A Disappointing Thursday Night Brazilian Feast @ Spirito

So there’s a new kid on the block, and our dear friends had suggested a dinner get-together as it was offering 50 % off the bill till the end of August. Why not 🙂 I’ve always had a soft spot for Media One Hotel.

We walked over and took the lifts upstairs to the 9th floor, where Spirito shared the same floor as Crab Tavern, another newbie (which we haven’t tried, yet).

I love going to new restaurants with friends incognito, because that’s when you truly see and experience the place as ‘every other customer’ …

Thoughts? Mmmmm.

I wouldn’t recommend it for a sit-down dinner with friends where you want to actually have a proper conversation. It’s more so bar atmosphere as the music (on a Thursday evening) was way too loud to listen to someone sitting in front of you. Well, at least it was where we were sat, on a large table in the far right corner of the restaurant. Maybe it was just our table? 😉

We were recommended the large sangria for the table as it was ‘good for photos’. We jokingly asked ‘is it good to drink as well?’ And she was right 🙂 It was great for photos. A lot of photos as well. Content? It was 80% ice, 20% sangria. We shared it amongst the 4 of us and we each probably had just a few sips before we were all struggling to find anymore. It was like a ice picking test. The funny bit was when the waiter himself assumed we had finished the sangria (because you evidently could not see the drink under the ice), and took it away without checking with us. We did not even realise it was gone until afterwards. There was definitely still some gold underneath that ice. We questioned them, what happened to the sangria and was told that it was ‘finished’, so they took it away. Ha ha, I don’t think so. We didn’t get it back. (They did however, courteously took a portion of it off the bill though in the end…) My tip? Don’t fall for the suggestion. Just go for happy hour deals – 30AED for beers and wine, 40AED for cocktails. More bang for your buck. Unless you really want that cool photo to post on social media 😉

To be fair, their appetisers was absolutely delicious. I know I didn’t do a very good job with the photos but don’t let that fool you, it tastes devine. I recommend them all – the banana fritters with guava dip (50 AED), the “pastel de queijo’ – light pastry filled with mozzarella (50AED), and a must-order, the coxinha – smoked chicken croquettes (55AED). I could, and should’ve just ordered more of these 😉

The mains were a bit… so-so. We had the Lobo – black angus steak (150AED), coco & chilli nib rub, and spiced polenta fries. Steak was a bit too dry. The lime marinated baby chicken (95AED) was pretty average as well – with extra boo-boo points when the staff tried once again to remove it when it was evidently not finished ( and there wasn’t any ice to hide the chicken, so you can’t say otherwise 😉 )

I don’t remember what the two pots in the middle top of the photo was, but it was bit too salty. What I did like? The rice, and the bread with cheese on top 😉

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We didn’t quite stay for desserts as were absolutely stuffed. Plus the fact that it was really quite hard to listen to each other.

So, mmm. Would I come back? Yeah, I probably still will. I’ll stay at the bar area though, and I’ll order the appetisers to share, over happy hour drink deals. It was packed tonight and it does have a pretty nice vibe to it. I’ll be a bit hesitant to book a table for a sit-down dinner with friends where conversation was involved though. A bit of let-down as I’m always keen to help out new outlets with surprise visits. Don’t worry Spirito – we’ve always supported Media One so we’ll come back another time just because you’re in there 😉 I do hope that service will be better then.

Go give it a try while their 50% food deal is on 😉 It ended up being about 135AED per person with all that – oh and also, after we realised they had incorrectly added a few extra drinks on the bill (which they did remove…) O dear Spirito, it’s all about first impressions :/