In order to catch the attention of customers, Sok Phou has used his creativity in interior design to establish his new restaurant, Zen Café and Bar, which is located at #12, Street 614. It is now a fusion of modern and classical western styles. It is among several of his designs.

“I have thought of the mixed design concept that is easy to understand and makes customers feel attracted to it right away,” he said.

The restaurant is separated into three themes. The outdoor area is designed to look like a bar, with tables and chairs in a garden. As he likes to do gardening, he has put a lot of his own plants to create the feeling of a relaxed and modern life.

You can experience the classic design once you get indoors, which is divided into two sides. One side is a restaurant look with tall tables and chairs and another side is like a Café look. The wall that separates the two spaces and the stairs are adapted to the western design style.

Without hiring any architects to help out with the construction, he has worked with a group of construction workers to build the restaurant using mostly construction materials from Cambodia. But for some special lights or interior décor unavailable in Cambodia, he had them imported.

Phou has made special use of lighting effects.

“I have used the colour red to contrast with the other lights,” said Phou.

Effects also include concepts adapted from Taiwanese houses that come in sets of five with a word on each of them, as well as Japanese plates that have sticks on a wall frame like a painting, which he borrowed from the concept of an American restaurant and combined with his own ideas.    

Mr Sok thinks that the design style of simplicity does not necessarily mean ordinary. He does not want to design something too complicated that ordinary people cannot understand and enjoy.

“For professional designers, they might want to see the stunning design, but for ordinary customers they just want to see something that they can understand and like.”