Specialty Coffee Shop
The Espresso Lab
★ 4.4
Championship-grade espresso bar, in-house roastery, minimalist Emirati specialty pioneer.
Founded in May 2015 by Emirati entrepreneur Ibrahim Al Mallouhi, The Espresso Lab is Dubai's Emirati-born specialty coffee pioneer — a brand built on craft, precision and what Ibrahim describes as a pursuit of the perfect cup. He's also the reigning 2026 UAE National Brewers Cup Champion, which tells you everything about the bar standards here.
The coffee programme runs on beans roasted at the sister TEL Roastery, with seasonal single-origin rotations covering espresso, milk drinks and a serious manual filter menu. Cupping-room standards land in the cup. Expect rare-lot competition prep and championship-bracket coffees alongside the daily flat white crowd.
The Dubai Design District flagship is minimalist and considered, designed to put the coffee at centre stage rather than compete with it. It's where the city's design crowd and coffee crowd overlap.
If you're starting your Dubai specialty crawl, start here.
Coffee quality & sourcing
- In-house roasting
- Ethical / direct trade
- Single origin
- Award-winning
- Micro-lots / seasonal
- Experimental / fermented
- Q-grader / certified baristas
Drinks
- Hand-brews / pour over
- Batch brews
- Espresso & milk drinks
- Decaf options
- Alt milk / vegan
- Cold brew
Beans & retail
- Retail beans (in-store)
- Buy beans online
Amenities
- Work-friendly
- Outdoor seating
- To-go available
- Coffee classes
- Community events
- Pastries / snacks
Find The Espresso Lab
Unit 8، Building 7 - Ground Floor - Zaa'beel Second - Dubai Design District - Dubai - United Arab Emirates
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