A warm welcome, spacious seating, an oriental atmosphere and trays of food as far as the eye can see are only some of the components of the iftar buffet at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Abu Dhabi.
The Giornotte restaurant comes as a pleasant surprise to those who enjoy iftar as a celebration of breaking their fast and being with their loved ones. It is the ideal place to impress someone and to experience a range of delicacies that almost surround the fairly large seating area.
With three salad stations, a pasta station, several spots for appetisers and two mirroring buffets with the main courses in addition to a long dessert setting, visitors to Giornotte are bound to be happy to pay the Dh215 per person fee.
Interestingly, this buffet not only has all its bases covered in terms of appetisers and guilty pleasures, such as gummy-bears and ice cream; it also goes that extra mile, providing guests with camel milk, camel meat and an entire station with gourmet cheeses.
For two hours, visitors can fill and refill their plates while constantly sipping on some of the restaurant’s genuinely tasty lemon-mint juice, labaan and Arabic coffee while taking breaks for walks around the nearby terrace just to be able to go back in and enjoy some more food.
Wide variety
Despite having gone there three times this Ramadan, I was still able to discover a new area of food I had missed on earlier visits. Giornotte does not fail to provide a wide variety of food, although the main courses do seem a little underwhelming. Yet the majority of what is served is worth trying — if physically possible. The pastas, desserts and butter chicken are especially recommended.
The attentive, quick and well-trained staff along with the beautiful lighting that shines through the large windows nearby and the overall feeling that everybody around you is having a good time, makes this place worth visiting over and over again.
