Coffee roastery and mill with cafés in Hawally, Kuwait

Al Ameed Coffee

Fresh Grounds Since 1973

3.5 of 5

Al Ameed is not a third-wave café and has no interest in becoming one. Abdurahman Dashti opened it in 1973 as a roastery and mill, and the Hawally main branch is still where people come to have coffee roasted, ground and bagged to take home. A counter, a scale, a grinder and a queue of people who know exactly what they want. This is where a lot of Kuwaiti home coffee begins.

The company calls its pitch specialty, quality and freshness, and the freshness part is the one that matters. Coffee ground in front of you and brewed within the day tastes alive in a way a tin from the supermarket never will. The roasting and grinding has spread to branches all over the country now, from Salmiya and Fintas to Farwaniya, but the logic has not changed in five decades. Buy small. Come back often.

For sitting rather than shopping, go to the café at Al Mubarakiya, open from eight in the morning to midnight. The Turkish coffee there has a strong local following, there are hot drinks and desserts, and the outdoor seating sits close enough to the old souq to make it a natural stop between errands. Order the coffee, then buy a bag of beans on the way out, ground for however you brew at home. Nobody will judge your pot.

Order this

Turkish coffee at the Mubarakiya café, A bag of freshly ground coffee from the Hawally counter, Something sweet from the café's dessert list

The damage

$

Go

Early, from 7.30 at the Hawally main branch; any time until midnight at the Mubarakiya café

Find it

Main branch, Sheikh Daaij Jaber Al-Ali building, ground floor shops 1 and 27, Hawally; café at Al Mubarakiya

Website

alameed.com.kw