Local Favourite Next to Jui Tui Shrine
Rong Kopi (โรงโกปี๊) is a small restaurant next to Jui Tui Shrine in Phuket Town. It’s been here for decades. The entrance doesn’t look like much, just a narrow shopfront that blends into the row of old buildings along Soi Phutorn. Easy to miss if you’re walking fast. But at breakfast time, you’ll notice the tables are full, and people are waiting outside.
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The front room looks like an old Chinese coffee shop because that’s exactly what it is. Dark wood furniture, ceiling fans, faded family photos on the walls. Nothing has been renovated to look vintage. It just is. The back room is different. Behind a set of red velvet curtains, there’s a full ancestral shrine with offerings, incense, and old photographs. Most customers don’t go back there, but you can see it if you look. It’s still a working shrine, not a decoration.
We come here for breakfast when we’re in town. The menu is Phuket-Chinese comfort food, the kind of dishes local families have eaten for generations. Not everything is available every day. They make what they make, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.
The food is what keeps people coming back. They serve a mix of local Phuket-style breakfast and Chinese-Malay comfort dishes. Some dishes we like to order regularly:
- หมี่หุ้นกระดูกหมู (Mi Hoon with pork bone soup) – Thin rice noodles, stir-fried first, then served alongside a bowl of pork bone broth. The broth is rich and slightly fatty. You eat them together or mix them, your choice.
- บักกุ๊ดเต๋ (Bak Kut Teh) – Pork ribs in a peppery herbal soup. Comes in a metal pot, still bubbling. They add coriander, lettuce, and enoki mushrooms on top. The pepper hits you first, then the herbs. Good on a cooler morning.
- หมูฮ้อง (Moo Hong) – Braised pork belly, southern Thai style. Dark, sweet, a little salty. The meat falls apart. You can get it with rice or with steamed buns if they have them that day.
- ไข่กระทะ (Kai Krata) – Eggs cooked in a small metal pan with Chinese sausage and minced pork. The yolks stay runny if you ask. Classic Thai-Chinese breakfast.
- ขนมปังปิ้งสังขยา (Kaya toast) – Thick toast with pandan custard spread. The custard is homemade, not the stuff from a jar. Sweet, coconutty, slightly eggy.
- ข้าวต้มปลา (Khao Tom Pla) – Rice porridge with fish. Plain looking but the seasoning is right. Good if you want something light.
They pour free Chinese tea from a big pot. The coffee is local style, strong and sweet with condensed milk. Prices are cheap. A full breakfast for two runs maybe 200-250 Baht.
The opening hours are a bit unusual. Morning service starts around 6 am and runs until 1 pm or whenever the food runs out. Then they close, clean up, and reopen at 5:30 pm for dinner until 11 pm. Closed Wednesdays. We arrived at 12:30 and found half the menu already finished. The staff just smiled and apologised. That’s how it works here.
Most of the team speaks some English, enough to help you order. Point at what other tables are eating if you’re not sure. Nobody minds. The crowd is mostly local, families and older couples who’ve probably been coming here for years. A few tourists wander in from the shrine next door. It’s not a secret, but it’s not on the main tourist streets either.
We usually stop here after walking around the old town or after a morning photo session at the shrine. The food is honest, the prices are fair, and the place has been doing the same thing for longer than most restaurants in Phuket have existed. That counts for something.
Rong Kopi Photos
Rong Kopi Info
Location: Phuket Town – near Jui Tui Shrine
Address: 261 Soi Phutorn, Tambon Talat Nuea, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000
Hours: 6 am – 1 pm, 5.30 – 11 pm (closed on Wednesdays)
Phone: 0800479456
Rong Kopi Map
Your Phuket Town Travel Guide
