14 places
The rare proper espresso bar on the east coast, with rotating guest beans a few minutes from the Al Aqah beach hotels.
They roast their own Ethiopian beans daily and serve them as straight espresso or milk drinks.
An Australian specialty café with beans from about a dozen origins and an open terrace on East Boulevard, opposite the Vida hotel.
Beans roasted on a Loring machine travel over your head in clear pipes to the bar, and the bread comes from an open bakery using 48-hour sourdough.
A Dh25 flat white at the quieter Khawaneej branch, away from the Jumeirah crowd.
Plaster walls and trough sinks, a brew-bar menu, and an iced hibiscus or cascara if you want something other than coffee.
You drink in the warehouse where the UAE's first specialty roastery still roasts, with the bags you can take home stacked behind the bar.
A Dh22 flat white made with their own Candyman blend, plus a Basque cheesecake that people come back for.
A double-glazed glass box in the palm grove of Sheikh Khalifa's birthplace fort, serving date ice cream and pastries made with Al Ain farm eggs and milk.
An Emirati-led café that sells curated design and lifestyle pieces next to the coffee bar, so you can browse while you wait.
A local roastery with a following among coffee people, where you choose a V60 by origin and flavour profile.
A small roastery in the port where you buy a cup, drip bags or beans from the people who roasted them.
They roast their own beans, and the V60 pour-over is the order that made them one of the city's first specialty names.
You drink coffee roasted in-house next to cars you can't buy from any showroom, including a Mercedes 300SL signed by Brad Pitt.