Dunes cafe – Shangri-La Dubai – Iftar buffet – Dhs 165

EID Mubarak to ALL! Finally I am here writing about my last Iftar buffet for ramadan 2014. Sorry for being late but this happened on the last day of ramadan.The last time I was here was at their Friday brunch which was impressive so I was quite confident about being satisfied for their Iftar buffet. It was mainly middle eastern specialties starting from traditional beverages, hot and cold mezzeh, maincourse and all the way to the desserts. Iftar buffet happens at their ground floor in Dunes cafe. I love the ambiance and never had to be waiting in the line for their buffet.

They had around 5-6 ramdan beverages like qamaradeen, laban, jallab..etc Ofcourse I went for their Jallab and it tasted authentic. Every table had nice big dates ready. You could also find expensive dates such as Ajwa in their dessert section. Right after dates I went after their cheese fatayers. They felt just out of the oven and the cheese inside it was even better. The next very interesting item where their mini cut shawarmas which again was superb. Another specialty that I enjoyed was their kibbeh with yoghurt sauce. They also had a bun filled with meat and egg. In a buffet sometimes you need to strategize as there is ample to eat and you can only fill yourself to a certain extent.

There salad bar was awesome. This is one of those buffets where I had more salad. Whatever they had on the counter tasted great and was of great quality. Muhamara(ingredients mainly being fresh or dried peppers, ground walnuts, breadcrumbs, and olive oil) was one of my favourites here and I made the most of it 🙂 Items like Makdus(tangy eggplants stuffed with walnuts, red pepper, garlic, olive oil and salt) which I normally don’t enjoy else where was very appealing to me here.

Some of the highlights for their maincourse would be their grills, lamb dishes such as Ouzi, cauliflower Maqlooba. They did have a few indian curry and rice on the side which didn’t look appealing at all. Their middle eastern cuisines ran the show which was good enough. They had two types of chicken dish as well. Overall they’ve got a good collection to satisfy your cravings.

Ah yes, the desserts were a great site at Shangri-La. You see it right at the entrance of Dune’s cafe. Infact that’s the first place you stare for a while before you start visiting other stalls. For some reason the cheese kunafa and katayef were placed in a different space. I doubt if everyone noticed them on that side. I have a mixed reaction for their cheese kunafa. It looked very impressive but after having it I’d say the top part was done right but the bottom part of the cheese kunafa could have been better. So I ended up just scraping the top side of the cheese kunafa 🙁

I always enjoyed their baklavas. It’s one of the best you can find in a buffet. One thing I’d like to highlight here is that not all desserts remained for long. The desserts I saw earlier was not available later and some other desserts came in it’s place. So there is no assurance that you will find the same if you came back later. Besides the baklavas, their eclairs, tarts and chocolate cake were some of my favourites in this department.

Iftar buffet at Shangri-La has been a satisfying one. Waiters were quick on their toes and willing to help you with whatever you need. You can also read about Shangri-la Friday brunch here.

You can know more about Dune’s cafe at Shangri-La here

Click below to view pictures in full screen view.