Day 2 is nearly over, and the day is passing quicker than I thought it would. My body is still confused about the new eating and drinking hours, but I can feel it slowly adjusting. I've been following the tips I shared in my previous post (Hacking Ramadan), and so far, no problems with both the hunger nor the thirst.
Now let's get to the reason why you've landed yourself here. It's the weekend, and it's Ramadan, and you might be wondering where you want to go. As promised, I will be sharing with you feedback on the various outlets that my friends and I will be visiting during the month; so hopefully we can recommend good spots, and spare you the agony of those that are...uhm...not so good.
First up: The Majlis Ramadan Tent at the Dubai World Trade Center (not to be confused with other venues that may also have the name Majlis)
Positives:
The prices at The Majlis are probably one of it's best feature. Most of the F&B options available hover around the AED 25 mark (give or take). Shisha is offered at AED 50 each.
There is also an interesting variety offered in the menu. Though we didn't get to try them, look out for the very interesting options under desserts (eg. ice cream taco, kenafe sundae, etc). The Majlis is also offering Vimto mocktails (smart).
Though the place will most likely be fully booked, should you show up at around 9.30pm without a reservation, there's a big chance that you may get a table at around 10-10.15pm as the management releases any unoccupied tables by then.
What I didn't like:
Though The Majlis can potentially be one of the best Ramadan venues in town, I'm afraid that its areas of improvements currently outnumber its positives. Here's the experience we faced:
After waiting 15-20mins in the queue (which by the way is not well defined), and it was my turn to give in the confirmation number, the lady who was attending at the counter told me that she'll be back in a moment and I never saw her again. When another lady decided to step up, she attended to this guy who just came in from the side to ask if he can add his name on the waiting list, ignoring everyone else waiting to be served. I actually had to point out to her that there is a queue of people waiting for her to realize that people were getting frustrated.
Inside, the service was extremely slow at times. A friend of mine ordered his food at around midnight only to be told after an hour, and after the involvement of 3 managers, that the kitchen will still need 15 more minutes as apparently they accidentally gave away the order to another table. Bear in mind that what he ordered was plain hummous, cheese saj, and cheese pastries. I must say that we all admired the good spirit the waiter was in as for some reason, he thought it was funny and he kept smiling and laughing about it.
For the rest of us who did get their orders within reasonable time, the overall consensus was that the quality of the dishes served were not soo great. I mean the taste wasn't bad, but it wasn't something to crave for after you're done eating it. The Um Ali was probably my favorite dish among everything I ordered, and even that looked like a bowl of cereals.
Customer service was also somewhat poor. Grabbing the attention of the waiters, most of the times, required dramatic waiving of the hands. The managers were not any better; if you'd complain to them about missing orders, nothing would happen whatsoever...and they were never apologetic, not once, about it. Also, the shisha guy at one point, threw the pipe on the floor and left after he was done adjusting the coal.
For nearby parking, you have 2 options. Either park yourself at the parking building nearby, which surcharges you AED 10 per hour; or drop off your car at the valet for a flat fee of AED 50.
The sofa area we had managed to reserve for 6 people required a minimum spend of AED 600. Though I don't really think it was imposed, we definitely crossed that mark but only because we forced ourselves to over order when at times we were not that hungry given how late we have Iftar.
Verdict:
I do get that it was the first day, and any F&B operation would normally need a few days to adjust its quality offered and services, but I sincerely doubt that The Majlis will be my personal first choice (or even second or third) when it comes to venue selection. I'd probably return only if we decided to go out and didn't have alternative venues to go to. Out of 10, I would probably give it an overall rating of 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment