I Tried 4 Phnom Penh Cafés Recommended by AI. Were They Actually Good for Working?

While staying in Phnom Penh, cafés became one of the places I visited the most.

For me, finding a place where I could bring my laptop and focus comfortably for two or three hours was more important than finding a beautiful café.

Nice interiors, good drinks, and photogenic spaces are great, but this time I was looking for something different.

Which cafés are actually comfortable when you open your laptop and try to work for a few hours?

A place can feel fine for the first 20 minutes, but after an hour the chair might start to feel uncomfortable. There may not be enough power outlets. A café can seem quiet at first, but later the conversations from staff or other customers can become distracting.

So I asked Gemini to recommend a few cafés in Phnom Penh that are known as good places to work.

I chose four of them and visited them over several days. I brought my laptop and actually worked from each café.

NOAH, Temple, Enso, and Endless.

I also wanted something familiar to compare them with, so I visited Starbucks in BKK and observed it in the same way.

This time, I focused less on coffee or interior design and more on the table, chair, power outlets, Wi-Fi, noise, lighting, air conditioning, and how comfortable it felt to stay for two or three hours.

I gave each category a score out of 5.

Of course, I did not visit every café on the same day or at the same time. I also do not think one visit is enough to completely judge a café.

So this is not meant to be an absolute ranking of cafés in Phnom Penh.

What I really wanted to know was this:

What kind of space works best for what I want to do today?

NOAH: Small, quiet, and comfortable to work alone

NOAH is a relatively small café in BKK.

I arrived at around 1:10 p.m.

Most of the seats further inside were already taken, so I chose a two person sofa near the entrance. Since I planned to stay for a while, I thought a sofa would be more comfortable than a hard chair.

After about 15 minutes, I counted around 10 customers in the café, and about four of them were using laptops.

Considering the size of the café, that felt like quite a high percentage.

The overall atmosphere was quiet.

The staff mostly stayed around the counter instead of constantly walking around the customers. It also did not feel like they cared much if someone stayed for a long time.

The Wi-Fi was stable, and access to power outlets was very good. There seemed to be an outlet near almost every table.

I ordered a black peach tea for $2.50. Most of the signature drinks were around $3.

In my notes, I gave the table 4 points and the chair 4 points. Power outlets, Wi-Fi, and noise all got 5 points.

But after about 30 minutes, I started noticing a few uncomfortable things.

The café was a little dark overall, and depending on the seat, the table height was not perfect for laptop work.

There were also not many windows, so after sitting there for a while, the space started to feel a little closed.

After looking at my screen for some time, my eyes also started to feel a bit tired.

Because the café is small, it is usually very quiet. But that also means when someone starts talking, you can hear the conversation quite clearly.

The upper floor was also interesting.

You take off your shoes before going up, and there are beanbag style seats where people can sit very comfortably. Some people were almost lying down or even sleeping.

It is comfortable from a customer’s point of view, but because the café does not have that many seats, I also noticed another side of it.

One customer left their things on a four person table and went outside. They came back about an hour later.

During that time, nobody else could really use that table.

Since staying for a long time seems very normal here, the tables also seem to turn over quite slowly.

Still, if I needed to write or work quietly on my laptop for two or three hours, I would come back.

If you like bright and open spaces, it may feel a little closed. But if quietness is your priority, I think it is a good option.

Temple: Easy to stay for a long time, but not my first choice for deep focus

Temple felt completely different from NOAH.

It has two floors and is quite large.

When I visited, there were around 30 people on the second floor alone.

After about 15 minutes, I counted around 16 people using laptops.

There also seemed to be quite a lot of international customers.

Opening a laptop and working or studying for several hours looked completely normal here.

I wanted to find a quieter place, so I chose a two person sofa in the corner.

The table was stable and had enough space for a laptop and a drink.

The sofa itself was comfortable.

But it had some visible stains and signs of use, so it did not feel especially clean.

I gave both the table and chair 5 points, and the Wi-Fi also got 5.

Power outlets were installed near many of the seats, including on the floor, so I gave that 4 points.

One of Temple’s biggest advantages is the food.

There are many choices, and you can have a proper meal. If you get hungry after working for a few hours, you do not need to leave and find another place.

At NOAH, I saw someone leave their things at a table and go outside, probably to do something else. At Temple, there seemed to be less reason to do that because you can eat there too.

But after about 30 minutes, the weak points became clearer.

First, the space felt quite dark to me.

There were spotlights, but the overall lighting was low. It actually felt much darker than NOAH.

I gave the lighting only 1.5 points.

There were also a lot of people, including groups having conversations.

There were many staff members moving around too, so the space sometimes felt a little busy.

I was also not very satisfied with the smell and air circulation.

The café has a large and interesting Cambodian style interior, but when I visited, the space did not feel especially fresh or comfortable to me.

The temperature was fine, but it did not feel very well ventilated.

I gave the noise level 2 points and long stay comfort 3 points.

Still, it was not as extremely noisy as I first expected.

After some people left, the noise became more spread out because the space was large. At that point, it felt more like a normal large café.

Temple felt less like a place for deep solo concentration and more like a space where many different people stay for a long time in different ways.

Some people were working on laptops, some were talking, some were discussing things together, and others were eating.

So if I were working with another person and wanted to talk without worrying too much about disturbing others, I might actually prefer this kind of place.

Sometimes in a very quiet café, even talking normally can make me feel a little uncomfortable.

Enso: A good work environment, but not as quiet as I expected

Enso gave me the most polished and upscale impression among the cafés I visited.

It had large windows with a lot of natural light, and the space felt clean and organized.

At first, I sat at a two person table. But I needed a power outlet, and a four person table was empty, so I moved there.

After about 15 minutes, I counted around six people nearby using laptops.

Some people were working alone, while others were sitting together and talking or working.

When I visited, many of the customers seemed to be foreigners, and I heard English quite often.

I also saw some customers greeting each other, so it felt like the café might have quite a few regular customers.

Compared with the other cafés, I saw more people who were a little more dressed up and having conversations while working. It sometimes felt more like an informal work space than just a café.

The working environment itself was very good.

I gave the table 4.5 points and the chair 5 points.

The Wi-Fi was stable, so that also got 5 points. The large windows brought in a lot of natural light, so lighting got 5 as well.

The food and drinks were more expensive than at the other cafés, although I could understand the price considering the space and service.

The surprising weakness was noise.

After around 30 minutes, noise was actually the first thing that started to bother me.

The whole café is open on one floor, so conversations from both staff and customers travelled quite easily.

As more people arrived, it became a little louder.

I gave the noise level 2.5 points.

Power outlet access got 3 points.

From what I could see, only around half of the tables seemed to have easy access to an outlet.

For long stay comfort, I gave it 3.5 points.

The table, chair, and natural light were all good, but for several hours of deep solo focus, the conversations and movement around me started to become distracting.

On the other hand, Enso could work very well if I had a casual work meeting, wanted to eat and work in the same place, or wanted somewhere that did not feel too casual.

For me, Enso was not the quietest café, but it was one of the most professional feeling places I visited.

Endless: Not fancy, but the easiest place to focus

Endless was one of the more surprising cafés in this comparison.

It is in Daun Penh, and when I first walked in, it did not feel especially new or upscale.

My first impression was actually that the café looked a little old.

I chose a sofa seat in the corner.

At first, there were around six customers.

Later, the number increased to around 13, but the atmosphere stayed quiet.

Most people were alone, either working on laptops or studying.

Except for one pair of people sitting together, I hardly heard anyone speaking loudly.

I gave the table 4.5 points and the chair 4 points.

Wi-Fi, power outlets, noise, lighting, and air conditioning all got 5 points.

The noise level was especially impressive.

Even as more people came in, the feeling of the space did not really change.

Maybe because most people were there for a similar reason, everyone seemed naturally focused on their own work.

I also gave long stay comfort 4.5 points.

There were some downsides.

The bathroom was unisex, and the overall facilities felt quite old.

They sold some simple food, but personally I did not see anything on the menu that made me really want to order.

While I was there, I also did not see anyone around me ordering food.

Some of their signature drinks were not available at the time either.

So I would not choose Endless if I wanted to stay for the whole day and have meals there too.

But if my goal was simply to concentrate for two or three hours, this was probably the best fit for me out of the places I visited.

I used Starbucks BKK as a benchmark

I did not include Starbucks for exactly the same reason as the four independent cafés.

I wanted to have one familiar global chain as a reference point because I have already used Starbucks in different countries many times.

The Starbucks in BKK has two floors and is quite large.

When I visited, there were around 20 people on the second floor, and at first I counted about 13 people using laptops.

When I checked the area around me again about 15 minutes later, there were still around 10 people working on laptops.

I gave the table 4.5 points, the chair 5 points, power access 4 points, and Wi-Fi 5 points.

There are large windows, so the lighting also got 5 points.

As a place to work, the basic conditions felt very stable.

The bathroom was clean, and there were plenty of drink and food choices.

There were also staff members regularly cleaning the store and bathroom, and out of the five places I visited, Starbucks felt the cleanest overall.

Another advantage was that I did not feel any pressure about staying for a long time.

But after around 30 minutes, the first thing that started bothering me was the cold.

I gave the air conditioning 3 points.

I was wearing a short sleeve shirt, and after a while I wished I had brought something with long sleeves.

Because the space was large and there were many people, there was also some noise.

I could hear the sound of drinks being made on the first floor quite clearly from upstairs.

Still, considering how many people were there, I would not say it felt unusually loud.

In the end, I think the biggest advantage of Starbucks is not that one thing is especially amazing.

It is the predictability.

The tables, Wi-Fi, bathroom, food, drinks, and power outlets are all usually at a certain level.

I realized there is more than one kind of “good café for working”

The most interesting part of this small test was that my first impression and my actual experience were sometimes quite different.

A place that looks good in photos is not always a place that feels good after sitting there for a few hours.

I started to feel that a beautiful café and a good working café should be judged in quite different ways.

But even among cafés that are good for working, the purpose matters.

A day when I want to write alone.

A day when I need to work and talk with someone.

A day when I only need two hours of focus.

A day when I want to stay for half a day and also eat.

A day when I have a casual work meeting.

Even for the same person, the right space can change depending on what you need to do that day.

So instead of asking, “Which café is the best?” I think I would now ask myself something else first.

“What am I trying to do here today?”

So where would I go again?

If I needed a short but deep period of concentration, I would choose Endless first.

It stayed quiet even as more people arrived, and the Wi-Fi, power outlets, lighting, and air conditioning were all reliable.

I would choose NOAH when I wanted a smaller and more comfortable space to work quietly alone. I also liked that the staff did not seem to mind people staying for a long time.

Temple would be better if I were working with someone else, needed to talk, and wanted to eat without moving somewhere else.

I would choose Enso when the atmosphere itself mattered. If I were meeting someone or wanted a slightly more polished place to work, it could be a better fit.

And if I did not want to think too much about where to go and just wanted somewhere familiar and reliable, Starbucks would still be one of the safest choices.

There is no single definition of a good café.

The space I need when I want to concentrate is different from the space I need when I want to talk while working. What matters for one hour can also be different from what matters after three hours.

So next time I look for a café, I think I will ask this before asking, “Which place is the best?”

“What am I trying to do here today?”

Once I know the answer to that, choosing the right place becomes a little easier.