Art House Café : The place Abu Dhabi's art lovers keep returning to
- Creative atmosphere, connected to an Art Gallery🎨
- Visit the home of gentle turtles roaming on pebble stones 🐢
- Cosy environment during lunchtime, suitable for couples and families alike🥙
About a 20 minutes drive from Saadiyat Island takes you through the bustling roads downtown of Abu Dhabi. Near Al Bateen the journey is reaching its destination at Al Huwelat street. We are visiting Art House Cafe today, a place from which our team of journalists recently had ordered some sandwiches before. They had turtles all over their packaging, but back then we could not quite figure out why.
As we entered the café we noticed the uplifting and tranquil atmosphere. The staff welcomed us warmly and guided us through the place. Turtles of the size of a lemon were crawling on a sandy counter at the entrance, slowly awaking from their nap. As we took our orders and got to read more about the philosophy behind Art House Café. Suddenly, the packaging covered in colorful turtles from a past delivery makes perfect sense.
It was a busy Saturday afternoon, yet the waiters made time for us to walk us to the art gallery that was connected to their café. We look around and see furniture, but not the usual kind you would expect. The furniture feels like part of the art too: upcycled chairs, refurbished tables, and glass surfaces decorated with vintage book covers. The chairs and tables and even the walls and the ceiling have an experimental touch to it.
While we wait for our order we walk explore the place. We walk through an aisle underneath several refurbished lamps, the sunshine shimmers through the flowers on the rooftops. Walking through the aisles while taking pictures inside the art gallery was truly enjoyable. The gallery was showing a combination of oil paintings and wooden sculptures, likely made by local artists.
Inside, the air smells like toasted bread and coffee. While lunch is prepared the Café offers a plate painting session, including a set of plates and some acrylic colors. Once dry, the plates are hung on the walls, turning an ordinary afternoon into a permanent piece of the café.
I went for a stride, walking in a loop past the paintings and wooden sculptures in the air-conditioned Art Gallery, through one of it's glass doors. One step at a time I am heading back to the Café.
Time for a snack.
Art House Café seemed like the place where art, up cycling, gastronomy and gentle turtles of big and small size find their home. We ordered a Steak Sandwich, and a Rib-eyed Steak, for drinks we choose Apple Detox and AHC Smoothie. We decided on rounding up our experience with a lemon cheesecake.
Since we had ordered a couple of meals with them before we've picked out some meals for you which you can enjoy at Art House Café:
The Mediterranean Bowl, the Healthy Bowl, the Rib-eyed Steak and the Green Smoothie were our favorites.
Do not forget to visit the big turtles in the sandbox outside the Café when you visit!