We all watched as the hotel got built adjacent to Sheikh Zayed Road, and when it was all done I’m sure as with the rest of Dubai, we were all a little curious – how is it like?

In true liloneoftheashes style, I rang them up a month ago to ask them what restaurants they have, and if they have any promotions, if they were or going to be having deals with the Entertainer or similar.  The response was negative. Ah well, let’s give it a few more weeks 🙂

Just last week,our dear friend was having a birthday get-together and out came my app, and behold, look who’s having a deal for brunch? None other than Brasserie Quartier in St Regis. Happy days. Here’s our thoughts on the brunch, from step one to ten 🙂

Reservations

What a mission this was. There are a million reasons why this was so bad, it could be that the hotel is new so they don’t know how to deal with reservations of a large group, maybe they weren’t sure how many people the restaurant could sit, maybe they didn’t want to attend to those who were going to use the Entertainer vouchers, we don’t really know. After numerous emails over a day, we were only told right at the end that they could not accomodate us. The birthday girl decided to contact them separately and was told otherwise, that they will need to speak to the manager. Every request came back with us ‘We’ll need to speak to the manager to confirm.” Soon after she was told they could accomodate her table, and then I was then contacted to say that the outlet would be accomodate my table as well. We were terribly frustrated with the waste of time but was very happy that we finally found a spot! 🙂 So the anticipation began, with high hopes for a fairly expensive brunch at the St Regis.

Tip : Would suggest you call them early to book, and be extremely patient as they would probably not be able to confirm your reservation straight away.

Getting there 

With a lot of new hotels, you tend to get a little bit lost getting there. We thought it’ll be the same with St Regis with all the roadworks going on but surprisingly Googlemaps knew where to take us! So use it, and trust it. If you’re coming from our end of town (the marina), you’ll end up going through a bit of a dirt road/construction zone to get there. Do not fret, you’re on the right way.

Tip : Use the GPS on Googlemaps!

First impressions

Old-school grandeur, as you would expect from a St Regis hotel. I remember the first time we walked into the St Regis in Saadiyat (click here for our stay there). It does not have that sorta same feel, it being positioned in Downtown with lots of construction all around but driving through the long entranceway , to walking into the lobby, you can’t help but be wow-ed all over again 🙂

The place

Brasserie Quartier is situated on the 1st floor of the hotel. You’ll be served with a welcome drink of bubbly or non-alcoholic equivalent as you enter, and the entrance is, beautiful. It’s somewhere you would want to take a date to, or your mum and dad, or like us, a group of friends. Civilised though. You wear a nice dress with heels, the men will get fairly neat and dressed up, and no you won’t get drunk people falling on the floor. It’s classy, so please keep it that way 😉

The food – starters

A french buffet, starters are served-to-table, and you get the likes of snail fritters (tasty, didn’t feel like you were eating a slimy creature 😉 ), cheese gougeres ( light, fluffy cheese buns), and pissaladiere (french pizza with caramelised onions, olives, garlic and anchovies).

Maybe we don’t have a taste for good French food but none of the above were all that super, none of those ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ moments. Just alright. 

You  could wander around and help yourself with the fresh seafood of prawns, lobsters, crabs, oysters….. bread, cheeses and salads on display….., not to mentioned foie gras… or,

you could be a little patient and wait at your table for them to serve you this 🙂 :

Gotta say the lobster was so sweet, and they’ve already cut it for you so you can pick each piece from the shells and eat them whilst keeping your hands clean, and makeup on your face i.e not looking like a monster.

The food – mains

Similar with The Hide which we were at just two weeks ago, mains are ala carte style. Prior to this, you will be served a table full of salads and green to share.

Unfortunately for us, the mains came really slow and we were left for awhile with the greens, and our anticipation for the mains started to wear away.

After a few requests to check on our food, the main deal came out 🙂 As I am obviously expecting, I had asked for my lamb to be well done but I figured with all the delay and all, they had forgotten to pass this on to the chef. I couldn’t be bothered sending the food back so I braved and had it as it is. Delicious I’ll say 🙂

G’s monkfish came rare. It was sent back to the kitchen and then returned. It was again, alright – I kept him full by passing him most of my lamb (not that there was much to share around). What I did love was the gratin dauphinois  (according to wiki, a traditional regional French dish based on potatoes and crème fraîche, from the historic Dauphiné region in south-east France) 🙂 Gotta learn to make this at home!

The food – desserts

Gotta say the dessert display is pretty, very pretty. And you’ll be taking lots of photos with that cute frock of yours. It’s not too much and you’ll be a bit shy to even cut the cake on display yourself so you’ll ask the lady behind the counter to do it for you 🙂 I tried a bit of the cheesecake (it’s a mousse cheesecake, not the baked type), and rainbow cake (looked so cute, the kids would like it, but tasted very dry). The caramel ice cream was delicious though 🙂

Would be nice if they had a bit more fruit to wash off all the heavy food for the afternoon. Maybe next time 🙂

The drinks

We opted for the non-alcoholic package and stuck to lychee raspberry soda and virgin mojitos for the afternoon. The menu will change but you could also get gingle ale and lemon lavender sodas. Most of the troupe went proper brunch style with alcoholic drinks. You get specialty cocktails for the ladies, bottled beers like Stella Artois and Becks, and Hoeegarden on draught. Of course you’ll get wine. Ah, next time 🙂

The service 

The smiles, the welcomes, it’s all there. The bill came out right with the Entertainer which I was fairly impressed, it being a new outlet. The only wee bit of a letdown was the mains which came out a little too late. Other than that, all good 🙂

The damage

On the pricier side as brunches go in Dubai, with 450 AED for non-alcoholic package, 550 AED for the standard drinks package of wines, beer and bubbly and you can go all with Bollingers for 650AED. By far the priciest brunch we’ve been to in Dubai (note that liloneoftheashes tends to stay on the ‘good deal’ side of Dubai) – thank goodness for 241s 🙂

Overall

If you’re one of those out and about to try all the new brunches in Dubai, go for it, especially this month with the deal 😉 We expected a bit more, I guess we were comparing it to The Hide which we were at just two weeks ago. To give it 5-star, it needs to tick all boxes, and that’s not just the food and service but from the very start of when we make a reservation. If you’re a fan of french fare, you like your french wine and fresh seafood, set in a classy restaurant, go for it 🙂

• Brunch at The Manor
• 450AED (241 till end of March 2016 with the Ent)
• 550AED for standard alcoholic, 650 AED for Bollinger (241….)
• Email : SRDubai.Dining@stregis.com
• Website : http://www.bqdubai.com/

Disclaimer : This is not a sponsored post. We paid for our brunch, all thoughts are honest as always.