Floating Rock

I think a lot of the negative reviews are unfair so I wanted to write my own.
No, the service is not that of a five star restaurant. If you want that you should go to Boston and expect to pay big $$$. If you show up at 11 pm, you shouldn’t get upset if they are not serving food. duh. go get pizza or a falafel.
The food is good depending on what you order. I think if you order something that reminds you of a Chinese take out menu you shouldn’t be surprised if that is what it tastes like.
The Tiger Tear salad is a well composed dish. The staff will bring you hot sauce or chilies if you like things spicy (as I do). We go there frequently and have never had a bad dining experience.
Admittedly, the staff can be flaky. We have had waitresses who have never tasted the cocktails because they do not drink, but that doesn’t bother me. The cocktails are really good.
If you like to try different foods, I highly recommend this place. Just go there with an open mind

Vegetarian review.
So, I’m no expert on Cambodian food, but experience here was mediocre. The service was sub-​par. When I asked the waitress a straightforward question about the drink list («are any of the beers Cambodian?») she admitted that she doesn’t drink and it was her first day. Really? The drink I ended up ordering was not so exciting. I fried tofu dish I ordered was spicy (good) but dry and plain (bad). Still, I’m willing to give the place another chance.

I was in and out by 6:30pm one weeknight. There was only one other party in the dining room and a good number of folks hanging in the bar area when I left.
For my dinner I enjoyed a 3 course meal consisting of the following:
. Crispy Summer Rolls (6 pieces) $ 6 Cambodian crispy summer rolls filled with pork, carrot and onion, served with fish sauce for dipping
. Beef Stew $ 10 Served with rice noodle and garnished with scallion, cilantro and roasted garlic
. Sweet Banana in Coconut Milk $ 6
A satisfying meal indeed!
The rolls were hot and crispy. My only negative mention is that the filling to shell ratio could be improved upon. The rolls were narrow, so they didn’t have all that much stuffing, so you mostly taste the crisp shell. Also, a little sauce spoon would be useful in this case to avoid double-​dipping since the double dish can’t be lifted and poured out of.
The beef and noodle dish was simple — a hill of rice noodles and beansprouts topped with about 9 pieces each of tender beef and carrots (yes, the carrots were tender too… not mushy… not raw tasting… just right!) and garnished with a generous amount of roasted garlic, swimming in a reddish broth. A good choice for a cold night.
The dessert arrived steaming, yet not mouth-​burning, to the table. A generous portion of sliced bananas floated in the coconut milk soup dotted sparingly with tapioca. I loved this! And it was plenty for 2, or maybe even 3, to share. Tip — finish this onsite as it does not keep or reheat well. The banans turned tough.
3.5 stars
***
On the website it says that they offer ½ priced apps at the Happy Hour at the bar 5−7pm on Mondays — Fridays. Turns out it has changed to $ 5 appetizers according to the board out in front of the restaurant and confirmed by the hostess who seated me.

Cambodian food without the spice or flavor you’d typically expect from Southeast Asian fare. Let’s face it – sans SPICE, Tom Yum soup is simply Tom Soup without the Yum factor.
I expected food I wouldn’t normally find at other Asian restaurants, or in Chinatown. We ended up with Tom Yum, a «curry» stir fry (Cha Krung/​Spicy Beef stir fry) that tasted exactly like curry-​less Chinese stir fry, and a Curry Pork in Pickled Fish Sauce.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed that nothing was very spicy, or contained much flavor. For $ 20/​entrée, it’s pretty pricey for food that’s bland and flavorless. I think I’ll stick with Chinatown or Thai food (both more worthwhile options)…and I won’t have to walk by the influx of Central Square weirdos that seem to come out of nowhere when the sun sets.
With the bad, comes the good (ish)…They do have a cocktail that tastes like an orange creamsicle, if that’s your thing???

Floating Rock is my go-​to place for rice-​centered cuisine. And sake bombs. This may sound weird, but this is the closest I can get to Filipino-​ish food in Central, apart from my house. I mean, if I weren’t too lazy to cook.
My favorites are the fresh spring rolls and the cha ugg (sp?) — they don’t skimp on the green chili peppers. They also have a heavenly beef noodle soup with super tender beef chunks. Plus, their cutlery consists of a spoon and fork, which is how I was raised to eat; and their waiters always indulge my requests for a side of vinegar. One time I got a big bowl of it! I totally felt the love.
There’s a secret bonus dessert, too: yuca cake, not on the menu. Apparently it’s only around during the weekends because only one person in all of the planet can make it. Slight hyperbole there, but I think the schedule is accurate. Try it sometime!

This place is pretty good for Cambodian food in Central Square. We went there with not a clue as to how good or bad it would be. I was pleasantly surprised with the food.
We tried the Tiger Tear Salad and Beef Stew among other things. The Tiger Tear Salad was so very good. The dish was full of flank steak and really flavorful. It had the kind of heat that started small but would just keep on building as you ate more. Not enough to make a tiger shed tears, but pretty hot all the same. The beef stew was pretty neutral. It wasn’t bursting at the seams with flavor, but had a nice balance to it. It tasted much like a dish that my mom cooks, so I found it greatly enjoyable. I don’t know what authentic Cambodian food should taste like, but the food here tasted good to me
The décor in the restaurant was pretty clean and simple. I think they were going for a more modern feel. Part of the restaurant wasn’t used though. And entire fourth of the place was devoid of furniture and and light. We sat next to that area so it felt like the restaurant was unfinished.
Alcohol during happy hour is much on the cheap side. The food is a little bit pricey for what you get, but with a Scoutmob coupon, it was just right.
I would go again for the Tiger Tear Salad and Beef Stew.

Floating Rock serves pretty average food. Beef in Loc Lac was overdone and the fried fish with ginger was nice but nothing too special.
Services was horribly inattentive. Ten minutes to come to the table.
I’d never make a night out of coming to Floating Rock. Its the type of place for something easy or carry out.

Overall Impression: If you like Americanized Cambodian food, then perhaps Floating Rock is your place. It’s clean and the service is friendly. But the food is just mediocre.
Food:
Appetizer:
Shrimp in a blanket: Six pieces of shrimp wrapped in rice paper and then deep fried. There’s nothing else to it.
Crispy summer roll: Tastes like something that I can find from a Chinese buffet.
Summer roll: Pretty generic as well.
Soup:
Sweet and sour vegetable soup with shrimp: This soup was actually decent. The sweet and sour come from pineapple and tomatoes. I’ve never seen pineapples in a soup, but it actually works pretty well.
Khmer noodle soup: Just alright as well.

This is place is only good if you have a lot of money, don’t care to pay $ 16 for a salad and want to taste different things. But if what you are looking for is to have a nice and decently sized Cambodian dinner for less than $ 30, this is not the place.
Apparently this place used to be a hole in the wall back in Revere and it was very popular coz it was good and cheap. Now they’ve moved to Cambridge and it’s big, obnoxious, ostentatious, pretentious small portions and very expensive.
We had a coupon for $ 50 and we ended up paying $ 34/​person on top of that for 3 entrees between the three of us. I had better Cambodian food at a FREE Cambodian night at my university… seriously, there has to be another better Cambodian restaurant in Boston coz this is not it.
The place is nice, service is kind (unless you order right before they close the kitchen at 11pm and you stick around until they close at 1am, then they’re on you all the time to see if you leave, not nice). We were those people, and not to be mean, but since the restaurant says 1am, we thought we had time, but then 5 min before 11 they told us the kitchen was going to close and we had to order, so we did, and 30 min later the food came, so we ended leaving around 12.30, it was not our fault that we left that late, but still the waitress radically changed from nice to bitch.

Get it together!
I went in after 11 because I got caught in the rain. I thought hey why not, I was bound to try it at some point, as I live a block away.
They don’t serve dinner after 11 as I expected. That was fine. The Heat game was on at the bar and beer is always good :)
The cold beer and the bartender for the most part were the only ok things in there tonight.
The waitstaff was just hanging out at the bar as if it were their living room.
An annoyed waitress was hanging out bitching and moaning about a party that was STILL at their table. Other staff watched the game and talked shit endlessly… I needed another beer to deal.
As I stayed to catch the end of the game and just «relax» it just aggravated me more and more of their lack of professionalism.
Hello I am a patron. I don’t want to hear all this negativity about lousy tips and lousy customers!
It was a Cambodian version of the movie Waiting !
I’m letting anyone i know that this place is so beneath them and to not waste their time!
The food is probably just as shitty as the employees. Just saying

Tiger Shrimp appetizer was not quite what I expected– they give it a crisp jacket wrapper. Crunchiness? Check. A-​OK. I do prefer battered shrimp, though.
I also enjoyed a lychee martini.
The service was very attentive– probably due to the lack of other customers. With such stellar locale, one cannot help but wonder why this place has had so much trouble drumming up business.
Overall, I liked the décor and space, but there is still room for improvement. I may come back at some point and give it another go.
Edit: Got a snarky comment from the owner regarding this review. Now I think you’re petty and won’t be back.

Went here for dinner a couple weeks ago to summon the spirit of the Dead Kennedys and take a Holiday in Cambodia and it was… pretty good. In the spirit of sharing, a friend and I started with the spring rolls, which I thought were pretty bland but were saved by the fantastic peanut sauce they were served with. Next time, I’ll be happy with a piece of lettuce and a tub of the peanut sauce.
Next up was the Chicken Salad. A bunch of chicken, peppers, onion, other goods, and maybe, maaaaaaybe a shred or two of lettuce. In other words, my kind of salad! We asked to make this extra spicy which I highly recommend. This was definitely the best dish and if I came back I would try the Larb Salad.
Last up was the Me Ka Tong (wide noodles with flank steak and broccoli). I saw maybe 2 broccoli florets and 2 pieces of steak, so this is perhaps mis-​named. In retrospect, this is something that should be split between at least 4 people who want a couple bites of noodles. This was way too many noodles for two people! They were good but not amazing.
This place is huge, and they have an awkward open space to the side with no tables where it looks like a live band could perform. Sweet idea, but I don’t think the ambiance of this place could foster the energy for something like that. The ambiance is nice but nothing too special.

I had fairly high hopes because a number of friends raved about the original location. I was expecting a lot of flavors and it turned out to be just okay.
The Shrimp in a Blanket is good because i like my friend shrimp very, very crispy and they did just that. The Curry Pork in Pickled Fish Sauce was not as flavorful as I had hoped and the Cha Ugg was definitely not two fire sign spicy material as advertised on the menu.
I understand that they are charging more because the rent in central is higher than in revere and have no qualms about that. I also understand that they are still working out the kinks as a freshly opened restaurant. I hope they get better, really. However, until I hear about improvements, I’m not really in a hurry to go back.

There is no need to repeat what my friend Josephine has said so well already. But, let me add my own personal lament.
Dear Floating Rock,
I feel like I knew you back in the days on Shirley Avenue, when I’d eat at times that only my grandmother would in order to partake in your lok lak, your tigers tears, your 15 seats, your plastic décor. I debated whether to out my relationship with you to friends, and when I did it was in a big way — bringing groups of 8 and 10 to your wobbly tables through the summer and fall of 2009. We’d each pool $ 20, eat like kings and then distribute what was left — because there was money left! — at the end of the meal. After one of those meals a new convert even ordered take out so he could eat the deliciousness coming out of your little four burner kitchen the next day. I talked about you all the time; people would say I was in love.
Then, after one particularly delicious meal, you told me you were moving. First it was Back Bay. Then Allston was under consideration. I worried, and hoped for the best. When I learned that you’d chosen Central Square, I was ecstatic — a place where the quality of your food and the authenticity of your soul could remain pure, without the trip to Revere.
And, then I waited. And waited. During this long wait, I even met someone, got married and during our courtship told him of my longing. Needless to say, he was intrigued. So when news came (finally!) of your opening, we came with open hearts and open mouths, only to discover that (at least for me) nothing was the same.
Let’s start with $ 80 for a dinner for 2. That sum used to feed 6. Some of this was due to alcohol, which you never had in Revere. But, still, my favorite dishes nearly doubled in price. I didn’t even recognize you. You had sports on TV. Your servers didn’t know about prahok — a staple of Cambodian cuisine. You were advertising chicken wing nights. What happened to your somlah kako, your bok l’hong and cha krueng saiko? Where did you go?
Maybe it’s opening jitters. Maybe you felt the need to be like all the other places, after moving to the big city. Floating Rock — you don’t. I loved you even when you were small and in Revere, and I know others did too. You were great, and I’m hoping you still are.
Shut off the strobe lights and just be you. I’ll be waiting.
Love,
Jess

I was not going to write anything until I saw the reviews from this past Saturday night. I apologize for not writing a more cliffnotes version.
This past Friday (4÷22÷11) four of us showed up without a reservation. We stood there for a couple minutes as they decide whether we could be seated. We’re told to wait 15 mins. We go to the bar and wait only 5 minutes. Not bad. We grab our drinks and are seated at one of the many open tables seen throughout the dining room.
Our waitress does not come for the next 20 minutes. Finally she shows up and tells us that the reason she didn’t come by was because we had drinks on the table already. Had she done her job, she’d realize that we brought these from the bar. This place was busy, but not packed. We have no idea what was keeping her from our table, I’m gonna blame one of my friends for smelling bad because she was essentially non-​existent as a waitress.
We order our food (waitress did not know the menu) and some waters. The waters never come. 15 minutes go by and no waters, no waitress. She was spotted at times but didn’t seem so keen on checking on her tables I guess. We flagged down another waiter to grab us waters and he was all too willing to take over our table. He gets us some waters and we wait probably a good 10 – 15 minutes before we see our waitress. She has the spring rolls we ordered, the only app we got and it was very middle of the road (not terrible, but not very good). She didn’t know the menu, but she did know that an appetizer comes before the food because she told us that. Wonderful.
So we got our appetizer 25−30min after ordering and wait another 15 minutes before the waitress comes back to tell us that even though it’s been 45mins since ordering, the kitchen has not started cooking our food. The place was, at max, ¾ full. 45mins and they haven’t started cooking our food. No thanks. We ask for the manager and without her even entering the kitchen she tells us that the kitchen has started cooking our food. No thanks, we get our app comped and left, went to a neighboring chinese restaurant, walked in and had waters, beers and our food all within 15 minutes.
We waited a long time for this place and was really disappointed. I think we’d be willing to retry it only if they got their s*** together, especially since it’s a little bit expensive for the food you’re getting. If you look at all the comments from 4/​22, 4÷23÷11 you’ll see that they got some work to do. Unfortunately I’m a sucker for punishment and actually would give this place another try.

I really wanted to like this place… and perhaps someday I will be back, but it won’t be for a very long time. Not until they’ve worked out a lot of issues.
I can appreciate that during a soft opening, which is when our party of 7 attended, there will be glitches and I was by no means expecting a flawless service; however, the brazenly casual attitude of some of the wait staff paired with a 2.5 hour dinner service (not by our choice) cannot be justified.
CLIFF NOTES VERSION OF MY REVIEW:
— Who brings a bottle of wine to a table already uncorked and places it on the table with wine glasses and walks away? No approval tasting, no pouring done whatsoever. That’s a first!
— Cambodian style doesn’t mean bringing out dishes 1 by 1 and expecting a family style meal to take place when portions are clearly individual and it’s just not possible to share a single order of 4 fresh springs among 7 people — it just doesn’t work.
— My soon to be sister in law is Cambodian — so please don’t disrespect her by telling her that this is traditional Cambodian style of service. Just be honest — tell us that service is slower than optimal as you are still adjusting to having a larger restaurant with new wait staff.
FULL REVIEW:
When our party of 7 arrived at 7pm on a Saturday evening, the restaurant was about half-​full. We were given 2 or 3 menus to start with as the restaurant was running short on menus. That wasn’t a problem as within a few minutes time, more menus freed up. We placed our drinks order & food order and chatted away while enjoying the ambiance of the restaurant (which is quite clean, nicely lit and overall comfortable).
This is when things started to go downhill. Drinks started arriving one-​by-​one spaced out quite unevenly and we had to remind our waitress that some of us were still missing drinks. My brother’s fiancée and I ordered a bottle of Kenwood Merlot to share — the bottle was placed on the table, already uncorked, accompanied by two wine glasses. Our wine was not opened in front of us, we were not poured a taste nor were we even poured our wine. It was just all put down in front of us. First time that’s ever happened to me in a restaurant. Never mind the fact that the wine was not very good — it seemed watered down in taste, very light-​bodied. Not what I’m used to in a Merlot.
Next, 1 of our 2 appetizers of Fresh Spring Rolls arrived. A single order has 4 pieces, mind you we are a party of 7 so we were expecting the second order to come out simultaneously (or at least within close proximity). After waiting for 5 – 10 minutes, we questioned our waitress on the status of our second plate of rolls and were told that this restaurant provides Cambodian Family Style service — so plates are meant to be shared and food is brought out one at a time as it is ready. Seriously? We are supposed to share 4 rolls between 7 of us then get another 4 rolls to share again? How does this logic make any sense?
Even the soups we ordered for appetizers came out at a staggered pace. My friend finished his before mine was even brought to the table. That said, the Shrimp Tom Yum soup and Chicken Lemon Soup were both quite tasty and well executed.
Finally, our entrées — there was a good 30 minutes time difference between the arrival of our first and last entrée. We also had to remind our waitress for the rice bowls that were supposed to accompany our dishes. Given the size of the plates and the individual portions of rice doled out, I do not consider these really family style and my brother’s fiancée, who is Cambodian, agreed. Again, the food itself was delicious — we ordered Loc Lac, Cha Ugg (which resembled a plate of Alpo dog food but tasted much better than it looked thankfully), Cha Krung (tasty) and Chicken Fried Rice (for those less adventurous in our party).
Although we wanted dessert, 2.5 hours had lapsed since we were first seated and the thought of waiting another hour for our dessert did not sit well with us. I will commend the staff for allowing myself, my brother and his fiancée the opportunity to visit the kitchen and speak to the Chef. As my soon to be sister-​in-​law mentioned to the Chef, the food is good and we understand that things are busy, but the suboptimal service is what we found inexcusable.
I’d like to give Floating Rock another shot… after my trauma has subsided and after they’ve worked out their kinks.

Dear Floating Rock,
Are you familiar with «The Odyssey»? I feel like our journey to bring you a block from my apt mirrors that epic story. You are Odysseus, I am Penelope, faithfully awaiting your arrival for a long, long, LONG time.
Now you are here, sleek ‘n’ chic in your glossy wood and shiny floorboards and ambient spotlights. Your food is still good (I liked the beef balls and beef stew noodle soup best, though there’s something to be said about your juicy loc lac and bananas in coconut milk too). Your service is excellent (chirpy flamboyant waiter who definitely loves life). Your cocktails are… subpar (Phenom of Phnom Penh = sugar water with too many rocks).
But your prices. What happened to your prices? Haven’t I invested enough into this relationship? Must you charge me $ 18 for loc lac for 1? I thought what we had was more than that. You’ve sold your small, ethnic, hole-​in-​the-​wall soul for stylish square plates and lounge music, and I miss the restaurant you once were. And the prices you once had.
With that in mind, I applaud your «She’s All That» transformation but I think I’ll be seeing less of you than either of us anticipated during the odyssey to bring us together.
— Josephine

Gross, gross gross! Do not waste your time!
The place was nice inside, but the menu was unappealing. Our waiter had no idea what was on the menu. I asked for the brown rice soup with no cilantro. He served a ton of cilantro in it, claiming it was an herb that he «couldn’t pronounce.» My friend tried it, and it was cilantro. I explained that I’m allergic, and he took it back. They merely picked out the cilantro as I could still taste it in the soup. Vile. And then he told me I should have told him «no greens at all.» What?
The chicken in the soup was gross — like salty necks of chicken — and there were disgusting little fried prawns. It was saltier than PF Changs, but less tasty — and totally not fresh. The rice was white, not brown.
Save yourself the trouble and the cost, and go to Chinatown or Porter Exchange for a better dish at one-​fourth the price.
And for the record, I don’t care if it’s less Cambodian — but Elephant Walk blows this place out of the water! Stay far away! You’ve been warned.

My friend C: «I’m starting to get really grumpy.»
My friend D: «Here, do you want a meatball?»
8:50 p.m. The above exchange happened 10 minutes ago, after one of the appetizers we’d ordered 45 minutes earlier was delivered to the table (beef ball kebabs, pretty tasty despite being served lukewarm). I’m drafting this review using the Unilocal mobile app.
8:55 p.m. Our second shared appetizer (tiger tear salad) arrived. It was delicious.
9:00 p.m. Still sitting here waiting for our entrees. Been waiting for an hour. I’m getting grumpy too. Maybe I’ll ask for a beer. That shouldn’t take too long — I’ll get a can of Sapporo… If I can spot our waiter. Who’s very busy, in this not fully packed restaurant. Not sure what he’s busy doing, but he does a great job avoiding us. He has intimated that the apps will be comped.
9:05 p.m. Oh how nice, the girls at the table next to us shared their tasty spring rolls with us. They’d known how long we’d been waiting and had insisted to their waitress (who seemed to have more pull in the kitchen than our guy) that they weren’t going to order if their food was going to take as long as ours was taking. Wanna bet their entrees — ordered at least 40 minutes after ours — arrive first?
9:13 p.m. Guess whose food just arrived? Not ours!
9:16 p.m. Our waiter came by, seemingly startled to learn that our neighbors’ food arrived before ours. I told him some free drinks were in order. He said he’d ask.
9:19 p.m. Waiter’s back, apologizing but no free drinks. HOWEVER, the owner has graciously offered to discount the appetizers by 50%. Ha, really? We ask to speak to the owner.
9:22 p.m. We leave, after speaking with the owner and explaining that we’d waited over an hour for food that never arrived. She apologized, and hesitated. I said, «this meal is a wash. The appetizers and sodas we’ve consumed should be comped.» She agreed, and apologized again as we left to go to Thelonious Monkfish across the street.
Inexcusable, and it hardly matters that this occurred one week into their «soft opening.» Apparently they won’t have their full menu and kitchen staff up and running for another couple of weeks — I think they opened before they even had the basics down. They were missing several things on their menu, and they had virtually no vegetarian options — our friend who doesn’t do meat was going to have to make do with a plate of sauteed vegetables (no sauce, no tofu. just veggies and rice). Well, that’s what she would have had to eat, had we ever received our orders.
They urgently need to get their act together. The kitchen is not able to keep up, management is not on top of things. Our waiter, bearded and decidedly vague, confessed that he was ineffectual in motivating the kitchen staff to serve up his orders.
Hey, the tiger tear salad was very good. Maybe in another month or two they’ll have their act together. I won’t be back anytime soon, though.

This is one of my favorite North Shore comfort food spots. The noodle soups are great– I had the mixed seafood and it was gone in no time. I also ordered a Cambodian dish simply named «spicy chicken» (no explanation needed apparently) and asked to do half chicken and half tofu. The chicken and tofu complemented each other and I think it brought the dish to a whole new level. I ordered an egg soda here for the first time and it was a little bit on the eggy side for me but when the ice melted some it was good.
Other stuff: The picture associated with the name – Floating Rock – is actually of James Bond Island – Ko Tapu – in Phuket Thailand.