With Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday just around the corner on February 12, Reapers may be preparing to break out the lemon and sugar and get flipping.

But for those too busy, lazy or unskilled to do it themselves, new eatery La Crêperie just may have the answer.

With 40 different types of crêpes and galettes on the menu, this little slice of Brittany has everything from ham and cheese galette to flambéed favourite, crêpe Suzette.

Belgian owner Philippe Duquaine first came to Siem Reap twenty years ago, and returned eighteen years later to set up home, along with his wife Caroline.

As Caroline hails from Brittany, the home of the humble crêpe, the couple decided to open a crêperie right here in Siem Reap.

“We bought the materials in France because you need to have special materials to do it,” says Philippe.

“Then after that, we knew what to do so it was easy to make them. But we tried to adapt the recipes to the warm weather, the sun.”

The cheery little restaurant in The Lane just up from Miss Wong’s has brightly-painted, yellow walls and kooky touches like a string of colourful bottles hanging over the bar, and wall lights shaped like crêpes. These, I am told, are specially made in Siem Reap by French papier mâché artist Philippe Brousseau of Jayav Art.

The menu features 16 types of galettes and 24 crêpes. Philippe explains the difference between the two.

“We have the buckwheat crepe which is a galette. It’s made with sarassin – black flour. Sarassin is more suited for a main course because it’s salty. Then we have the sweet crêpes.”

The most popular galettes, he says, are the galette complete – galette filled with cheese, egg and ham – and the galette super complete with mushrooms.

The caramel crêpe with salted butter, and nutella crêpes are also firm favourites among tourists and expats alike.

“We get expats, but we have a lot of tourists and not necessarily French tourists,” Philippe says.

“We have a lot of Malaysian and Chinese tourists, they love sweet stuff – they love the crêpes. Sometimes they come twice a day,”  he laughs.  

La Crêperie is open every day from 7am till 11pm.