Damascus has dozens of exceptional places to eat and drink, spread across neighborhoods as different from each other as the city itself. This guide covers the best cafés and restaurants in Damascus by area — from the modern complexes of Dummar and Mezzeh to the historic lanes of Old Damascus.
Up Town Dummar Complex
Up Town Dummar is located in the Dummar development — a modern suburb that has become Damascus’s answer to a new city district, with contemporary residential quarters and well-designed commercial infrastructure. The Up Town complex anchors the area’s social scene with a mix of shops, cafés, a sports club, a wellness center, and several notable restaurants.
Al-Saha Restaurant – Up Town Dummar
The first thing that greets you at Up Town is a wide outdoor plaza centered on a small lake, with a tall column rising from its edge — topped by a replica of the Umayyad Mosque minaret sculpture, the same iconic monument that stands in Marjeh Square as one of Damascus’s oldest civic symbols. The restaurant takes its name — al-saha (the square) — from this setting.
The outdoor seating is arranged for calm — water features, decorative sculptures at every turn, and most unexpectedly, a small display of classic cars collected from Damascus’s streets and parked as permanent fixtures in the restaurant’s garden. The food matches the setting: a varied menu with portions and quality well above average. A Damascus experience worth making time for.
Boho Café – Up Town Dummar
Boho Café is designed in a full bohemian aesthetic — an oasis of color and texture in a city where most restaurants play it safe with their interiors. Every corner has something: trailing plants, eccentric chandeliers, mismatched furniture in bold colors, and a rotating collection of art pieces that shift the atmosphere entirely from the moment you walk in.
The menu carries the same spirit — a mix of Eastern and Western dishes, creative drinks, and what regulars consider some of the best pizza in Damascus. Everything here is intentionally different from the standard, and it shows. Do not pass through Dummar without stopping in.
Up Town Mezzeh Complex
The second branch of Up Town sits in the heart of Mezzeh, near Al-Jalaa Sports City — equally polished, with most of the same brands and restaurant names represented. A strong alternative if you are already in that part of the city.
Takel Shi Food Court
Takel Shi (literally: “eat something”) is a curated food court that gathers some of Damascus’s most popular restaurants under one roof. The lineup includes names like Broasted al-Qusour, King of Wings, Beit al-Mukhtar, Mr. Dips Pizza, and Yalnji Store — a broad enough range that indecision is the only real problem. No need to travel across the city for a good meal when the best options are already in one place.
Steam Café – Mezzeh
Steam Café is Damascus’s most respected specialty coffee destination — the place serious coffee drinkers go regardless of what else is on the menu around them. With multiple branches across Damascus and Aleppo, the Mezzeh location inside Takel Shi is its most prominent — holding its own against the surrounding restaurants on the premise that the right coffee sets the tone for everything else. Their tagline says it simply: “Steam loves you most.”
Kafrsouseh Mall
Huqqabaz – Sham City Centre
Located inside Sham City Centre in the Kafrsouseh district, Huqqabaz is the Damascus branch of an international restaurant chain — defined primarily by its polished, upscale atmosphere. The menu spans both Eastern and Western cuisine with a wide drink selection, making it a strong choice for anyone looking for a refined dining experience while visiting the area.
Shukrji – Damascino Mall
Abandon your diet here. Shukrji has built its reputation on two things: Turkish-style pastries executed with exceptional precision, and a Damascene sensibility that turns every dessert into something visually as well as editorially remarkable. The standout creation — one that has developed a following of its own — is the kunafa ice cream with Shukrji’s signature sauce: a combination rich enough to make any nutritional calculations feel beside the point.
The restaurant also serves full meals, with shawarma that has developed a loyal following in its own right. The main Damascus location is in Damascino Mall in Kafrsouseh — the ideal post-shopping stop on any visit to the area.
City Centre Neighborhoods
The central neighborhoods of Damascus — Salihiyya, Sha’lan, Hamra, Abu Rummaneh, Mazraa, and the streets around Al-Jahi Garden and Al-Sibki Park — are where the city’s memory lives. Every corner here carries a reference point for Syrians. These are some of the best places to eat and drink while moving through them.
Hadd al-Shabbak
After hours of walking through the dense streets of Salihiyya, Sha’lan, and Hamra, Hadd al-Shabbak is the obvious place to recover. It occupies the top floor of Blue Tower Hotel — one of the tallest buildings in the central district — and looks out over Damascus in all four directions from an elevation that clears the surrounding roofline entirely.
The restaurant serves an excellent breakfast and a full menu of authentic Eastern dishes throughout the day. What elevates the experience beyond the view is its regular program of live Oriental music performances — making a meal here as much an evening out as a place to eat. One of the most distinctive dining experiences in central Damascus.
27 Plus Café
Near Al-Jahi Garden in the upscale Abu Rummaneh district — home to most of Damascus’s embassies — 27 Plus is a specialty coffee café that treats presentation as seriously as the coffee itself. From the moment you enter to the cup that arrives at your table, the experience is coherent and considered.
If you are walking the central neighborhoods of Damascus, a stop at 27 Plus is the natural choice for a coffee break that goes slightly beyond the ordinary.
Old Damascus
Beit Sitti – Bab Touma
Tucked into the stone lanes of Old Damascus, Beit Sitti (Grandmother’s House) is one of the most complete expressions of the traditional Damascene dining experience available to visitors today. The venue is a restored old Damascene courtyard house — fully preserved in its heritage character while offering modern hospitality.
The menu spans Western dishes and drinks alongside the core attraction: traditional Eastern home cooking prepared the way Damascus grandmothers actually made it — the same flavors, the same care. The restaurant also hosts regular live performances of classical Syrian music and Oriental compositions, turning any meal into an evening with genuine cultural depth. If you visit only one restaurant in Old Damascus, make it Beit Sitti.
Beit al-Ayla – Qaymariyya
Located in the Qaymariyya quarter near the Umayyad Mosque, Beit al-Ayla (The Family House) is built around the concept of the classic Syrian extended-family home — the kind of space that pulls everyone back together regardless of how far apart life has taken them. The setting is a traditional Damascene courtyard house, and the atmosphere delivers exactly what the name promises.
The menu covers traditional Eastern dishes alongside Western options, and the venue includes a full argileh (water pipe) service appropriate to the setting — a natural part of the Old Damascus café experience. The staff’s quality of service is consistently noted by visitors as a step above the norm. A visit to Beit al-Ayla is a natural complement to any walk through the historic quarter.
