channels - media rotana

small all-day dining restaurant for the media rotana hotel but good enough for the price you pay. tried their weekend brunch and believed this place isgreatvalue! go here for good deal of seafoods and sushi!

i was invited to channels for a birthday dinner with family and friends. on entering i would have to say the decor is simple and to the point. the buffet is like an island in the middle with the dinners sitting around it. this wasgreatbecause it made it easy to keep going to your food without having to walk around for it.. yah i know its the lazy option but when you eat that much the last thing you want to do is walk to go for seconds or more. that said this isnt a fine dining buffet experience.
the theme of the day was mexican and it had all your usual suspects like the quesdilas fresh of the grill, chile con carnas, and a few new ones. i found the mutton shanks to be new especially for mexican. the mutton was good and soft. it was tender and fell of the bone. loved chewing the bone for the marrow so yummy. i was happy with this. there was decent vege options. the dessert was the real winner here. they had a yummy live choclate fountain, all kinds of cakes the chocolate cake, hummingbird cake and swiss roll was good. the salads which you find in any buffet was good. the salsa and guacamole was spot on so no complains. there was plenty of seafood, meat and vege options to satisfy everyones needs but i say the meat eaters have it better than vegetarians.
the service was hit and miss. we asked our server to get us a drinks menu and he had this blank look on his face before saying that we should go for the beer and local spirits. we told him we wanted to drink whatever we wanted and he can charge accordingly and after another lost look he took our order. the other server was very good a filipino chap i dont remember hjis name. we had one vegetarian and he went out of his way to make our person happy. he requested his cook to make burritos and anything else vegetarian.
overall a nice meal. i would say the desserts were more the winners than the actual main course with the exception being the soft and tender mutton shanks. the cost is 150 aed for unlimited drinks with price of alcohol being seperate if you dont go according to their list. the waiter will tell you " sir that is expensive" which was funny. i wouldnt go back for seconds the one expeiernce good enough.

great food,greatambience,greatservice,greatprice! i can't recommend more. we went for the thursday evening's asian themed buffet. being asian myself, i'm very impressed with the array of dishes served. quality wise too! i was expecting just a small range of asian food at one corner, followed by the international dishes like pasta, lamb rack, pizza, roast chicken etc but boy oh boy was i surprised. there were singapore chilli crab, curry laksa, peking duck, dim sum, thai red curry, seafood tempura, fresh sashimi and sushi. loved the huge assortment of salad - aside from the usual fare, there were gado-gado, kimchi, spicy vermicelli salad, and even sesame leaves! for the dessert, there was agreatselection of asian and western dessert. the asian dessert could do with some improvements especially the kuih ketayap (tasted funny with cinnamon & ginger in it), black sesame (too dry), mango sticky rice (too dry) and tab tim krob (tasted wrong). other than that, they were wonderful! i like the chocolate cake. the manager was very attentive too, coming to check on us twice and efficiently attended to our requests.

at 185dhs per person, it comes with juices, soft drinks and coffee/tea. if you use the entertainer voucher, that's half the price. real value for money for such quality and exciting spread. will definitely be back!

we went on a thursday evening for iftar buffet. the place is bustling but totally fine as we have a seat reserved. decorations are of ramadan theme with an elegant buffet setup, bronze jars and lamps as table centerpieces. everything looks well placed and decorated. in comparison with last year’s iftar buffet we’ve tried in different restaurants, channels offered a better and huge variety of fine cuisines. divided into different sections, there’s a selection of dried fruits and nuts beautifully placed in a cart-like near the juices which are taken first to break the fast for muslims. pistachio, hazelnuts, almonds, apricots, raisins, figs, dates are some of the options. i like the jallab juice and jeremiah ‘s fine with the orange juice.

another section for hot and cold mezzeh, bread, salads, seafood such as mussels and shrimps, sushi were available. we love that the buffet was a combination of arabic and international cuisines. and with no doubt, everything was cook to perfection and of high quality. something we always expect in a 5 star hotel restaurant. while my husband had his sushi and salmon as his starters, i’ve tried the 5 or 6 fried items from the appetizers along with a bowl of broccoli soup and cannot decide which one taste better since i like all. the selection of main courses was also huge. a mix of arabic favorites such as mandi, lamb biryani, moroccan chicken, grilled items and international cuisines like pasta make our stomachs very full! the live station for chicken shawarma was definitely among our favorites!

a wide selection of arabic desserts was a hit among diners. international options such as tarts and cakes were also available. our favorites would be the churros and cheese kunafa.

it was a lovely and sumptuous dining iftar experience at channels. apart from the huge variety of delicious menu, elegant ambiance, beautiful setup, the attentive staff and prompt service was certainly agreataddition to the experience.

price of aed 180 is certainly worth thegreatvariety of food and service.

good food good service and good atmosphere!
maybe one of the oldest places in the area for buffets and brushes. the good thing about this place that they kept the standards for a very long time but that's also at this advantage because they did not and enhance it.

for the buffet there's always a huge variety of foods desserts and drinks.

in general this place isgreatfor family gathering friends meetings and quick business lunch breaks

i always have my breakfast there, they have a good variety withgreatquality and live stations. as for the dinner they have a wide range of food asian italian arabic. food isreally good there.

lovely place with polite staff. love monday japanese night most.various choices and good quality of the ingredients. the waiter names dave isgreatand helpful. love da restaurant.

one of our all-time favorites.....friendly staff andgreatfood. i would rate them a 5 if they had more dessert options.....ice cream please!

i've tried channels buffet a number of times, mainly on eid days we go for breakfast just after eid prayer so it tends to be nice and quiet and the food is always fresh and hot. the food is usually quite good and i've not had a single bad dish here,greatbreakfast buffet for the price. nice selection and variety including fresh fruits and juices, cheeses and cold cuts, hot plates and even healthy options to satisfy everyone. their cinnamon buns are a must to end the meal. the coffee is also included which is a plus.

had ramadan iftar here a couple of times as well. the salads are exquisite while the mains are just okay. would've had another round of salads and just had the green curry for main if i had gone back. the main problem with iftar is that it gets really crowded and considering the layout, the queues get really long with people and plates bumping into you especially if you are seated right next to the buffet. there were no issues with food not being refilled which is usually a problem in crowded buffets. iftar buffets are always crowded though so i'd imagine there would be no issues with the crowd during regular dinner buffets.

great place for iftar offering a wide variety of tasty arabian salads, mean meals and juices. friendly staff andgreatambiance overall.....

one of my all time favorite dinner buffet in dubai specially the asian themes nights on thu & fri. well it's not that huge buffet but it have good asian varietiesgreatfood like the asian steak yum , roasted duck yum, tempuras yum , sushi & sashimi yumyum.

the food was fantastic and so was the staff they give each customer a personal tour of the buffet so you know where to find everything and showing us what's on the menu thanks to maurice the restaurant manager who showed us around on sunday and who also paid close attention to his customers needs.

doni was our waiter for the night he was extremely helpful and on his toes. when you go to buffets you expect your plate to be taken once finished with, you expect to be given new cutlery and you expect your drink to be topped up, doni did just that.greatcustomer service we really enjoyed the whole experience at channels and we will be back soon.

we went for the asian night, and it turned out to be agreatexperience. i usually skip the salads because they're just not my thing however i tried them and they were remarkably great. moreover, the main dishes were alright with a good variety of dishes, and the fried seafood was actually pretty good. furthermore, the highlight of the evening was the sushi as it was unbelievably amazing (the best i've tried), and this was a shocker as i am very picky with my sushi. lastly, the dessert was really good with the highlights being the cheesecake, the chocolate pudding with brownies and the mud cake. all in all, it was agreatasian night experience for 195 dirhams.

dined in at channels for iftar, and the place was full! well my first impression before breaking my fast wasgreatambience and by looking up at the number of people i had high expectations on food.
the first thing which i tried was their ramadan drinks there were about 6 varieties of them and all were so refreshing to drink, next i came up to the snacks. they were very well presented and served hot. i am not a very salad person but the fotoush was delicious. next i had the chicken soup with vegetables, a very light yet hydrating soup which one must enjoy after the fast.
next was the main-course tried the shawerma which was being made live, and tried their grill section with a fee gravy items. all items were delicious.
the bonus which i got was the mandi! the mandi was delicious with tender pieces of cooked lamb i enjoyed it the most.
lastly i had the sweets, the variety was huge i loved their cheesecake and chocolate chip cake.
i had agreatexperience here and would love to dine in here again

nice food and quality went there for iftar a reservation is needed the appetizers was ofgreatvariety unlike the main course only 6 or 7 thus the dessert was excellent i know i will never forget the red velvet the soft drinks and juice was good the top was the lebanese jallab i liked the shawermas the best i experienced in this country also saj bread with hallomy cheese a must try.