No where in the world does food like Dubai, I swear. Ok, I have heard amazing things about Vegas too, but haven’t been so Dubai wins!

As a foodie, I love to go to brunches and buffets so that I can try a little of everything. This tells me whether their restaurants are worth coming back to for a proper meal. As a non-drinker at the moment, it is also fairly entertaining people watching!!

I have done two recently, and here are my thoughts and recommendations:

Fazaris, The Address Downtown
Sushi Night (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – I think?)

Wow, wow and wow! Hugely worth it! The only reason I wouldn’t go back is that I ate so much I needed to wear baggy clothes this morning as I was still full!

Honestly, some of the best sushi in Dubai. It’s made to order so nothing is sat around getting yuckie. There is a nice selection that isn’t too overwhelming. I will say though that they appear to have taken off the temaki roll/cone things which is disappointing as they were my favourites! But everything else is spot on.

We asked for the chef’s selection and then topped up with bits we really liked. It was all so good. I tried a few things I haven’t before and had the favourites as normal. There is just nothing to fault.

Highlights were the edemame and the crab salad open roll thing. I don’t know how they can make the edemame so good, but it is seriously the best I have had in Dubai.

Conclusion: 9/10 – lost point is because I have to bring my own soy sauce each time! I cannot wait to go back again though. Totally worth it!!

Nineteen, The Address Montgomerie
Roast Dinner Brunch, Saturdays

I have been here several times as I love the setting and the food generally is quite good. The first time I went it was all absolutely amazing. The food, the presentation, the staffing. I keep going back and hoping for it to be that good again. Sadly, they never quite hit the mark.

The taste of the meat is variable. It is of course standard that the flavour of meat varies, but this goes beyond that. This week, sadly, the beef was utterly flavourless, as was the salmon. The lamb was tough and chewy. The chicken was lovely though. Not only that, the slices of beef were only just thicker than a piece of bacon. We also asked for more as we had the smallest serving I have had since going there. Hugely disappointing.

Also disappointing is that they run out of seafood on the starter section every time we go there. As we don’t go for a major “session” style brunch, we invariably are there slightly later, by which point everyone else has pretty much cleaned up!

This week I amazed myself at remembering to bring my gluten free soy sauce with me (despite asking them to perhaps have some on hand for other gluten free types, they never have), but I was hugely disappointed with the most pitiful looking sushi I have seen in a very long time. Not only did it disintegrate when it was picked up, if you finally managed to get some to be able to eat (I got 3 pieces!), then it was super dry and quite revolting.

Just to prove I don’t just moan, they have recently expanded their pork section. The ribs (very little meat on the bone but lovely flavour sauce) and the sausages (very nice flavour), are now accompanied by pork belly (divine!), some pork thing that I couldn’t figure out what it was, and randomly, American style bacon. I don’t know what you are meant to have the bacon with, but since I can eat it with absolutely anything, it works!!

Another shout out goes to the roasted and steamed veggies. They are always really well done. And the dim sum – if it isn’t nuclear level hot which it has been in the past and literally taken a layer of skin off the roof of my mouth!

Staffing is generally poor. We were largely ignored this week so it reached an all-time low. When we wanted even our water topped up, we had to venture inside to find someone ourselves, as the water wasn’t left by the table.

Conclusion: 5/10 overall. Shame, because that first meal was literally 10/10 and I really hope they manage to pull their socks up before I bring my mother there in a few weeks time!!