Once you’ve had kunafa from Habibah in Amman, Jordan, no kunafa will ever be the same. Habibah is the crown of Jordan and a pilgrimage to Habibah is a must during any visit to the Hashemite Kingdom.
Habibah Kunafa Alone Is Worth A Trip To Amman, Jordan
Jordanian food is some of my favorite in the world. Give me mansaf and kunafa and I go to bed with a happy heart. I’ve written about Habibah before, but want to dedicate a special post to this icon of Amman.
Kunafa, also spelled knafeh, is a traditional Arab dessert made with layers of cheese and dough, topped in pistachios and drenched in rose water syrup. Think baklava, but even better.
Located in a little hole-in-wall shop in downtown Amman, Habibah has been serving homemade kunafa for decades (it has now has several locations in Jordan). How good is? Let’s put it this way: you’ll have to wait in line, sometimes for hours, to get your dessert. Lines move quickly, but this is a very popular place and locals swear by it too.
There are three types of kunafa you can order:
- Fine kunafa (na’ameh)
- Coarse kunafa (khishneh)
- Mixed kunafa
Na’ameh is very smooth, with ground dough (often farkeh) used for the topping. Khishneh is rougher and uses crunchy pieces of pastry (like kataifi) for the topping. I greatly prefer fine kunafa.
I will warn you, this is quite addictive.
CONCLUSION
No trip to Amman is complete without a stop at Habibah for kunafa. Trust me on this: the juxtaposition of tastes creates one of the best dessert dishes you will ever enjoy.
Amazing. My wife has ME ancestry and we are used to eat all those amazing things mostly homemade. ME food is simply amazing.
The best breakfast I have ever had on a plane was a piping hot piece of knafeh on a MEA A320 flight to Brussels. Mind-blowing, I still regularly daydream about it ten years later! Having taken quite a few long-haul flights on supposedly more premium (and certainly more expensive)
carriers/routes, I have yet to experience a breakfast coming anywhere close to it.
Mine was lovely too!
https://liveandletsfly.com/middle-east-airlines-kanafeh/
That ‘s either exactly the same or at least very similar. I am literally salivating thinking about it.
No chocolate. No cares 😉
Oh, you can find many places in the ME now where they are adding chocolate to dishes like this…
I just arrived last night in Amman. Will be in the area today. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
Btw, the hummus here taste amazing. Much better than any other I’ve had. I had hummus mixed with beets for breakfast today. What a great combo!
Hummus mixed with beets – love it! I have a newfound love of beets in my 30s. Always hated them in my youth!
Matthew, I found some free time after reading this post in the morning and travelled an hour to East London just to get a kunefe fix in Harringay. Thank you…
Nice! Hope it was worth the journey!
If you are a fan of mansaf and knafeh I humbly recommend Al Awda, a Gazan restaurant not far from CAI in Nasr City. Absolutely the best food I have ever eaten. During the pandemic I fantasized about flying to Cairo, getting mansaf at the restaurant, and taking the knafeh in a go box and getting back on the plane as it turned around. It’s a great place to eat as your last meal on the way out of Cairo due to the proximity to the airport (not far from City Stars mall). People who know about Al Awda know it is amazing, but it hasn’t hit the popularity point where it is impossible to get a seat.
We stopped here the other day, totally delicious! Even better was walking downtown Amman, what a beautiful city(so much better than Cairo)