We feel it’s only fair to begin by saying that buffet is not our favourite way to dine. As a general rule we would rather spend the same amount of money to have a meal prepared freshly for us, to our specifications and without it having sat around for hours congealing under a heat lamp. There have been precious few all-you-can-eat venues that have tempted us back for a second visit in this city, but we would not turn our noses up at the suggestion of revisiting Corniche All Day Dining at the new Sofitel on the Corniche.
For a start, the buffet is small – now we like small. With a small buffet the kitchen isn’t trying too hard to show off just how many different dishes it can throw together, and it is more likely that the items they choose to include in the spread are ones that it knows and does well. The other reason we like small is that it ensures the food is consumed and replaced quickly and regularly, meaning it is fresher and fresher food tastes better.
Aside from the size, the options at Corniche All Day Dining are interesting – and that is really the magic word. For all the choice available at the buffet restaurants around town, so many of them offer the same tired old options, just served in marginally different ways: curries, grills, sushi – so far so expected. However at the Sofitel they specialise in two cuisines: Arabic and French.
Let’s start with the Arabic side. Yes, this is fairly standard at buffets in the Middle East, but Sofitel has a few new things to bring to the table. Chicken tagine was cooked with thighs, meaning the stew had all of
the subtle poultry depth that is disappointingly lacking from the usual bone-free options. Lamb and white bean stew was light and watery but packed with flavour and they even took a few risks with some acquired-taste dishes, such as chicken with chewy moughrabieh, a kind of fat and flashy cousin of couscous that people seem to love or hate. So the chef is brave, using the more flavoured but inexplicably less popular bone-on pieces of meat and not preparing only the dishes that are sure favourites. We may like small, but we adore brave.
Apart from the lamb shank, which we won’t dwell on, the French side did not disappoint. An excellent hunter’s potatoes was creamy and cheesy and did not go soggy in the pan despite sitting out, and we were thoroughly blown away by a duck leg (there’s that bone-in thing again) confit even though it was luke warm. Meaty with all the flavour of the fat (though the fat had melted away in the slow cooking), the confit was far and away the highlight of our meal.
Much fanfare was given to the ice cream made in-house, but we could take it or leave it. The macaron and blackberry cream confection and the artisan chocolates, however, we did not want to share.
It’s just a shame that we couldn’t shake the feeling that we were dining in the hotel lobby.
The bill (for two)
Buffet x 2 Dhs214
Total (excluding service) Dhs428
