Staycation review: Brunch and Stay at Rosewood Abu Dhabi

There can’t be a more perfect speedy getaway…

When summer comes around, we all scramble to leave the country, jet away to cooler destinations where the sun is more forgiving and the temperatures are, well, temperate. A vacation is a luxury and while the majority are preparing their out-of-office messages, Rosewood Abu Dhabi is offering a different kind of escape for those of us who won’t be seeing the blessed gates of Terminal 3 this season.

Enter: The Rosewood Abu Dhabi Brunch and Stay. Brunch and Stays are not a novelty but they’re not terribly popular either, which is why Rosewood’s take on the concept is still a refreshing variation to the typical one-night stay one might opt for to switch up their weekend.

The package includes a choice of brunch from the renowned Garden Brunch, Yum Cha Brunch, or the ROAST Brunch, an overnight stay and 20 per cent off hotel F&B and 20 per cent off the spa services. All this at Dhs750, with an option to upgrade to the house package from the soft drinks package for Dhs125. Now that is a solid summer deal.

The brunch

We were given quite the delicious preview of the soon-to-be-launched Wok – Hei brunch at Dai Pai Dong, the resident Asian eatery. The standalone brunch starts at Dhs318 for the soft package and is available from 12pm to 4pm on Saturdays. A first look at the menu sheet in front of us tells us there’s going to be a lot of food. This is a lavish curation and one must sit back and relax as the courses come through.

We start with a dim sum set – three varieties of mar gow, fish and abalone siu mai. Each pocket is hot, steamy and filled with ingredients so fresh, you won’t even smell the seafood. Next come the soups – crab meat sweet corn and wild mushroom. While the mushroom is light and flavourful, the crab is rich and creamy, so you take your pick.

The seafood salad is a bit of a palate cleanser, which is great as we are served the next starter – deep fried wagyu beef cheek. This is a personal favourite, perfectly sweet, spicy and crispy and packed with deep umami.

Next come the BBQ platter and the Cantonese roasted duck, both of which are great, but seem like cousins of the beef cheek in terms of flavour profile. We get one choice of mains, and we choose the wok-fried Angus beef striploin. It’s a good beef dish, the meat hearty and chewy but it’s elevated paired with the rice and noodle options – chicken and garlic fried rice, which we love for the bite and the subtlety, and seafood and mushroom e fu noodles, which were a welcome change of texture and palate.

We end our brunch positively stuffed and happy, with a collection of desserts, of which the raspberry sorbet and the egg custard tart are the winners.

The stay

We are given the Executive Room, a spacious yet cosy space with a grand bathroom and a wall of windows typical to urban hotels. Warm and inviting, the setting and the amenities reflect the attention to detail, down to three different types of postcards and a brand new, packed pencil eraser.

After your long brunch, you can head back to your room and relax. Or you can choose to explore The Galleria Al Maryah Island, to which there is a direct connection through the hotel. It’s a shopper’s heaven, with an exclusive section for high-end brands besides the larger mall. You can dine at any of the hotel’s restaurants with a 20 per cent discount and then go on a shopping spree to end the night. We did the shopping bit before and then had dinner at Aqua, where we sampled a simple, heartwarming pizza diavola and gnocchi – perfect for when you’ve had an elaborate meal earlier. A hot bath, a Netflix movie and then it’s lights out.

Brunch and Stay, Rosewood Abu Dhabi, Al Maryah Island, from Dhs750, Tel: (0) 2 813 5550. @rosewoodabudhabi

Images: Supplied