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CHINESE AT THE FAIRMONT ON THE PALM

UPDATE January 2016 

DoinDubai has heard that Ba at the Fairmont is closing down and will be replaced by Okku! Watch this space for exact dates of new opening! So no special Chinese New Year celebrations at Ba this year. 

THE FOOD at the Fairmont

The Chinese restaurant at the Fairmont is called Ba. Overall the food was good but the dim sum pastry would have been better if it had been a bit thinner, the plain fried noodles and Kalian (Chinese broccoli)  were both extremely tasty but the portions were a tiny bit mean and the Kung Pao prawns slightly too sweet for my taste. We all loved the Chrysanthemum green tea crème brulee and raspberry friend on the side, the creamy and tart contrast worked very well.

Plain fried noodles and kailan
Plain fried noodles and kailan

THE AMBIENCE at the Fairmont

Well there are 4 kinds of ambience at Ba; you can decide where to sit depending on what mood you’re in.

  • Loudish, modern music in the trendy but spacious bar area as you enter from the lobby floor
  • Echoes of the same music (but doesn’t interfere with conversation) in the sofa set up on the wide anterior room behind the bar (we drank, had starters and then the rest of our meal here)
  • Stunning but cavernous dining room on the lower floor with gorgeous, over sized murano glass type chandelier
  • Well equipped terrace behind the dining room of the main restaurant, looked lovely but was unseasonally cold on the night we visited, but apparently very convenient to walk home from if you live out that way…?! One day maybe…..

 

Elaborate Chandelier

THE DRINKS at the Fairmont

Everyone seemed happy with their choices, I swapped my first caipirhnia which had large ice cubes and was made with white sugar in a tall glass to what I thought was a more conventional, crushed ice, lime juice and brown sugar in a smaller glass version, done very nicely with no fuss about the change. Well done to the Fairmont for Customer Service on that one.

Don’t forget to check out the lit up serving trays, haven’t seen these before, have you? And like the Farm in Al Barari,  the menus for food (but not drinks) are on ipads and are therefore easy to read.

DoinDubai would visit again and try the terrace outside for lunch.

If you liked this article subscribe here for free, fresh and honest posts like this one. You may also like to read about the best Fish and Chip meal DoinDubai had here at the Seagrill on 360 restaurant also at the Fairmont a few steps away from Ba.

Location of the Chinese at the Fairmont

THANKS  Monica.

Link to their website to book –  Ba Restaurant & Lounger

A view from the anterior room behind the bar

View from the anterior room behind the bar

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BUSHMANS ANANTARA

What is the Bushmans Anantara?

The Bushman’s Restaurant and Bar is the name of the Australian themed restaurant on the ground floor level of the Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa. We had the Saturday Lazy Brunch deal, although they also have a great offer for drinks on Wednesdays. Dhs 75 for 3 drinks.

anantara_collage

What’s really good about the Bushmans Anantara?

I loved the setting and the desserts were among the best I have tasted at any buffet in Dubai. Ask for a table outside on the terrace facing the sea. There is a small, very quiet road between your table and the sea so you feel as though you really are off the beaten track, on holiday somewhere. The desserts all tasted as though they had been made at home, nothing like the usual buffet puddings that don’t usually tempt me at all. Slabs of good quality chocolate will totally blow your diet so do starve the day before!

Anantara_Palm_view

Location of the Bushmans Anantara

The Anantara is located on the East Crescent of the Palm Jumeirah, so go towards Atlantis on the trunk road and then turn right. The Anantara is the last but one hotel on this side of the crescent, Rixos being the final one (at the moment!) Do allow yourself time to get there, it’s a gorgeous drive there and back, and we stopped to take photographs of a boat race on the Saturday we visited. By the way there a couple of sneaky cameras on the Palm, we are not sure if the one in the tunnel is operational or not, but we got fined Dhs 600 for “speeding” on the way back! So be careful and don’t make your lunch too expensive for nothing.

palm_Jumeirah_boat_race

 

Food at the Bushmans Anantara

Food is called “tucker” here and the focus is on high quality Australian flavors for both food and drink. Start with fresh oysters and rocket and duck salad. Move on to hot appetisers that include prawns, mini steak and mushroom pies and arancini rice bites. You can of course graze on these and more starters alone but the deal also includes a choice of one main course. We ended up taking one of each, a lamb, chicken, sea bass and I tried the rocket gnocchi. So there is some choice for vegetarians as well as the meat eaters. It’s always nice when you have some of your food made for you, served at your table, that way everyone eats together for part of your meal. Everyone seemed happy with their main courses.

Anantara_palm_Oysters

Service at the Bushmans Anantara

Service was excellent, nothing was too much trouble and staff  were friendly, they made space for a table outside for us which really added to our enjoyment of the lunch. So do book your table outside while the weather allows you to.

Anantara_palm_Salads

Ambience at the Bushmans Anantara

The lunch is called the Lazy lunch so don’t be in a hurry here! The ambience is modern Australian with some aboriginal artwork and interesting patterns of corks and boomerangs on the ceilings and walls. The atmosphere is casual and quite relaxed and families were welcome. There was a mix of family groups and couples when we visited.

Drinks at the Bushmans Anantara

The lunch deal with alcohol includes cocktails like Mohitos and Tom Collins and well as unlimited Penfolds Rawson’s Retreat red and white wine. The white wine I had was excellent. Of course there is the Australian Fosters beer by the bottle and a Melbourne orange, mango and chardonnay sangria! Melbourne subscribers please let me know if this is authentic? Would love to know!

Anantara_palm_Drinks

What is the price of Saturday lunch at Bushmans’ Anantara?

The deal is Dhs 200 with non alcoholic drinks and cockails and Dhs 300 for the alcohol package. The brunch is only available on Saturdays at the moment and is on from 1pm till 4pm

Bushman’s Saturday Lazy Lunch

I think the picture on their website is a bit misleading in that the restaurant is light, bright and airy and has a lovely beachy lounge area at the front!

Australian subscribers what do you think should be included in an authentic Australian buffet? Do let me know and I will pass the information on to the Bushmans! You may see your suggestions on the menu sometime soon.

Anantara_palm_side_dishes

Thank you to the Anantara for inviting us to review this brunch.

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FISH AT THE FAIRMONT PALM JUMEIRAH

One of the best fish and chip lunches I ate recently was at the Sea Grill on the ground level of the recently opened Fairmont Palm Jumeirah. Perfectly fried fish, fat, home cut chips and some lightly minted mushy peas beautifully presented in a calm, cool restaurant overlooking the water. Sitting somewhere as elegant as this in our thinly disguised beach attire (we’d been swimming all morning) made it even better, a casual, luxury lunch if you get my drift? At Dhs 110, I thought it was good value too. But as we were visiting relatives staying at the hotel, we opted for a day pass that entitled us to the facilities of the beach and pools and gave us a Dhs 100 credit towards food. At Dhs 265, it was a day well spent.

Fish at the Fairmont Palm Jumeirah

I loved the fact that there was no thumpingly loud music playing in the background and that you could select either to be in a family area with younger children or a quieter space that didn’t feel “rarefied”.  The kids will love the all you can eat ice cream deal for Dhs 19.00.  Cold drinking water is complimentary and brought to you in a sensible insulated cool bag. A big tick on the sustainability front to the Fairmont for that, well done for not wasting water on making ice for keeping the bottles cool.

Christmas Eve 2012 saw the opening of the Fairmont on the Palm Jumeirah, and a few months on the hotel is well established. Our day pass entitled us access to 4 of it’s cool pools, beachfront and gym facilities. It feels very much like a city hotel by the water – you have a clear view of Dubai Marina but unlike the Marina Walk hotels, the Fairmont has an air of unstuffy tranquility and calm and you don’t feel hemmed in by a back drop of high rise buildings.

They are just putting the finishing touches to their Oriental Restaurant Ba and we’ll report back from there in a later post. The day pass at the Fairmont is an easy quick fix for residents who need to feel they’ve been on a mini holiday before the real thing later in the summer, go now before it’s too hot. Know of a better beach and lunch deal? Leave me a comment and let me know. And do share this good idea however you feel works best for you…Thanks Monica

Oh and if you prefer your fish on the fiery side, there’s still time to enter our Great Goan Giveaway, click here to find out more about that. Thanks to all of you who’ve entered the competition already, winner to be announced on the 16th  of June.

COMPETITION ENTRIES NOW CLOSED.

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AMALA ZABEEL SARAY PALM JUMEIRAH

 Amala means pure in Hindi and is the name of the Indian Restaurant in the recently opened Zabeel Saray Hotel on the West Crescent of the Palm Jumeirah. (turn left when you exit the tunnel at Atlantis) The Zabeel Saray is the second of three hotels on the Crescent and unlike some newish hotels already has a buzz about it with a very crowded lobby at midnight on a Thursday.

I was expecting Amala, it’s Indian fine dining restaurant to be fairly quiet, but while it was by no means full, it had a few people eating at tables inside but the brightly lit terrace area was quite busy. The large menu is deceptive, how will I choose you think, but don’t worry, as there are 17 pages dedicated to beverages (both alcoholic and non alcoholic) and 4 to food ! The interesting thing about this menu is not in it’s choice of Northern Indian regional cuisine (fairly standard) but in it’s pricing. For Dhs 225 per head you can order whatever you want from the menu as many times as you’d like ! And the system seems to work quite well.

We opted for some classic Tandoori dishes to begin with, lamb chops, tandoori prawns and Hammour (these appear later in the menu so do read till the end) and we selected some South Indian prawn curry, lamb shanks, daal and bhindi (ladies fingers or okra) with a selection of breads for our main course. There is also a choice of biriyanis, we chose lamb.

Portions are sensible, not too large or too small, well presented and authentic in appearance and taste, the lamb chops were excellent and my favourite out of the starters. The sauce of the prawn curry was also very well made as was the biriyani, my dining partners raved about the lamb shanks but I can only take so much meat !

Importantly you feel as if you’re getting value for money from this a la carte buffet type menu, so I would definitely go again, but if you want to feel you’re in a high end, fine dining type of place perhaps opt to sit inside where the ambience (especially the lighting) is more subtle than out on the terrace.

While puddings are not mentioned in the menu, they are available and included in the price, I recommend the mango kulfi and ras malai.

 

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