Al Hadheerah – Desert restaurant – Bab Al Shams – Meydan Hotels

This is my second buffet mentioned on my blog. One good part about writing buffet is that I don’t need to spend that extra time finding and writing pricing on individual items since it’s pay and eat all you can . But then the downside is there are too many items that I need to show you.

Hadeerah restaurant is more about the experience u get with your dinner. Its the journey to the desert, the unique ambience of the desert, the stage program using camels, horses and goats. Thundering private fireworks just for you. Horse/Camel riding and henna painting. A good collection of meat to choose and eat.

Your buffet is also inclusive of free camel rides, horse rides, henna painting. If you’ve not visited the burdubai museum then need not worry. They have a similar heritage setup here as well so u get an understanding about the national traditions. At the end u speak more about the experience than the food to your friends.

The drive to Bab Al Shams in the desert is very special. It’s just you, your car and sign boards that say beware of animals(such as camels, deers crossing the road). Very lonely and infact after a while you get a little scared of might come out of the trees. No buildings and no humans on your way. Probably this is the road when your girlfriend will hold on to you tight!

At the entrance of Hadheerah restaurant you are invited by lantern, horsemen and stretch of shops where you can buy souvenirs for you to remember. The first place I got stuck was at the sand art shop. He was trying to convince me to buy his sand art. He could have my name written in a bottle using only sand for 100 Dhs. So in this photo he demonstrates his skill by drawing a camel using sand.

Once you reach at the door of Hadheerah you are guided and taken to your seat. Ofcourse you get to choose your seat. But right at the entrance starts the grand buffet as well so you start looking at the food than your seat. So above is the first scene of my sight when i entered Hadheerah. It’s the rotating fat chicken.

You are seated facing the stage. The stage program goes in this order: singing, dancing, stage show and then comes late, the erotic belly dancer :p.

My drinks were a combination of mocktails and a mango mint lassi. It was a new type of Lassi so I thought i’d order and see. It was a pretty looking lassi but I enjoyed the mocktails more.

I was very careful when I was choosing the appetizers. I wanted to ensure there was enough space for the meats at Hadheerah.

One good part about their buffet is everything is made fresh. Say if you wanted any of the meat then you would choose the piece and qty you like and then they grill in front of you while you anxiously wait seeing your meat sizzle on that grill. They had a big variety of grilled meat to offer too. So one of the best part of eating at Hadheera for me was I could see my food getting cooked right in front of me. I guess this is one of the advantages having buffet in open space. You can enjoy LIVE barbeque.

One tip I can give you is among this grill, fish takes the most time to get ready. If you plan to have fish then i’d recommend you to go to the fish section first so while your fish gets ready you can go around other tables and start collecting. For a well done fish it should take atleast 10 mins minimum. It’s good you don’t hurry else you will get half cooked fish :p They have different types of fish as well like hammour, red snapper, sea bass etc. I ate the red snapper. I had only one issue with this fish, there were too many thorns interrupting me :(. So you need to be a little careful when you eat red snapper.

I ate less rice too but ensured i tried the meat in the rice. I very much enjoyed the Ouzi. I had to skip the shawarma, I was running out of space already.

Pricing for buffet at Hadheerah restaurant:

Friday
Buffet rate will be AED 495 per person (inc. of water, soft drinks and Arabic coffee)

Saturday to Thursday
Buffet rate will be AED 425 per person (inc. of water, soft drinks and Arabic coffee)

Children from 5 to 12 years will get a 50% discount.
Children under 4 years dine with our compliments.

website: http://www.meydanhotels.com/babalshams/dining.htm

Honestly in the desserts nothing enticed me well enough until i tried this combination of mahalabia and their fresh ice creams. I must admit their ice creams were really nice. I really enjoyed the chocolate ice cream. I normally don’t have ice creams at this time but since my son wanted one I just tried from his plate and wow it was lovely. So i combined mine with mahalabia and it was fun eating.

Don’t forget to try their camel riding, horse riding, Henna painting and stroll through their heritage village. Also make sure you get a good camera 😉 Birds are not that light as you think they are, you should try holding this falcon in their restaurant.

Click on a photo below to enjoy them in full screen view.