Al Qasr Afternoon Tea @ Al Fayrooz Lounge

This I’ll say. It’s pretty, it’s very pretty. We had a great time. However, food was just – alright. Here’s a detailed take on what we got for 200AED (for two, with the Entertainer 😉 )

a) An absolute beautiful outdoor terrace with gorgeous view of the gulf and the Burj Al Arab

Now you wouldn’t mind sitting outside to a view like this for a few hours, would ya 🙂 Especially at this time of the year. You can choose to sit indoors but hey, it’s January in Dubai. Who sits indoors now? 🙂

b) Afternoon Tea Sandwiches

Our honest take, was that the sandwiches were pretty average.

Soggy cucumber sandwiches, mmm

A little similar to the afternoon tea in Al Samar Lounge, we had little trays of sandwiches on a silver tier. Simple egg-rolled wrapped, sliced cucumber sandwiches which ended up really soggy, even the ham and cheese sandwich was really dry. Something that I really hope they can step up on as we were both a little disappointed, and was just eating it because we didn’t want to waste food!

c) Hot Savouries and Home-made Scones

This, we liked 🙂 Wasn’t exceptional I’ll say but how wrong can you go with hot scones with a selection of creams! Devonshire clotted creams, lemon curd, strawberry jam, mmm.

d) Selection of fruits and sweets with a chocolate fondue

And just when you can’t eat anymore, here comes dessert. We didn’t touch any of the sweets because we couldn’t stomach anymore. We just ate up all the fruit 🙂

e) Different choices of loose-leaf tea or freshly ground coffee

Al Fayrooz has an extensive selection of tea and coffee. Mum and I started with the heavier of the lot, latte and mocha, ending with a pot of black and hibiscus tea for mum and rooibos for me.

f) Service

Wasn’t up to par.

I had made a reservation through email and asked twice what time does afternoon tea normally happen, and was not told, so I just booked for 2pm. I figured we’ll just get there early but when I arrived at 1:30pm, the lady told me afternoon tea only started at 2pm.

Service was fairly slow that day. I had to walk inside to the counter to ask for the tea which only came much later. Did the same thing with the desserts as well. Hmm :/

Overall ?

As always, we had a great afternoon 🙂 So, despite the little hiccups, it didn’t ruin the afternoon at all. It’s a beautiful setting, worthy of a million photos, and we were full. I guess it would have been good if the food was a bit better in quality, and if they could keep an eye on service as well. It’s Jumeirah, we had expected more.

For 200 AED for two (thank goodness for vouches), it was money well spent. Had I paid full price for it, I wouldn’t have been very happy at all 😉