Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 73/w10

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 10, Edition 73

Here’s your latest edition of ‘Dubai news, deals & tips, every Thursday, in 10 mins or less :-

🍽 The Beam

🏨 🛥 Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab opening

🍾 Garden on 8 turns 10 🥳

💸 When a hotel deal may not be a deal

🎧 Is Dubai at its best during Ramadan?

🛫 Be wary of ‘unbundled’ Business Class ‘deals’

Please let me know if you have any feedback, such as which content you’d like to see more (or less!) of, any questions or anything else I can be of help with by clicking here

Thanks for reading 👏

Shaun

Please note: some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links, and will be denoted with an asterisk (*). This is a link to a partner site that may pay me a commission - at no further cost to you - and if so, helps to support me & this newsletter. For more info, please see Disclosure and Policies

EAT

The Beam, Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa

Great to see Nick Alvis (ex Table9 and Folly) making a comeback with the recently-opened The Beam. Taking over the spot previously occupied by Geales, The Beam aims to be a “European bistro with a focus on fresh, seasonal and responsibly sourced ingredients”.

If you’d like to see some tempting content, please be sure to check out Courtney Brandt on Instagram who luckily dined there last night and has delectable pics and videos on her Stories.

Also do sign up to Courtney’s “Weekly A to Z” newsletter, it’s well worth a read - she’s multi-talented (writer, author, content creator and so much more) and always worth a follow.

Put it this way, there are not many Dubai ‘foodies’ I take notice of, but Courtney’s definitely one of the small handful I do. If she says she’d definitely recommend The Beam (and she does), that’s good enough for me.

🔗 Courtney Brandt on Substack: ‘Weekly A to Z’ Newsletter

🔗 The Beam

Check out these 16 iconic Middle Eastern dishes, and which restaurants to try them in Dubai, or this guide to Dubai’s food halls.

There’s new Nobu opening at the Link, One&Only Za’abeel.

DRINK

McGettigans have opened a new bar called 19 Sixty Four by McGettigans at Souk Madinat Jumeirah, with a firm focus on wine and of course, a few brunch deals also!

🔗 19 Sixty Four by McGettigans

Did you know Garden on 8 at Media One Hotel is ten years old? It’s a great venue for drinks, deals, sports events, brunches and well worth a visit - as indeed is the hotel, which is quite funky and decent priced, but bear in mind there’s not a lot around Media City.

PS. Media One Hotel is also available on Entertainer’s ‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free’ (BOGOF) Room Night (3 vouchers), and Garden on 8 offers ‘Reusable’ Saturday Brunch vouchers or 3 x ‘BOGOF’ Main Course vouchers.

🔗 Garden on 8

🔗 Media One Hotel

🔗 Entertainer Promo Code EDSD25 for 10% discount

STAY

Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab Opens 14 March

If you ever fancied staying in a hotel modelled on a superyacht, pack your swimmers and get clicking, as Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab will officially open on 14 March.

Here’s an interview with its architect, Sean Killa, and a preview of one of the restaurants that will launch on the same day - the Cullinan, a luxury steakhouse with a ‘meat sommelier’.

🔗 Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab

Wynn Resorts confirm there will be two gaming area at Wynn Al Marjan Island, the UAE’s “first casino resort”.

Rotana announce plans to expand to 36 new properties in 22 cities across MENA, including nine in Saudi Arabia.

Rotana are a local chain with some excellent properties around Dubai that often fly under the radar, such as Media Rotana and Amwaj Rotana, as well as long-stay brands such as Arjaan and the midscale Centro properties.

DUBAI

One thing not many know about Ramadan is there are some cracking sales to be had (lots of shops are looking to clear stock before Eid holidays).

In addition to retail therapy, here are some things to do during Ramadan in Dubai.

Jumeirah Creekside’s GM reveals why iftars and suhoors are key revenue drivers during Ramadan.

Have a listen to Simon Calder’s interview with Issam Kazam from Dubai Tourism about how Dubai may be at its best during Ramadan.

PS. If you love podcasts like I do, try out Snipd using this link for one month free use of Premium. As well as just listening to podcasts, Snipd uses AI to create transcripts, and ‘snips’ then emails notes from the episodes listened to - it’s really quite good.

For those of you who are into supercars, one of the best things you can do is get yourself down to Dubai Autodrome, especially as they’ve recently increased their fleet.

Why potter about JBR looking at them, or popping into the dealerships, when you can get in one and you know, drive one?

🔗 Dubai Autodrome

HOTEL DEALS

When Is a Hotel Deal Not a Hotel Deal?

Fairmont Bab al Bahr, Abu Dhabi, from €174

I’m posting this ‘deal’ as an example, and for comment. Whilst it may seem a decent price at first glance - it is a decent hotel after all - it’s also off-season, and Abu Dhabi is generally cheaper than Dubai for hotels.

The thing to always factor in when you’re searching for hotels that may seem a deal is to ‘validate the deal’…. that is, compare it by shopping around and ask yourself, for instance, if there’s something behind if it seems a ‘too good to be true’ price.

Always think, is it ‘actual value’ or just ‘perceived value’? If it’s the latter, it’s just advertising or marketing. This is how travel agents get away with selling half board deals claiming XX amount of restaurants, but if you visit and only half are open…. is that 50% less of a deal?

So in this case, it’s the old ‘risk’ aspect - as booking off-season brings a lot more risk than normal. Hotels traditionally reduce operations, send staff away on block annual leave, decide to do refurbishment and/or maintenance, close restaurants etc. during off-season, especially July and August. Additionally, whilst they may drop prices from May onwards, they sometimes will also run a second set of promotions/drops/discounts for short notice bookings IF occupancy is low.

So this risk aspect is twofold - you may be pricing against what the perceived value is now (ie under normal operations) but also, if you lock in a price now, and it drops further closer to the time, what recourse have you?

All things being equal, I would not jump at that deal for the above reasons - I don’t think it’s a super enticing price to start with, but also, what happens if you book and then, as sometimes happens locally, they decide at the last minute (as happened at some Palm Jumeirah hotels in past years) they want to dredge the ‘beach’ and then it’s closed off?

Last but not least, don’t think it’s all doom and gloom - sometimes those low prices work out just fine after all. It just pays to be mindful of the situation and the risk, is all I’m saying.

FLIGHT DEALS

New York to Dubai, Turkish Airlines, Business Class from $2,920.

Athens, Greece to Abu Dhabi one-way from €55 (with Etihad, don’t worry - not Wizz Air!).

Continuing the earlier warning about ‘validating the deal’, just remember sometimes airline ‘business class deals’ may be ‘unbundled’ , such as Etihad’s ‘Business Value’ fares.

Whilst each airline may offer different fare types, generally unbundled Business Class means whilst you may have the same ‘hard product’ (ie the seat), you may miss out on some of the other benefits, such as:-

• reduced points/miles earning

• seat selection charges

• cancellation (some unbundled fares are non-refundable)

• chauffeur services

• lounge access