The most established Western-style coffee shop in Srinagar, Coffee Arabica on Maulana Azad Road in the Rajbagh neighbourhood attracts students, young professionals, and travellers who need a reliable espresso. The coffee is reasonably good by Indian standards — better than anything you'll find in the hotel restaurants — and the atmosphere is relaxed and unhurried. The seating area fills up in the late afternoon with people treating it as an after-work social space.
The food menu runs to sandwiches, cakes, and light snacks, none of it particularly exciting but all of it adequate. The main draw is having a proper place to sit for an extended period, charge a phone, and work or talk without being moved along. This kind of space is rarer in Srinagar than in Delhi or Mumbai, which makes Coffee Arabica more valuable than it would be in a larger city. In the evenings it is worth checking whether they have any live music — occasional acoustic sessions happen here.