liwan - swissôtel al ghurair

located in the new al ghurair arjaan, liwan located on the 3rd floor has a brilliant ambience and pretty decent food. not a lavish spread but atleast got to try out all the dishes. foods good but the dessert is even better. they have a live pasta and a tandoori counter as well as a mongolian grill where the chefs cook up dishes according to ones taste. value of money is not there as it still lacks 5star dishes offered by their competition. kids area was closed, chocolate fondue was missing and limited sea food, so still a long way to go for this new joint but it seems to be going on the right path. service is good. the setting is pretty flamboyant and there is an outside sitting arrangement as well which over looks the mystique fish roundabout and looks amazing in the night.

i have been to this restaurant multiple times for brunch, iftar, dinner, and tea. i have had a great time each time i have visited. the service provided by both the servers and the chefs at the live stations is very good. they are quite accommodating. i especially like the huge and empowering layout of liwan. i also like their terrace seating for cooler nights (they also have sheesha here). i love their peach colada! 

they seem to have a number of activities geared towards children during brunch, so this is definitely a nice place for those with little ones.

now, this is a hit and miss restaurant. i have been to this restaurant on several occasions and let me try to come up with good statements why it is a hit and a miss.

hit - it offers buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner
miss - look out for their themed dinners as there are some nights when the theme just simply does not suit you

hit - lunch buffet was superb - maybe because at that time (almost 2 years now) it was newly opened and hence the selection was great
miss - you may find yourself sometimes looking for more when there is nothing on the buffet line. yes, there are times when the number of selections are reduced.

hit - they have a nice dessert station on several occasions that i was there. enjoyed their lemon meringue pie, cheesecakes, etc.
miss - again, you may chance a time when the dessert station is completely deserted

hit - enjoyed their new year's eve celebration. spent me and my friend during the 2014 celebration
miss - no bubbly, this is a dry hotel

hit - value for money
miss - erroneously charged by card with the wrong amount and took me a great deal of time to solve it

this is a good restaurant and i hope the restaurant manager (which i hope he is still the same), gets to read the comments in here. people are critical about liwan because it has certain standards to meet and people just want to make a comment to make a point. i can completely understand the sentiments of the other reviewers here and i am also one with them.

nonetheless, do check out some of the photos that i have managed get hold of taken at liwan.

visited this place on a thursday and theme night was indian, food experience was not good. in buffet they had only one grill item malai chicken which was hardly available and deapite of complains, no action. biryani was a disaster, low quality rice and half cooked. curries were average and the only saviour was salad bar, decent itmes with good taste.
i got upset with the fact that they were not managing the grill item and the chef took out tikkas from chicken tikka masala curry and served as grill item!!! complete disaster and keep in mind that liwan is in a five start hotel....
ambience is very good and i heard good feedback of brunch however what i saw and chef attitute, i wont visit this place again...in the end i gave this feedback to the manager aswell.

i visited the place , we went for dinner and it was mangolian grill night, the food is good, thier sushi is really very good,, service is good, kind stuff..

was gifted a friday brunch promotion voucher from friends to liwan all day dining restaurant located in the newly opened al ghurair rayhaan in deira. a truly spectacular friday brunch awaited us, was impressed by hotel and even more impressed with the restaurant.

me and my wife were greeted with a cool coconut drink (i usually find this greeting when i am dreaming).

with unlimited food, smoothies & mocktails to go with, was sure this was going to end well. you will find everything from sushi, live stations, shawarma( yes you read it right),risotto station,arabic mezze, breads catering to all palates.

i loved the way the chef goes all chop chop with the vanilla ice-cream with almonds which i requested (bruce lee would have been proud).

found a few negative points with regard to our tables not being cleared which were piling up and so it was with the other patrons. the exhaustive salad, sushi & desert station overshadows the presentation in main course, the live barbeque grill station is tucked behind (customers would miss such a wonderful offering).

this would be a winning place with good food ... if this were a 2-star restaurant in a slum neighbourhood. horrible!
what a shame! such a lovely, sunny restaurant in a 5-star city/business hotel which is brought down by the quality of food. came here for a lunch buffet. the salad station is quite nice, and i wish that was all we had eaten, because it all went downhill from there. the veggies are fresh, the typical arabic appetizers such as hummous, moutabel, etc tasted lovely. 
right there 3 sad little cheeses and an adventure trip looking for the accompanying breads. why are breads hidden behind the desserts?

everything we tried on the hot stations should've stayed in the chafing dishes. the roasted sweet potatoes tasted like boiled carrots! the fish was undercooked, looking pink on the inside, what a turn off! so much protein on display and barely anything to there so sit by its side on the plate. just rice, and a pasta station that is attended by a nice man who doesn't speak english well. took some effort to order a plate of penne with red sauce, which was mildly raw and the cheese too hard to be fresh.

desserts are edible, but by far not the best! while sitting, we were poured a glass a water each and later a bottle of water placed on our table. we weren't sure if it was complimentary or not, so we chose not to open it but then a waiter came along and opened it. we later found out it was for us to pay for. this is not acceptable is such a place, people should not be forced with water and then made pay for it. this may fly in lower class mall restaurants, but not hotels! definitely not. 
in addition to that, when we ordered tea, we got lipton. seriously?! 

this restaurant has got the design potential, but definitely needs a lot more work on the food and the staff. if you're staying here, just go to the adjoining ghurair centre for lunch. i do hope they improve, this may be the experience killer of this hotel.

the place is nice and elegant. the theme is international, but it seems that only limited dishes are available. there is a grilling station but it takes almost an hour for you to ask the chef to make some for you. in the pasta station, they ask me what sauce do i like, seafood or chicken? then when i asked my pasta, they said, only vegetable sauce is available.. the tempura station, it seems that the chef's there doesnt want to serve their customers because when you ask if they have shrimp or squid, they simply said "no". how dissapointing. and it takes them forever to refill the serving plates. overall, poor service and not a good value for your money.

nice place with a proper set of set menu, outstanding service and hospitality by the crew specially angelo who took care if us.