That’s right peeps!  There is a brunch that has Veuve Clicquot!!!!!!

Look…..

I kind of don’t want to write this because then you’ll all know about it and it will get super popular.  If that happens, I won’t be able to get a table as often as I would like to!  I have a feeling I may become a regular!

Ballaro at the Conrad is officially my new favourite!!

It’s thankfully not a party brunch (although the live band and the DJ are very good), and it’s not a “family” brunch.  It’s just a nice brunch!  There is a range of people attending from large groups celebrating birthdays, to families, to couples and to smaller groups of friends who are just having a good gossip!  

The one thing everyone had in common is that they were polite.  There was no attitude.  No one drunkenly falling off their knock off Louboutin’s, or spilling out of their neon polyester dresses.  No one shouting and screeching across tables.  Literally, everyone I made eye contact with smiled and people were even having nice conversations with people they didn’t know over the food selections.  It was such a refreshing experience and I really, really hope it stays that way!

Leaving my critique of the usual brunch suspects behind us now, and getting back to my topic…

There are three packages: soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, and then the premium package which includes those beautiful yellow bubbles!  I don’t know the prices of the other two, but the premium is AED 495.  Compared to the prices of the other brunches in town, this is a bargain!  Under AED 500 and with a decent sparkling offering!

I really don’t have one bad word to say about the whole experience.

The staff were a delight…. shout out to Don our waiter, who I will be requesting every time going forward and recommend you do to!

Literally everyone we spoke to – from the nice lady who took us to our table to the chefs who had to deal with my usual volley of allergy questions, were kind and friendly.  They had the knowledge of their products and services, and they were more than willing to do anything they could to enhance our experience.

Food selection was more than adequate.  Not as huge as most places, but I actually prefer it this way.  They make sure that each and every offering is cooked properly.  They regularly changed the food in the bain marie type things so that nothing became dried out.  It’s little things like this that are so often overlooked.

I would like to make a special mention to the carvery section: The VERY large side of beef was absolute medium-rare perfection.  The lamb wasn’t dried out, nor was the chicken.  The vegetables were fresh and crisp, as were the roast potatoes.  It’s hugely rare to get all of that right!

There was a fresh “bbq” station where you could pick your meat or seafood to be cooked for you.  Sadly, I didn’t have room for this as I made the beginner error of hitting up the roast beef first!

Oh, and they had a pork and cheese selection that I could happily have eaten my way through single hand-idly!

As you may or may not know, I have an ongoing battle with a serious sugar addiction.  I try to avoid sugar as much as possible because I literally have no cut off for it at all.  Why eat one chocolate when you can eat the whole box, right!?  So at brunches I generally avoid the dessert section so as to avoid temptation.

There is however a major flaw in my defences… chocolate fountains.  I can look at a chocolate fountain and work out whether or not its going to be good by how easily the chocolate is flowing.  This one, the chocolate was solidifying around the edges.  For those of you who aren’t as obsessive as me, when it solidifies at the edges, then that means it’s the good stuff!  It’s really heavy in chocolate.  That means it’s totally worth the next 72hrs of sugar detox!  I also figured that champers has enough sugar in to fell an elephant so I may as well really go for it and suffer the headaches having well and truly deserved them!

So I went for it.  Marshmallows in chocolate sauce.  Then had to add a chocolate mouse creation.  And a little ice cream with caramel sauce.  And a random little meringue.  Oops.

Yes, you are seeing correctly… there was a dark AND a white chocolate fountain!  I was too mesmerised to take a photo of it though!!

Absolute 10/10 from me.  And the girls I was with are in total agreement!

Cheers!