Al Iwan — Restaurant in Dubai

Unfortunately what was to be a pleasant visit to Burj Al Arab for a friend and I resulted with me being embarrassed and speechless after I found hair in my food.

I received an apology and hoped it would just stop there, but the excuses followed. “Ma’am we can’t control if hair falls in our food from other guests, but we try our best.” I think that’s what bothered me more not owning up to mistake that was possibly made by them and pointing fingers at others. After the second apology came from two different people placing blame that hair most likely came from the other customers due to it being a buffet I had to say my peace. I told the head chief that an apology would have been acceptable but asked him nicely not to point fingers on other people. He stated he understands but just wants us to be happy. He offered a special dish from the kitchen which I really didn’t care to have only because there was plenty of food in the buffet and there was no need to make us anything.

I wish it stopped there. My friend who was visiting from overseas felt uncomfortable. We got stares from the hostess, manager , and other employees. I didn’t feel like we could eat our food in peace because they were afraid we would complain about the issue we faced earlier.

As a gesture from the restaurant they gave us two roses, thank you. I wasn’t asking for a meal to be compted because even the manager saw that I lost my appetite and stopped eating. They insisted on us eating more and offered us different types of foods and drinks because they knew that we were a bit upset. When we finally gave in to have some Turkish coffee I soon found out that we were charged for it when the bill came around.

They were quick to remove the plate that had hair on the food which unfortunately I could not take a picture of.I’m hoping they walk away and learn how to deal with situations like this if they may occur...

100% disappointing. Not worth it all all, don’t fall prey for the false advertising/marketing.

Went there on a Friday evening for dinner with family. My sister had done the reservation and had received a call reconfirming the reservation and providing information about the buffet, price etc. Upon arriving, we were welcomed in the restaurant and explained the buffet setup.

About the place - does not look as per it’s shown online. Tbh, a 4 star hotel has better buffet options for breakfast. This was that bad, hardly any good meat or veg options. Being Arabic style buffet, no Arabic bread options. They advertise 60 different types of deserts whereas in reality there’s less than 20.

The team is in hurry to clear the plates, poor customer service and definitely does not meet basic hospitality standards. The price we were offered on the call, whereas the bill we received did not match and was more than 2 times of what was given to us. When we asked them about it, the manager was disrespectful and said we heard it wrong. Jagruti - the “restaurant manager” is hyper, not courteous, rude and extremely disrespectful and unprofessional.

Definitely not worth any of it. Bad food, sad atmosphere and pathetic customer service. Do not waste your time and money at Al...

It's waste of money spent on this over hyped 7* hotel. The service is pathetic and far below average. Overpriced buffet with very limited options and top it all extremely poor staff and service.staff in Al Iwan are very poorly trained and they dont care and don't know anything about customer service. How can they serve alcohol to a 14yr old, the staff came and placed a bottle of beer to my son , it wont even happen in a local or budget pub/bar. They dont care what is served to whom . While we were eating the staff started cleaning the table next to us and distance between ours and the next table was less than a feet .The staff started to dust the table sheets and even sprayed sanitizer on them and it was almost sprayed on our plates. it was such a horrible experience and will never recommend anyone to try there . very unfriendly staff, and the ambience , table set up , cutlery , decor looks so outdated and unclean .no staff were available near the buffet section to assist the diners .all the staff were busy in their own place chatting, giggling ..why would you spend 1500DHS for this appalling experience. Not worth even for 1* rating in...