ingredients

we love friday brunches and are always on the look to try new places. this is one of the best places in abu dhabi, for a lovely friday brunch. the menu is filled with delicious varieties, and there are just so many options to make you drool as you checkout the buffet! i especially love their seafood selection and their cheese selections. also, the ambiance is very nice, and the place doesn't get too full with drunk ladies in heels and evening gowns at 12 pm on a friday afternoon! also, if you happen to oversleep and forget to book for brunch a day earlier, this is (so far) the place to go to last minute since it doesn't get too crowded..
personally, i prefer this brunch to most others in abu dhabi.

we were taken away for a surprise – lets leave dubai for a while – valentines weekend trip last week and ended up staying at the beautiful anantara hotel resorts and spa, in abu dhabi. as we heard so many positive things about the hotel before, we were excited to check in and start our weekend trip.

up on arrival we were greeted friendly, welcomed with cold, scented towels and an iced date juice. one of us was asked to show the passport and to fill out the forms before we were escorted to out beautiful room at the second floor, overlooking the mangroves of abu dhabi.

as it was quite late already, and we were hungry we ordered a small snack with room service and went to bed, looking forward to the breakfast next morning.

the breakfast was served at ingredients, the all day dining restaurant of the hotel. being located on the ground floor of the hotel, it was easy to find and one could smell the scent of freshly brewed coffee, pastries and eggs already when exiting the elevator.

the restaurant is huge, and most probably can be filled up with around 250 guests at a time inside as well as outside on the terrace. we were welcomed by a friendly hostess who asked for our room number and if we preferred to sit inside our outside.

given the opportunity to get a bit closer to mother nature, observing the mangrove’s wild live and being kissed by the sun, we chose to sit outside, left our keys and mobiles there and went back inside to discover the buffet.

while helping ourselves with the freshly squeezed juices and pastries, a asian looking gentleman approached us to ask if we wanted any kind of eggs for breakfast.

we ordered scrambled eggs with him and continued to storm through the buffet.

when our plates were filled up and we went back to the table, we found our coffees as well as the eggs waiting for us already, and linh, a gentleman from vietnam, pulled the chair for us to sit down, while wishing us a good morning and a nice breakfast.

not only linh, but all of his colleagues had something special about them.

from the check in – to the check out – everyone, and we mean everyone was super friendly, assertive, paid attention to details, acted pro-active instead of waiting for guests to ask for them and one could actually feel that everyone working in this hotel enjoys the job.

it happened many times that we checked in somewhere or went for dinner and one or two of the service staff was either smiling or generally good with guests, but everyone in the entire hotel, that was something new and impressive.

we also went to the spa and for dinner on this day, but keep our experience and stories to ourselves until being revealed through another review.

keep exploring,

seb

i had the pleasure of checking out the ingredients restaurant for lunch a couple of days back as i attended a conference and i had a great time. i had the feeling of spaciousness when i entered the hotel lobby as it was not "cluttered" looking as any other hotel lobby with their fixtures quite minimal - which gave the hotel of a very relaxed ambiance. the little "falls" as i call it smack at the center of the waiting area with beautiful flowers adorning it is just very calming with the soft trickle of water being heard. the big glass windows that lets you glimpse the mangroves on the other side, the bright blue skies and the calm water is just a picture perfect for relaxation.

ingredients is a kitchen packed with a lot of choices and flavor. upon entering the restaurant, it would be the beverage section where bottled water of your liking is there, then a few steps from it will be sweets section which is strategically placed as it is the first thing you see and you just want to jump to dessert immediately. across the room is the little japanese section - with a few choices of sushi and maki, which i hope they could have like an "order station" where you can ask whatever roll you might want (i, for one, was looking for a dragon and firecracker roll which sadly they do not have). that corner also has the oyster and mussles as well as big shrimps and crab legs for those who might want to have a challenge. :)

moving along, they have this one area where they have all kinds of sea salt on display and i think this area is the arabic section - which sadly i did not have the time to taste any.

of course, no buffet is without the chinese/asian cuisine, which is at this time flocked by dimsum and noodle lovers. their soups are fantastic - as you get to almost create your own with their chicken broth and their choices of noodles, mushroom, spring onion, fried garlic to combine it with. the staple of manchurian chicken, sweet and sour fish and some other favorite chinese goodies are there which i all loved. their dimsums are also fantastic as they just steam them when you get to order them - or maybe yet i was the last in line and have to wait for mine to be steamed. then again, the dough is soft, the fillings are tasty enough and big enough to satisfy that craving. they have this skewered seafood too and other meat that you could ask to be grilled on the spot.

the dining space is cool enough - but what made this cooler is that they those tables prepped outside for that al fresco dining overlooking the mangroves and the brightly colored kayaks against the blue waters. with the great weather now, eating outside with that fantastic background just makes the dining her fantabulous.