Exceptional hotel. Exceeded expectations although our afternoon tea experience was not great. Otherwise, amazing!
Jul 7, 2025 Justin O
Overall we had a terrific stay and loved the hotel. The food was excellent quality (with the exception of the afternoon tea which I will touch on later) - the breakfast and dinner buffet offered a variety of food and was very high quality food.
Such amazing rooms and the bed was really comfortable.
Although the hotel was busy at times, it felt…
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Overall we had a terrific stay and loved the hotel. The food was excellent quality (with the exception of the afternoon tea which I will touch on later) - the breakfast and dinner buffet offered a variety of food and was very high quality food.
Such amazing rooms and the bed was really comfortable.
Although the hotel was busy at times, it felt intimate and special. Great balance of class and luxury and offered something quite unique compared to other options on the Palm, I think.
The staff were amazing throughout the hotel. Polite, helpful, attentive, respectful. Staff remembered your name and made sure you felt special.
Special mention to Hussain, Shehan and all of the valet crew - they did an exceptional job and took great care with the cars and made you feel at home everytime you returned to the hotel.
Housekeeping came twice a day and the room was stocked very well with lots of items that you might need. The room was in great condition apart from the dimmer switch for the main light, which I reported twice, but didn’t get fixed (minor thing).
The grounds were stunning and well kept. The gym was really well maintained and offered good levels of equipment.
Although the Jazz bar closed which we were sad about, there was a new lounge bar called “Chayka” that opened inside the hotel. My wife and I went one evening and had a great time; there were special James Bond themed performances which were very well done. The hotel could do a better job at promoting Chayka and making guests aware of their existence (I had to ask if the Jazz bar was still closed) and schedule, although I understand they are two separate entities.
My only criticism of the week was the afternoon tea. To be frank, we thought that the quality was average (at best) and didn’t live up to the quality of the Raffles Brand. Firstly, we had to wait nearly an hour for the afternoon tea to come. The waitress told us subsequently to me complaining that it takes 25-30 minutes to come, but could have set expectations prior, even still, we waited far too long considering the scones were not warm and the cakes were not particularly fresh in my opinion. My wife is gluten free (we booked the day before) and we were expecting that they’d have baked some gluten free scones - although they gave packet scones which were what you could get at a supermarket. The gluten free cake section was also poor and lack luster. This is in comparison to other afternoon tea experiences at hotels we’ve had over the years. As an example, Raffles in London baked specific gluten free scones and replicated the gluten cakes with gluten free alternatives to their best of their ability, so we were disappointed that this afternoon tea did not really meet the same level. Generally we found the food service at the hall to be very slow, a lunch one day taking 45 minutes to come for 2 salads.
I also thought it was very poor that no replacement pianist had been booked. We were expecting a piano player to be playing, as advertised on the website, menus etc… although I asked the waitress where the piano player was and I was told they have been away for a month. I was quite shocked that with a brand as respected and high quality as raffles would have not thought to book another Piano player, especially if you know that they wouldn’t be around for over a month. Is there no one else in Dubai that can play piano to a good standard? Had no one thought to book a replacement? Granted if the individual had called in sick then it is understandable a replacement might not be able to be sourced, but to not book any kind of replacement knowing that the pianist would be on annual leave for over a month, was really poor in my opinion.
The concierge team did a great job during the week, helping me source some items quickly that I needed, thank you.
Having said that, the rest of the experience at the hotel exceeded our expectations and was great value for money of what we paid for the week.
Thank you to all the staff and again, the valet staff for providing us with such a special week! We hope to return soon :)
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