Despite promising to venture out, I once again stayed at the Park Hyatt Dubai during my recent business trip. That turned out to be an excellent choice.
I didn’t have a great stay at the Park Hyatt Dubai last time around…relatively speaking of course. In writing my review, I said:
I want to underscore that this is a very solid property with spacious rooms and nice amenities. At the same time, the breakfast was sufficiently disappointing to me that I will try either the Grand Hyatt or one of the Hyatt Regency properties next time I am in Dubai.
Put simply, I found both the quality and service at breakfast to be poor. Since I love an extended breakfast to start my day, this was a deal-breaker for me.
But I wasn’t traveling alone…my business partner was with me. And I’ve trained him well to recognize that the Park Hyatt logo usually represents superb quality. Despite my expressed desire to try another Hyatt property, he insisted upon the Park Hyatt (I suppose I should be thankful he did not insist upon the Burj al Arab…). Fine…at least I knew what I was getting into and the rates were exceptionally cheap ($130/night) thanks to the scorching heat and Ramadan.
As is turns out, the choice to return to the Park Hyatt Dubai was an excellent one.
Breakfast, once at Cafe Arabesque, is now at Basserie du Park, French-themed restaurant. And although its largely the same as before in terms of buffet selection, I found the food much tastier this time and service far better. I’ll dedicate a separate post to the breakfast here, because I want to focus on something that impressed me even more.
John and I love a Jordanian dish called mansaf (I’ve written about it before). We asked the hotel where we could get some and the concierge called many restaurants in the area. And while many had mansaf on the menu, every restaurant said the same thing: we are serving special Ifthar (post-sunset) and Suhūr (pre-dawn) menus during Ramadan and mansaf is not available.
So the hotel chef offered to make it for us…
We were sitting on the terrace enjoying some kanafeh when the chef approached us. He introduced himself and offered to make us mansaf whenever and wherever we wanted it.
How’s that for service? We had it delivered to our suite for lunch the following day and it arrived on a huge plates:
It was delicious. So delicious. And I so appreciated that the hotel would go the extra mile without us even asking.
CONCLUSION
The Park Hyatt Dubai has made a skeptic a fan. My last stay was so superb that I now look forward to returning…even in the heat of summer.
> Review: Park Hyatt Dubai (Suite)
That’s amazing. Being a mansaf lover myself, I can tell he did a great job. Reminds me of my time living in a a Movenpick hotel for 3 months, I was craving home food and the chef made some very nice Mulukhiyah for me. It was amazing and a much needed break to restaurant food. Lesson Learned: Just Ask 🙂
If you do not mind me asking how much did they charge for a “custom” dish?
About $38, which is expensive but it was enough for several people. I only ate half.
I’ve married into a Palestinian family and Mensaf is a delicacy for us as well. My father-in-law spends anywhere from 4-6hrs in total preparing the dish so even double kudos as this isn’t just easily put together!
Stayed there for four nights in January; the service/selection at breakfast was outstanding. One of the best PH breakfasts we’ve ever had.
Why don’t you like to Burj Al-Arab? It’s on my wish list.
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Are you going to review your suite from this stay or is it the same suite as last time? I was just there last month and had a wonderful stay too.
Same suite.
It really is a nice hotel. While they don’t mention it at check-in, as a Globalist I was not charged for any of my mini-bar choices. I’ve read that other Globalists have had the same experience.