Our precious visitor SJ had two activity requests during her few days stay in Dubai. When asked 'what would you like to do.. see some history or visit a gallery?' she promptly replied;
"No, I want to sun bathe and go to brunch"... love, love our SJ.
Johan and I hadn't been to Friday brunch yet either so I was secretly dying to go myself, as it's supposedly the Friday 'thing to do' in Dubai.
Some of our friends had relayed scary brunch stories where ex-pats get stupidly hammered, have rows and start fights whilst their kids run wild unsupervised. Entertaining as that spectacle might have been, as a young couple+1 that isn't really what we had in mind so I set about researching suitable places.
The variety of places that offer some theme or variations of Friday brunch is mind boggling. There's a brunch for every taste and budget it seems, even Nobu and The Ivy offer a 'Posh' versions of Friday brunch.
I read every Friday brunch review on Time Out, Dubai.
* Note to Time Out, writers - please get a new brunch review headline other than "A Dubai institution" as it seems every single one is a Dubai institution.
After reading lots of reviews, forums and 2008 newspaper articles about post brunch drunken brits up to naughtiness on the beach, I made an executive decision.
Figuring that if we were going have a Friday brunch baptism we may as well go all out, I opted for a brunch with a boozy reputation, Yalumba @ Le Meridian Hotel in Garhound.
Surprisingly enough - "A Dubai institution" according to Time out, Dubai:-)
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| Squeeze another sushi on there SJ? |
The other thing that was odd, was it felt like a bit of a meat market. There was a disproportionate demographic (at least the day we went) of single 50 something men.
There were also many younger single women in revealing outfits who looked like they might be there to 'meet' older 50 something gentlemen.
We wondered what we'd walked into however that quirk aside, have to say the food & service were excellent.
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| A glass of fish |
On arrival you get asked for your champagne preference, Bollinger, Taittinger or Laurent Perrier Rose having to decide between that lovely lot quite threw me and SJ.
Even though it's not cheap at 500Dhs pp (approx £85) all in for the bubbly option. It's worth the money as our glasses were never more than a two sips empty before they were topped up and we could also have choices of wines and other drinks to match our courses.
Once seated you are brought forth a seafood platter to start you off, oysters, prawns and salmon, yum!
One thing I really liked about the Yalumba brunch was that as well as the buffet you get to order form a hot menu, which had a Pan-Asian/Antipodean theme.
SJ had Chicken Tikka which was moist and spicy. I had the Oriental roast Pork belly - which wasn't great as it was under done for my taste.
IMO, Roast Pork belly should have crispy crackling atop to contrast the moist fatty meat layers beneath but this one was just plain soggy.
The star dish was Kangeroo Teriyaki that Johan ordered twice because it was so good.
Being newbie's though, we made the rookie error of not having a full brunch strategy. What were we thinking?! Instead we went random free-style, meaning that by the third plate we were all stuffed and couldn't eat any more, not even desert.
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| Is it NYE?? |
Everyone at this point is plastered but good humoured as far as we could tell. We got chatting to a large group of older men who were actually really lovely, nice to meet different folks and hear their Dubai story, everyone has one.
Suddenly it was dark and we moved next door to the neighbouring Warehouse bar were Johan and I promptly fell asleep at our table...we are THAT wild and crazy!! 'twas our our que to head home.
Sore heads all round the next day...yip, we'd certainly popped our brunch cherry, in true Dubai style.
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