TBK tells- What makes a hotel amazing???

The first waitress to dress in her Christmas outfit- 6 am Christmas Eve

The answer is , of course, the staff and they have an amazing young crew of diverse nationalities here at IBIS Al Barsha! They let me wander around taking photos and videos, asked for my feedback on the music and food, and made me and my friends feel very welcome.

I am always looking for mew hotels to visit and stay around the word and when I saw the piece below on Time Out Dubai I added it to my list of places to visit in Dubai this Christmas.

https://www.timeoutdubai.com/hotel/sofitel-dubai-the-obelisk

After a busy morning writing Blogs I took a taxi there and the Concierge recommended the French Brasserie Boulud for lunch. The Brasserie was beautiful with a great view of the Obelisk at Wafi Mall. The charming French Waitress was very helpful suggesting different dishes and bringing me the Chef's recipe book . It turned out we had a shared love of Julia Child! When you find a great restaurant like this 2 courses is never enough so I had cheeses after my dessert ( is that the correct way around Nadya, I remember having salad before the main course at your place in my youth!) and then Earl Grey tea. I sent pictures of the menu to several friends to see if they could guess what I chose and only Jane Frost got it right.

I started with the small Salad Niçoise and freshly cooked baguette and sparking water. For my main course I had Steak Au Poivre ( sadly a little cold, maybe it was a long walk from the kitchen?!)

In my experience a good way to judge the quality of a hotel or restaurant is to visit their Toilet ( Bathroom , CR, WC etc. depending where you are reading this) and the Sofitel excelled here as well.

Once back at the table my waitress returned with the menu at my request ( the Business lunch is only 2 courses) and, sadly, it was too difficult a decision. My brother Andrew has been sending me Tarte Tatin recipes and the necessary Creuset dishes and helpful hints for years, but its still on my "To do list". Then , as Jane realised, I love cheese and not having had any for a long time ( ok, 2 weeks ) that was also tempting, so .... I ordered both. We discussed my preference for soft cheese which she discussed with the Chef who suggested Brie, two goats cheeses and one I had never heard of. The latter was the best, then the Brie and then the goats cheese. I have to admit , that having stopped drinking alcohol in 2016 , the cheese course had me gagging for a large glass of Port, but I resisted!

The Tarte Tartane was truly amazing , as were the cheeses, served with another hot French Baguette. I will admit to sending pictures to one of my former French Delegates at Bapco ( thanks to Zainab for supplying the address) and Clement returned a picture of his empty lunch box! I responded with " Du Fromage?" and the picture below! The correspondence with my brother Andrew was briefer!

As I ate I leafed through the Chef's Recipe book with foreword by another famous French Chef , Paul Bocuse. I have added it to my 2022 Birthday and Christmas list! I had intended to have a walk around Wafi Mall and then return to the Sofitel for its famous afternoon tea. However having started lunch at 2 pm I did not finish until 4 pm ( how French is that, dear reader) so I abandoned that plan and headed off to meet Jeboy at his work at DFC for dinner at 5 pm.

Writing about this amazing French Lunch remind me of a phrase someone taught me in my Accor days, when I asked about the difference between the English and French eating habits.

He said :

" The French live to eat and the English eat to live"

My special thanks to the team at the Sofitel and I will be back soon for afternoon tea and dinner at gastropub " The Nine" where they serve British Grub

This is a slightly more rotund British Kabayan signing out . One of my former friends said I looked more rotund than Santa yesterday. He is now off my Christmas card list!