The Grind Cafe Phuket at Underwood Art Factory

A restaurant and theatre hidden in plain sight

The Grind Cafe Phuket is a surprisingly beautiful restaurant and art gallery hidden on the busy by-pass road near Phuket Town. Chances are, you probably drove in front of it and didn’t know that such a special place existed, and we didn’t know either! The cafe has long been known as the Underwood Factory but only started to get noticed recently. The restaurant is unique and immense, and the decoration is a masterpiece of creativity. Every centimetre square is decorated with an object, a frame, or a window, and the result is surprisingly smooth, homogenous, and genuinely pleasing to the eyes.

As you can expect, The Grind factory has become a selfie playground. Whenever you visit, you will be entertained by the sight of young girls in long dresses, large summer hats, and fancy makeup in a showcase of elaborate superstar poses. It’s fun to watch. Guests can choose to sit in many different backgrounds, each decorated with different styles of seats, sofas, and tables.

What to order

The menu is small, but the choice is surprisingly broad and attractive. As it sometimes happens in fancy places, the decor is the main attraction and food is sometimes just an accessory, but the cafe is surprisingly good! The dishes have a perfect balance of delicate tastes and textures and are well presented. We were genuinely pleased.

Choose from Western salads or Thai appetisers such as papaya salad with seafood at 230 baht, a spicy salad with grilled Australian ribeye beef at 165 baht, or a delicious green mango salad with grilled white snapper at 145 baht. The menu includes classic Thai dishes with a touch: Phad See Yoo with pork or seafood (Fried noodles 75 baht), Phad Thai with prawns (95 baht), pineapple fried rice with prawns (175 baht), and many more. For the mains, you can choose grilled duck breast (199 baht), pork chop with mushroom sauce (220 baht), or even a pork burger at 135 baht, among others.

Overall, The Grind Cafe was an excellent experience. Superb and unique decor, excellent food, and excellent service too. The restaurant is hidden behind a massive hedge and could easily be missed, but it is now easy to spot since it is precisely next to IKEA. It also has easy parking in front.

More photos

What’s around?

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