Books@Cafe is a quirky place with a bookshop on main entrance with a restaurant above offering decent views of the hillside city of Amman, and a licensed place to drink alcohol and hang out.
An outdoor terrace and indoor seating, sheesha pipes and swinging lights. With great views and artsy interiors, this is the place to socialize and enjoy a drink and a meal.
What Books@Cafe lacks is genuine local food, it’s clearly aimed at offing a more western menu. I’ve opted for the tomato feta black olive and mint filled calzone. The menu offers a selection of starters, salads, pizzas, sandwiches, pasta – but all look familiar, this isn’t local dining. It’s not meant to be local.
This place is really for locals to have something different from they normally have, the result is it got put on a tourist map, but not really an experience for travellers like me.
What does make this place a destination is the coolness of it and the view. The view is fabulous if come in time for sunset and enjoy your dinner as the city darkens and the lights brighten the hills of Amman. Because it serves alcohol it also makes it a place to hang out and sip some wine or enjoy a drink. It also offers wi-fi which is readily available.
After hours Books@Cafe becomes a meeting place for the mostly gay crowd who come to drink, meet and listen to music.