I’m doing far fewer tastings than ever before, and am barely attending any events either. What did make the cut was the newly introduced BBQ night at Brasserie 2.0, cutely dubbed “The Sexiest Grill in Town”. Last night, I finally made it to a tasting that was rescheduled 3 times. Once because I had to fly out unexpectedly, and twice due to the uncanny coincidence that it rained for the last two Thursdays in a row in Dubai.  Now I’m nuts about BBQ, but truth be told, I wasn’t expecting much from the night, because it WAS, at the end of the day, a dinner buffet- which tend to disappoint more often than not. Much to my pleasant chagrin bordering on shock, this casual, somewhat country style BBQ was worth the wait and hands down one of the best dinner buffets I’ve ever been to!

 

There was a colossal, COLOSSAL variety of food, ranging from a salad bar bigger than my entire kitchen, plethora of roasts, oodles of fresh seafood that was made to order and paired up with nearly a dozen sauces and sides (my favorite was the tempered beetroot!), an array of flavorful Indian curries, mountains of freshly baked breads, comforting pasta made to order, heartwarming soups,  a FRESH juice bar (I got my ginger shot fix and shoo-ed that oncoming cold away!), a colorful dessert bar with lots of cakes and pastries that also offered fresh waffles and crepes (!), and of course, the grill that was serving up melt-in-your-mouth meats of almost every variety imaginable. And here’s what really stood out: every single dish was labeled for allergins.

Despite the truly overwhelming variety of food, believe it or not- the first thing I couldn’t stop stuffing my face with was the maple syrup, cream and butter that sat innocently on our table, alongside some buttermilk biscuits. I almost regret trying those two because I just couldn’t stop till they were all gone, and then some. I could have eaten these all night but had to remind myself to stop.

 

This dinner was one of those cases where there was so much food that there was no way for me to try everything, so I picked out what appealed to me the most and can safely say that not a single thing on my plate(s) was unimpressive. It rarely, RARELY happens that a place delivers on quality as much as quantity and this was one of those rare occassions. Now I do prefer when food is brought to your table instead, but I can understand that this wouldn’t have been possible considering how much was being offered. I really don’t like having to get up again and again and go for seconds, as I don’t like to pile my plate and then waste food, but man, every course was worth the trips. Whether it was the melt-in-your-mouth beef brisket, or the ribs that literally fell off the bone, succulent lamb chops or juicy chicken wings, everything was packed with a whole lot of oomph.

Usually the Indian dishes are the weakest link in every international buffet, but surprisingly even the Indian options were delicious. I loved the Fish Do Pyaaza and the mushroom gobi. I also enjoyed a freshly grilled piece of tuna, Hamour, Dory, and a couple of Tiger prawns made to perfection. Rather than pairing it with the sauces offered at the seafood station though, I marched outside to where people were queuing up for hunks of carved meat, and promptly requested a bowl full of Chimichuri! YAY! Chimicuhri!

Also, did I mention that the house band was absolutely fantastic? Ok, all the songs were a little off beat, and slowed down in comparison to the originals, but hey, the duet was doing acoustic covers of late 90’s and early 2000’s favorites so I was one super happy camper and really missed my music lovin’ sister here. Live music just makes everything awesome, doesn’t it?

I swear I had to hold myself back from having more buttermilk biscuits, else I wouldn’t have had room for dessert, and I saw pecan tartlets as soon as I entered, so yeah. I tried a few of the pastries, but the lemon meringue tartlets and pecan pie tartlets were my favorite. The tart shells didn’t taste as buttery as I would like them to but they nailed it on the texture. Usually tart shells are either impossible to cut through, or crumble on impact, but these one’s really held their own and cooperated in every bite. MAJOR regrets happened after I got home and realized I had NO room to even try the waffles and crepes. Crai.

The evening started off annoyingly, as first the map given on Zomato misled to Le Meridien Mina Siyahi instead Le Royal Meridien, so we ended up getting there later than we intended. And then, when we asked the guard Le Royal Meridien if there’s a Brasserie 2.0, he insisted that there are no restaurants inside and gave us trouble entering. The extremely warm welcome and hospitality of Paul at Brasserie 2.0 however more than made up for it, and we all already know how I feel about the food and rest of the evening. I will most definitely be going back for an encore.

Thank you so much for having me.

Reservations can be made at 04 3165550