After nearly eight years, two locations, and a global pandemic, beloved Palestinian eatery Khamsa is closing, with its last day of service scheduled for this Sunday.
For founder and chef Sarah Shaweesh, providing food and hospitality has given meaning to her life.
“It’s something so natural,” she said. “Especially in Palestine, people are very hospitable.”
“Even if you don’t know somebody, they’ll open their house and say, come in, eat with us.”
“Look at the stories in Gaza- people can barely find money or find food for themselves, but they share it with others before they eat it themselves.”
The primarily plant-based menu and excellent coffee charmed Inner West locals, but the real magic in Khamsa lies in the people and community that have sprung up around it.
Although she founded the cafe herself, Khamsa is a bit of a family affair for Shaweesh. Her mother worked in the kitchens, and while her dad had his own job elsewhere, he loved to help out.
“He loved meeting people,” Shaweesh says. “Even for us a family, it connected us with so many people from our community.”
“I thought we knew all the Palestinians. I never knew that there were this many in Sydney.”
Shaweesh met her Palestinian husband through the eatery, and the pair now have a young child together.
Once, a customer came into the cafe and declared she was one of their cousins.
“I was like, no, I know my own family! Then she bought her family, her parents meet my parents- we didn’t even open for dinner at the time, but we just invited them and we cooked them dinner. They checked the family tree, and it turned out our dad’s dads were cousins or something like that. That, to me, was really crazy.”
As Sydney’s only dedicated Palestinian restaurant, Khamsa has become known internationally, and visitors from all around the world have made sure to stop there while in town.
The eatery has also played host to a number of different events. Artist and writer Amani Haydar has facilitated an art workshop there, the Deaf Muslim Community of Sydney hosted a fundraiser, and a few months ago there was workshop to learn Tatreez, a form of traditional Palestinian embroidery.
For many people, Khamsa was not just a cafe, but a place of generorosity, solidarity, and learning. It brought out the very best in people, and patrons left with full stomachs and nourished souls.
Closing at the start of 2025 was not part of the plan for Shaweesh- they were unable to come to a rental agreement with the landlord, and things progressed quickly from there. She’s moved to Naarm (Melbourne) and after a well deserved rest, I’m sure she’ll be working on some new creation.
There’s still time to visit before it closes, and I can guarantee you won’t be let down. While these words have been a valiant attempt at capturing the magic of Khamsa, feeling it in person is a whole different experience.
Shaweesh has cultivated a space rich in warmth and spirit, and has been generous enough to share this expression of her love for her culture with the world.
She put it most succinctly herself in the Instagram post where she announced the cafe’s closure.
“Every dish and every drink we served was a piece of Palestine, a connection to our roots, history, and spirit. In a time when our family in Gaza is enduring unimaginable suffering, and being massacred and ethnically cleansed, sharing our food has been an act of resistance.
“It is a reminder that even under the weight of vile oppressors, our identity lives on through the flavors, traditions, resilience and an everlasting hope for a free Palestine.”
