Hmm. Saffron if you’re reading this I’m very sorry for what I’m about to say. Just an amateur review from a newbie in Dubai. (Please scroll down for a 2013 update on Saffron 😉 )

Well we went here on a Friday night few weeks ago now. I had high expectations, as this was going to be the first of many buffets to come in Dubai. And, it was in Atlantis. The Atlantis at The Palm. The last time we tried to come to the hotel we were rejected because we weren’t guests in the hotel. Fancy. That was when we were at Aquaventure, on the little buggies or whatever you call the golf-carts that takes you from the swim park, to the dolphin park or the hotel. Just in case you’re gonna try and do what we did, don’t bother and save yourself the embarrassment, haha.

Anyways we booked for 8pm. Kudos to the reservations team though, they are super efficient. That, I was quite impressed.

The lobby and the walk to the restaurant itself is quite a sight too. If you’re going to be having food in this place make sure you go earlier so you can admire the interior design of the hotel itself. Ooooo, make sure you bring your camera! Otherwise I’m sure your Iphone or HTC’s got a fancy enough camera so you can do a facebook “In the Atlantis” post 🙂

Now, Saffron itself on Friday nights have an all-you-can-eat family buffet.

Saffron presents dining drama within a vibrantly bold, contemporary setting created by award-winning New York restaurant designer Adam Tihany.

Asia is a big place and our chefs thrive on the challenge of making sure the twenty theatrical cooking stations at Saffron offer a taste of every region. The preparation and presentation of international cuisine, with an emphasis on Asian specialties, becomes a culinary art form where diners enjoy an interactive dining experience as they sample food from open cooking areas throughout the restaurant.

They have a japanese area where you can savour fresh salmon sashimi, tuna and others. I tend to just stick to salmon. Yum. They also have fresh Alaskan crab which is “behind the counter” so you have to ask for it and to be honest with you, I actually prefer normal prawns or say Malaysian butter prawns mmmmmm…haha because they are sweeter and yummier. This one is sort of like “I know it is very expensive, but it’s quite tasteless.” Sorry! I probably need to upgrade my culinary standards to appreciate these type of things :/

There’s also a chinese section where the chef cooks you your own selection of egg noodles with bak choy and what not. Dim sum. No pork okay guys, this is Dubai.

Also Italian – pasta, soups, then Malaysian/ Indonesian (?), and Indian. Okay I’m sure there were more, I honestly cannot remember. And that’s also because honestly, it wasn’t that spectacular. If it were, this post will be so long you probably just looked at the photos and scrolled down to the bottom for tips 🙂

Saffron I’m sorry.

I mean, cost price per person for this buffet is AED210, excluding beverages. That’s NZD70 dollars. No drinks?! Really? I guess I’m super biased because to date, the best buffet that I’ve been to is still Jogoya in Starhill, Bukit Bintang in Malaysia. And that costs about RM110 or so which is NZD40. And you get stuff like ginseng chicken soup, snails, freshly cooked fishes and all the soups you can think of, oh and mochi for desert. AND, cocktails and wines. I know you’re going to tell me you cannot compare something in Dubai with something you get in an asian country. But hey I’m super critical when it comes to food, especially when you spend a lot for it 😉 (Aren’t we all)

Don’t get me wrong – the food that they have is not actually bad. There is a lot of variety, and what they do have is, yum 🙂 And I mean, it is in the Atlantis so it’s still an overall interesting experience. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I expected more, as it was quite costly, in comparison to other buffets that we’ve been to. Saying that, we have only been in Dubai for a month. This is probably “normal priced”, haha! Go check it out for yourself and let me know what you think of it?

• Saffron
• The Atlantis, the Palm
• Friday night buffet AED 210 per person ( Please check website for updates)
• HSBC Credit card Entertainer book has a 2 for 1, so does the HSBC Fine Dining

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(Update 06.05.2013 – After a year now, we’ve been back to Saffron one other time and thought that it was actually pretty good, lol. I think you adjust to ‘Dubai-price’ after some time and for what you pay, esp with the 2 for 1, it’s pretty worth it. I won’t change my existing blogpost because it was my honest review for when I first went there, being a newbie to Dubai 🙂 )