The Story of Café di Rosati
How two villas in the heart of Abu Dhabi became the city’s most distinctive cafe and lounge.
It Started With a Question
Every restaurant begins with a menu. Café di Rosati began with a question: what would it take to build a place in Abu Dhabi that guests never wanted to leave?
Answering it properly meant starting from zero. Our founder brought on board a renowned cafe consultant from Seoul — a specialist behind some of Korea’s most celebrated concepts, who flew to the UAE and did something few would have the patience for: she visited and analyzed cafes across the Emirates, one by one, mapping what the market had and, more importantly, what it was missing. Her research shaped the answer. Abu Dhabi didn’t need another coffee shop in a mall. It needed a destination: a place with the intimacy of a home and the standards of a five-star house.
Two Villas, Two Years, One Vision
The concept demanded a setting no commercial unit could offer, and the team spent months walking Abu Dhabi’s districts before finding it: two residential villas in Al Karamah, in the heart of the city. Converting homes into a destination is the hard way to open a cafe: the approvals, the engineering, the sheer stubbornness it required — but the founder believed the setting was the soul of the idea, and refused to compromise.
What followed was nearly two years of construction, with designers and craftsmen flown in from around the world. The furnishings tell the story of the ambition: pieces from Fendi Casa, Theodore Alexander, Ethan Allen, Pottery Barn, and West Elm; custom stonework cut for these walls alone; teak that weathers Abu Dhabi’s seasons without complaint; and at the heart of the counter, a Spirit espresso machine from Norway, customized for Rosati. When the doors finally opened, the two villas had become one address — and Abu Dhabi had a cafe unlike any other.
Two Villas, Two Years, One Vision
The concept demanded a setting no commercial unit could offer, and the team spent months walking Abu Dhabi’s districts before finding it: two residential villas in Al Karamah, in the heart of the city. Converting homes into a destination is the hard way to open a cafe: the approvals, the engineering, the sheer stubbornness it required — but the founder believed the setting was the soul of the idea, and refused to compromise.
What followed was nearly two years of construction, with designers and craftsmen flown in from around the world. The furnishings tell the story of the ambition: pieces from Fendi Casa, Theodore Alexander, Ethan Allen, Pottery Barn, and West Elm; custom stonework cut for these walls alone; teak that weathers Abu Dhabi’s seasons without complaint; and at the heart of the counter, a Spirit espresso machine from Norway, customized for Rosati. When the doors finally opened, the two villas had become one address — and Abu Dhabi had a cafe unlike any other.
What We Believe
The mission has never changed: give every guest an experience that feels like royalty and tastes like care. That means a kitchen that curates rather than crowds its menu, service that reads the table before the table asks, and rooms designed for the moments that matter — the slow breakfast, the family gathering, the celebration behind a closed lounge door.
And the vision looks forward: Café di Rosati was built to become a signature of the region, with new branches planned across the UAE and beyond. The villas in Al Manhal are the original — the standard every future Rosati will be measured against.
Come See What Two Years of Hard Work Built
Some places you visit; some places you adopt. Café di Rosati was built — slowly, deliberately, against all commercial logic — to be the second kind. The villa is waiting on Al Karamah Street.