork ribs were tender, sweet, and tangy with a tamarind glaze. The Chinese sausage was a nice addition to the well-​cooked brussel sprouts. But it was all a little boring. The mussels were most interesting, with the majorly acidic and sour broth being a changeup from the usual preparations. (When my convive somehow got some in her eye, all conversation stopped as we quietly feared she’d done corneal damage.) But even that didn’t exactly inspire me to soak up the included baguette with the leftovers.
Again, there was nothing really *wrong* with anything. Maybe we just ordered wrong. The prices were right, and it was… tasty enough. I wasn’t sad for dragging my convive there. But there was little to draw me back except the thought that since the kitchen had done an okay job with boring preparations, maybe the original Kampuchea just a few feet away would be really good… more resonant with those curious flavors I’d experienced in Cambodia. I suspect I’ll want to find out sooner or later. For now, though, there are too many other relatively cheap places on the Lower East Side that serve inspiring food for me to consider the Norry again. Unless I find a convive who wants to pretend to be eating edgily but really just be having tweaked familiarity.
Probability of return in 1 year: 10%, but as I said, Kampuchea proper will most likely get a go

After being told there’s an hour wait at Inoteca, we decided to walk a few blocks more to The Norry. Freezing and hungry, we were glad there was no wait and got seated immediately (Friday night 9PM). The interior is cozy and the arched tiled ceiling definitely adds character. We agreed to share a number of items and were pleased with majority of them. The mussels with okra had a good kick. the grilled corn still had enough crunch and had the right amount of spread. The catfish numpang and roasted cauliflower numpang were gone in a minute. Yes, the sweet potato chips were all gone too. The only item we didn’t like was the house made sausage. It was a little bland. Other than that everything else was finger lickin good!
Note: Ask for a seat away from the window. It was freakin cold!

A very cozy atmosphere on a really cold Thursday night. Although it was mildly confusing when we walked in because we had to choose which menu we preferred and that decision dictated where we sat (on the Kampuchea or The Norry side), after we settled in, we were perfectly content.
Be sure to order the corn on the cob as an appetizer and we also got the spicy mango salad which was delicious.
All of the sandwiches sound awesome. I decided on the mussels though and was not disappointed.
Overall a great experience.

After a horrible night at Mason Dixon, I was ready for a real cocktail, and we luckily stumbled into the Norry Bar. It is part of Kampuchea, and I am glad to see that Kampuchea is doing well despite our economic recession. We sat the bar, and since we had been to Kampuchea a few times, and since it was cold out, we were really in the mood for the Bön Om Tuk (cachaca, chili purée, lime and brown sugar) cocktail. We were sooo disappointed when the bartender stated they were out of the chili purée. I wanted to get up and leave. So, we asked the bartender if he could whip up something close and spicy. And he was up for the challenge! He made us a drink that was excellent and spicy. Almost a spicy caprinha. This place saved the day! Will def be back to try the food.
Does anyone know why the staff wear band-​aids? I was just curious…

After a truly dreadful experience at nearby Mason Dixon last Saturday night, my gf and I were in dire need to get a good drink to reverse the mood of the evening.
We’ve been to Kampuchea for dinner several times before, and we love their food. But we also happen to love a spicy cocktail they serve called Bön Om Tuk, which uses a Cambodian chili paste called katiev[1]. We haven’t been here since the opening of The Norry, so we decided to give it a try.
I like The Norry: nice Guastavino-​like cream tiles on the vaulted ceiling, a soothing green for the walls, light wooden floor and nice wooden tables. The Norry feels like a welcoming drinking spot with character and its own personality.
We sat at the bar, and although they couldn’t make Bön Om Tuck for us, the bartender came up with a similar spicy concoction with cachaça and lime that immediately put us in a good mood.
I also appreciated that the bartender made an effort and came up with a good substitute for a cocktail that wasn’t even on the menu[2]. Extra points just for that!
I also liked the fact that on a Saturday night the place was not crowded at all, and we could enjoy our drinks while being able to actually have a conversation at the same time[3].
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[1] see my review of Kampuchea:
[2] The bartender explained to us that they have been having consistency issues with the katiev: one batch would be nice and spicy, and the next one very bland. For this reason, they have temporarily taken the Bön Om Tuk off the menu, while they try to work out these glitches with the chili paste.
[3] Something you can’t take for granted this side of Rivington.

I made same-​day reservations on a Saturday night at 8pm and it wasn’t a problem. The ambiance on the Norry side of Kampuchea is far better than Kampuchea itself and it’s cheaper. It has a speakeasy feel similar to Rye and Walterfoods in Williamsburg. They played really good 90s hip hop music and they have plenty of options to share. They have small dish items that are great for sharing. We had the fried chicken (very good and tender), kale (good), ribs (comes with a tasty tamarind sauce), and the chicken pâté (okay). Unfortunately, they ran out of pork belly, which isn’t surprising since it’s the rage these days.
Great spot for parties 4 or less and a very good date spot too. Check it out.

With so much work on my plate, I’d been feeling rather out of touch with the holiday spirit, so when I received my daily Thrillist email, I was excited to see an establishment nearby, serving up hot spiced spiked punch (say that once and your tongues in a twist!). I thought, hot punch, hmmm, that sounds like the perfect little tip off to get my holiday spirit going. So, I set off around 8 on a Wednesday night, through the blustery streets and over Houston, to arrive at their front door on Rivington. Inside was a mass of people (apparently there were several scheduled parties) scattered throughout the three designated spaces; a lounge to the right with high wooden community style tables, the bar (as pictured) and the dining area to the far left. The wait was 30 minutes (supposedly) so I set up at the bar and immediately ordered that hot punch I’d been craving. I took a minute to examine the surroundings and found it charming and rustic, with a nostalgic 60’s flare. The arched tiled ceiling was beautiful and delicately reflected the light emitted from the cylindrical basket-​like lamp shades. Everything had a sweet combination of industrial rawness, with simple, glossy touches. I felt warm and transported and just as I was settling into my new environment, the cider arrived! Hot, lightly spiced, lightly spiked, complete with a lemon wheel and a cinnamon stick. As I delved into my steamy drink, I took notice of the bartenders and the playlist… of which I happily rediscovered Blonde Redhead. The bartenders were both dressed in flannel… coincidence or uniform? shrug. So the wait ended up being about 45 minutes, pushing 50, but it was ok because I had a chance to try their Coconut Monsoon — a sweet, frothy cocktail sprinkled with white tea essence. Finally a table opened and the feasting was about to begin. I had read about the Veal Meatball: an egg, gently enveloped by a juicy layer of veal, served with stewed tomatoes and basil, so that was a high possibility, however it takes 15 minutes to prepare and you get just one. So, I put that to the side and ended up choosing the noodles with Chinese sausage, sprouts, basil, tuk trey (a typical Cambodian sauce made from garlic, chilies, lime, fish sauce, peanuts and sugar), and an over-​easy egg along with the honey glazed pork belly appetizer. Everything came out together and it was hard to contain the excitement after the first bite of that pork belly. Crunchy and sweet on the outside, juicy and full flavored on the inside. The noodle dish was interactive, as you are instructed to combine the hot ingredients, with the cold vegetables. Delicious. Tangy, spicy, fresh. Just as the meal was coming to an end, I noticed the chef walking through, examining the faces of his guests. I made sure to meet him and gush over the excellent meal I’d just gracefully devoured. The chef, Ratha Chaupoly, mentioned that meatball again, but they were close to closing, so I decided then and there that I would just have to go back. Despite the wait, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and eyed plenty of items that needed tasting, or deserved to be gracefully devoured.
*The dinner menu is not posted, however the bar menu, is available here
Enjoy!

New restaurant! First to review! I win! I win!
There is a lone review for Norry Bar, but I thought I should add this business with its correct name — The Norry at Kampuchea. Kampuchea is a fairly old restaurant with asian-​inspired cuisine (more specifically, Cambodian cuisine with a french twist) and a formal vibe. The owners are ingenious because they have created a sister restaurant/​bar right next door that changes the whole mood, look, and feel of the place. The Norry at Kampuchea is primarily a bar with very chill vibe, a Cambodian bar menu, an innovative drinks menu, and a great selection of beers on tap and bottle. The highlight was definitely the Numpang sandwiches. I gorged on the shrimp and cauliflower sandwich and washed it down with a gorgeous german dark. We sat there till 1 am and practically closed the place down. Perfect night!