Ranked by TableJourney editorial score.
Kunafa is shredded pastry layered with cheese or cream and soaked in syrup, served warm. Abu Dhabi's kunafa shops include a Jordanian maker's counter and a Lebanese osmaleya cake.
Kunafa, also spelled knafeh, is an Arab dessert of spun pastry dough layered with cheese and soaked in sugar syrup, popular across the Levant and Egypt and often made for Ramadan. Stories of its creation for caliphs date as early as the 10th century, though cheese-filled versions appear in records only from the 19th century. The Nabulsi version comes from Nablus. The osmaleya, served in Abu Dhabi at Tripoli Sweets, is a kunafa cake of two pastry layers around soft cream. Naeem Sweets opened on Hamdan Street in 1974.
3 editor picks for Kunafa in Abu Dhabi, ranked by editorial score. All Abu Dhabi signature dishes · Kunafa across every city.
Naeem Sweets at Marsa Mina, Abu Dhabi, is the kunafa shop of a Jordanian maker who opened on Hamdan Street in 1974 and reopened here at the age of seventy.
TipGulf News says the owner still comes in at 15:00 every day and stays until 21:00, and the shop uses ingredients from Denmark and the Balkans.
Tripoli Sweets in Al Hisn, Abu Dhabi, makes Lebanese sweets including the Osmaleya kunafa cake, maamoul and namoura, open daily 08:00 to 22:30.
TipGulf News describes the Osmaleya as a kunafa cake, two layers of crisp vermicelli around a soft centre of fresh cream or cheese.
Al Aqssa Sweets on Salam Street in the Tourist Club area of Abu Dhabi has sold kunafa, baklava and basbousa since 1980, open daily from 09:00 to midnight.
TipGulf News notes a second branch in Khalidiya; this listing is the Salam Street shop in the Tourist Club area that opened in 1980.
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