Sana'a Cafe

🇾🇪 YEMEN / One of the world's oldest coffee cultures now has a home in a modern Lake Forest shopping plaza.

🇾🇪 YEMEN
📍 22621 Lake Forest Drive,
Lake Forest, Orange County
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

Residents of the Bay Area were California’s first to try the coffee culture of Yemen, as the Sana’a Cafe chain spread from San Francisco in all directions to San Rafael, Mountain View, Oakland and Sacramento. After two years of expansion, thankfully the popular café has decided to move south. Despite Southern California’s relative absence of Yemeni people, this branch has opened in Lake Forest, Orange County with another brand new one right at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

While the latter is only a couple weeks old, it already has negative reviews from people that only like their coffee burnt like Starbucks. This touristy part of Los Angeles might not be able to support such a “crazy” idea, but the Lake Forest location seems primed for success.

For folks that live nowhere near Lake Forest, it might not seem a likely place to find such good foods, but every time you come through a couple more places hit your radar. Besides being the home to some of if not the best Afghan food in Southern California, its manicured streets and shopping plazas are home to a diverse array of restaurants.

The options for coffee and tea are lengthy, and a bit overwhelming if it is all new to you. The guys that run the shop are very friendly and welcoming though, so feel free to ask questions and get some direction towards what you might enjoy the most. All of the pastries in the cases at the counter, both sweet and savory, speak for themselves. This makes ordering your food a bit less challenging, although narrowing it all down to a reasonable amount of food might still be a difficult task as everything looks so tempting.

This initial order was narrowed down to four pastries (three savory and one sweet), a tea, and a coffee, all to be shared between two people and shown below. It turned out to be too much of course, but most everything is perfect for reheating when you get home. The triangular fatayer (above and below) seems popular on the savory side, as they make at least a half dozen different types. Cheese and spinach versions join an array of meat options, all filled with spices, onions, olive oil, and other things you love.