Dubai: Sikka Café – Rose Sahleb and Luqaimat

Half a year ago (yes, I know, I’m way behind with this post), I met with Nicola down at City Walk 2, which is one of the new areas in Dubai. The first phase was finished a couple of years ago and the second phase, City Walk 2, opened in 2016. The area mostly consists of residential buildings, shops and restaurants, and if you think it looks similar to The Beach JBR, it’s not a coincidence as it’s the same company, Meraas, which is behind both projects.

Nicola had seen this new place, Sikka Café, which she wanted to try, and I had no objections. During the cooler months, you want to be outside as much as possible, so we sat down at one of the tables out in front of the cafe and started browsing through what I first thought were newspapers, but what turned out to be the menu.

I decided on a Pistachio Rose Sahleb, which is a thick, creamy drink made with rose water. The one I had was actually more like a pudding, but very tasty indeed. I’ve forgotten what Nicola had, but considering her self-proclaimed coffee snob status, I would suspect that she had the Middle Eastern qahwa (coffee). We also had luqaimat, which are small deep-fried dumplings drizzled with syrup. I like my luqaimat with a little more syrup than the ones at Sikka had, but it was a nice touch with the pistachios and the rose leaves on top.

Since Poul and I moved to Dubai almost 6 years ago, the city has really upped its cafe game, and it’s a pleasure to see how all the new, often homegrown and independent cafes like Sikka, are giving Starbucks and Costa a run for their money. More of that, please!

Sikka Cafe, City Walk, Dubai, Tel: +971 (0)4 385 6524