The Yas Island Hotel is something of an icon in Abu Dhabi – an organic shaped building smack in the middle of the Formula One circuit. When you buy a ticket to the race, you really get the privilege of watching the über rich watch little noisy helmets on wheels run around the track, from the hotel grounds or from their mega yachts…
We’ll digress on the run to riches and appearance in the Gulf another day. Let’s just say that the other 51 weeks of the year, the hotel needs to find a way to exist: it’s at least 40 minutes away from the city, and Clapton and Guns n’ Roses can’t be there every weekend.
In an effort to bring clients, Yas Hotel has been running ad campaigns on the radio, two day packages with dinner and a “bottle of grape” – that’s wine in local radio speak. Since we live about 20 minutes away from Yas, we thought we’d give the night a miss, but go test the brunch.
Yas, in a welcome twist to tradition, offers brunch both on Fridays and Saturdays …so we even managed to go and test it kids free for once …
How it looks
Memo to the designers of the Louvre Abu Dhabi:
- white plastic sloping expanses - look good on the set of “2001 A Space Odyssey”
- adding holes so it looks like chicken fence and multi colored led lights – very nice night pictures.
- try and do this in a real live in hotel: not so hot.
After the initial shock of walking in the lobby, it took me a while to understand why i felt so uncomfortable. It’s way less gaudy than the Emirates Palace, it ticks all the right “modernist” boxes i tend to like. But the sum total of it all spells airport or train station. A place to move, not a place to stay.
Hotels are supposed to be “a home away from home”. And even if you don’t stay the night, you want to feel welcomed for lunch or dinner. At Yas, everything looks like it’s an ultra classy airport lounge, where you have to be until your flight leaves, rather than a restaurant you want to be in for food.
Yas design and construction have probably cost a lot of money, but it still looks like a Charles de Gaulle speed diner.
How it tastes
The Brunch culture is one of the staples of expat life in the Gulf. A good way to spend a few hours on a day off, surrounded by food and people from home, comfort food for body and soul.
The region’s tendency to bling has taken its toll, of course, and some hotels offer spreads that are obscenely gargantuan. My favorite trick for first time visitors is to bring them to the Shangri-La’s brunch and watch their eyes when they come back from a first trip to the buffet. “…there’s caviar. And lobster …”
I’m not necessarily a fan of these over the top affairs: usually (the Shang’ being an exception) quality and quantity run in opposite directions.
So the very small buffet spread at Yas’s Origins was actually not a deal breaker. While the design is still obnoxious “shiny white plastic is the future”, the dining room overlooks the track, and some guy was actually conducting trials on the tracks in a black Formula 1 car.
But “luxury icon” and “we may be sitting were Richard Branson had breakfast on the day of the race” are no substitute for “present well chosen quality food to your guests“.
Having spent an inordinate amount of time in Saudi Arabia, I never thought I would ever say this: I liked the Riyadh Holiday Inn buffet better. Yes my expectations were lower. But it was cheaper. And it didn’t pretend to be what it wasn’t.
The shrimp: over boiled and mushy in their shell. The salmon: too thick and plasticky. The salads … alright, but it’s really hard to mess up a salad buffet. The breads were great (yes, the Frenchman liked the baguette, hooray). I have the same cheeses in my fridge, thank you Carrefour.
But the real clincher was the hot food station. From “I’d like duck. No, that’s lamb. I’d like breast meat. No, that’s a leg” to “No we don’t have any noodles to go with this Thai Curry. We don’t have plain rice either.” it was a comedy of errors, and a disaster in the plate.The duck managed to be at the same time overcooked inside and undercooked outside. The Thai curry tasted like it was straight out of a can.
I’ll be charitable and not mention the dessert buffet.
The Bill
Oh well, brunches are expensive occasions. We had the non alcoholic option, which did bring down the price. And as these things go, this was not the most expensive in AD. Value for money is another story. The location is trying too hard, and the food not hard enough …
If you have the appetite (and the wallet) for a brunch, I can’t say enough good things about the Shangri La’s Sofra Bld. And if you have any kid friendly options in mind, please leave a note!
Airport lounge feeling & bad food …. yes you said it all…. too bad
I was going there thinking having a special experience but as soon as I entered the lobby, I just thought : “How can somebody spend so many millions of dirhams and have such a really bad taste result ??? “
From my Petitfuté Abudhabi Travelguide&app 2011:
“Emmailloté de diodes électroluminescentes et d’une ondulante coiffe verre-métal autrichienne, paraissant un caméléon numérique endormi sur la piste, le Yas nous sidère. On dirait qu’il vit, et chaque variation chromatique semble être une profonde respiration métabolique. Sous la mantille de 5000 luminophores, propice à la lecture obligatoire de Wallpaper, c’est un village inattendu de cinq cents chambres, une dizaine de points de restauration, deux piscines et un spa princier, le tout signé Asymptote, le cabinet de l’Egyptien Hani Rashid et de la Canadienne Lise-Anne Couture ; lesquels, auteurs notamment du Guggenheim Virtual Museum, revendiquent une architecture de la fluidité cognitive et de « l’ambivalence mémorielle » chère à Derrida. A l’intérieur, les décorateurs Jestico&Whiles, disciples probables du divin Courrèges, ont brillamment relevé le défi consistant à donner une personnalité à cette surnaturelle ou métaphorique méduse : ils ont mis du blanc partout, un blanc légèrement quartzé, orchestrant l’affaire en puits de lumière, surgissements vernissés, nébuleuse de la fratrie Bouroullec et transparences. Enivrante sensation d’être embarqué 1/ dans un vaisseau spatial en route vers Bételgeuse 2/ sur le yacht furtif d’un invisible gourou. Monsieur destresse sous le casque anti-jetlag, Madame frissonne dans la capsule-lit à Led, on goûte un plat émirien sur la belle terrasse de l’Atayeb, les vrombissements annuels du GP de F1 étant remplacés, à haute fréquence, par les avions au décollage de l’aéroport international. En guise d’after top, hésitons entre le lounge extérieur juste sous les diodes et le club vitré enjambant le circuit, deux comptoirs pilotés par les parisiens de George-V Eatertainment, les gars du Buddha Bar. Côté chambres (insonorisées), design à l’unisson en camaïeu perle et blanc, voile de verre, épure du confort zénital : préférer la vue Marina plutôt que celle du Media Center. Pour les tarifs, évidemment, tout est multiplié lors des courses et des événements sportifs. A surveiller quand même, les formules tout-compris pendant les concerts des vedettes de la pop…”