Khamsa Cafe fuses vegan eats with Middle Eastern flavours, courtesy of its Palestinian founder Sarah Shaweesh.
Shaweesh — whose catering business has been supplying Sydney cafes with raw vegan cakes since 2015 — was born in Sydney but raised in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Jordan, and brought these influences to Khamsa Cafe. Located on the Erskineville end of King Street, the corner cafe boasts bi-fold doors and floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing for a seamless indoor-outdoor feel to the space
Sam Ali
Open seven days a week from 7am–3pm, the cafe offers both breakfast and lunch items, all infused with many Middle Eastern spices. All-day brekkie includes the Jerusalem bowl — a combination of cauliflower and quinoa with fattoush salad, baba ghanoush and hummus — and a massive Bedouin breakfast wrap that combines fried cauliflower, cucumber and tomato, all topped with tahini, pickles and garlic.
Khamsa Cafe's main meals offer more traditional Middle Eastern fare, like the Kan Zamman Bowl with tzatziki, muhamarra, viudjara and fresh salad and the Hey Macarena with macaroni, garlic yoghurt, Palestinian spiced mint and pine nuts.
For drinks, the highlight is the fragrant Arabic coffee with cardamom — a rare find in Sydney's inner west. There's also a healthy range of teas to select from including a matcha latte and a chai na'naa' with loose leaf black tea and fresh mint leaves. It's creative vegan fare that fits right in to its surrounds.
Sam Ali
Top images: Sam Ali, Commune Waterloo.