FEED ME FRIDAY BRUNCH

Place: Level Seven, The W Hotel, Habtoor City
Price:
– AED 395 including soft drinks
– AED 495 including cocktails & house beverages
– AED 595 including free flowing bubbly, cocktails & house beverages

Timings: 12:30 – 4pm

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.”—G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

I was really excited about trying this newly launched Feed Me Friday Brunch at the brand new W Hotel. The W (owned by Marriott International) is marketed towards a younger (millennials) crowd and typically includes popular dining & entertainment venues. I have visited their properties in Barcelona, Miami, Washington DC, and Bali and have always enjoyed my experiences there.

Located on the 7^th floor on the hotel with a magnificent view of the Dubai Water Canal, the brunch offers an array of Mediterranean cuisine, in a modern and chic setting.

The food is roughly divided into four stations:

• Italian Pasta station: ravioli, spaghetti, lasagna. The lasagna was my winner.
• French Station: made to order poached eggs & asparagus, seared scallops, and seared foie gras. The scallops and foie gras were hands down the most popular items on the table. The problem was that the kitchen could not produce them fast enough, and several of us were kept waiting.
• Grill station: choose from lamb, chops, prawns, and fish fillet grilled to order. All were rather ordinary.
• Roastery Station: choose from lamb, chicken, beef, and salt baked fish. In an on-going frustrating trend amongst Dubai brunches, none of the roasts managed to impress.
• Cold Seafood Station: oysters, crab, baby lobster, mussels, razor clams, ceviche. The crab was my favorite. Ceviche was good. The oysters were ok, but disappoint compared to the delicious oysters from the St. Regis Saadiyat(Abu Dhabi)
• Tapas Station: selection of bite size tapas (octopus, calamari, pepper, cheese) that are a lot prettier than they actually taste.
• Cheese Station: a small selection compared to the mammoth cheese selections at the likes of the Westin (Dubai) or St. Regis Saadiyat (Abu Dhabi)
• Dessert room: Nothing out of the ordinary to mention

The food doesn’t rate well neither in terms of variety nor in terms of quality. The majority of my dining companions were equally disappointed.

The Beverage options includes:

• One option of red & one option of white, both from France and both very enjoyable.
• Bottled beer (Peroni)
• House spirits & cocktails (gin based, tequila based, rum based, and vodka based). No shots included (I thought the W was supposed to be cool?)

After attending the Sunday Brunch at The W Bali (priced at AED 314 with house beverages), I was utterly disappointed with this version, which is completely lacking in atmosphere & character.

The Feed Me Brunch is simply lacking in quality compared to their peers in the AED 500+ price range. In an overly crowded Dubai F&B market, and an ultra-competitive brunch market, the USP is simply non-existent.

Rating:

Ambiance: 10/20.
Beverages: 10/20.
Food: 12/20.
Service: 18/20
Value for Money: 5/20.
Total: 55%