I’m not a Friday brunch person at all and really don’t like buffets for small numbers of people, no one seems to be sitting down at the table at the same time together, but as my birthday fell on a Friday, we decided to try the Ivy, their brunch offering is not a buffet but there is more than adequate choice. The restaurant is based on the ground floor of the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel opposite the new Alfies Cigar Bar/lounge. The ambience is just what I expected, clean and simple lines with elegant artwork on the walls and soft white linen table cloths with a couple of plump rose buds in a tiny purple glass vase. The set brunch at Dhs 275.00 is good value as it includes an aperitif and 3 courses with tea or coffee to finish. I had a zingy Bellini, the children substituted fizzy water for the alcohol in their Bellinis and we also ordered a Virgin Mohito which turned out in fact to be a very good but unexpected Virgin Mary ! While starters and puddings are very good, I was slightly surprised at the burger and chips and fish and chips options available, similarly the fish pie and fishcakes type options would fit more comfortably on a gastropub menu (at least in the UK) than at the Ivy.
But the elderflower jelly studded with raspberries and blueberries, and a lemon curd coupe (excellent lemon curd on fresh vanilla ice cream with a light meringue biscuit) are relatively sophisticated puddings and so didn’t quite fit with the high end pub grub mains. The restaurant kindly accommodated my request for a seafood cocktail from the a la carte menu and this was sadly disappointing, the underwhelming presentation and oversmothering of the seafood with gloopy Rose Marie sauce was entirely unexpected.
A real draw is children under 10 get to eat for free at the Ivy, perhaps this would explain the simpler options ? Have you been the Ivy in Dubai ? What did you think ? And perhaps a reader can tell me what chocolate sourdough with Cru Virunga actually is ? (from the special dessert menu at The Ivy in London)
Please let me know how the new format of the pictures comes out on Ipads, Iphones and normal computers, is this a good format for readers to see real pictures?
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