A Spooktacular Evening at Rosewater

Rosewater of Jumeirah at Etihad Towers was transformed into a spooktacular venue for Halloween 2015.

I will say right off the bat that all my experiences of Jumeirah at Etihad Towers have been top notch. A dazzling venue, excellent service and of course great food. We had no second thoughts about booking a dinner buffet at Rosewater for a birthday celebration.

Even before we entered the restaurant we could tell that they had tipped their hats to Halloween when we were welcomed at the maître de’s podium by a skeleton/witch and a cheetah. We were ushered into the restaurant and seated at a table scattered with rubber skeletons and worms. Even the napkins were an ode to Halloween!

Setting the mood

The decor abounded with displays of skeletons, witches and spiders galore. Even the food was prepared to fit the theme! Witch fingers, chopped off hands, worms and bats were just some of the Halloween inspired food items on display.

The horror-fying food

Without much ado we started to attack the gut-busting buffet. The spread was generous with multiple salad stations, cheeses, breads, several displays for the mains and of course multiple dessert stations. Live cooking included grilled seafood, pasta, sushi and manakish among others.

I don’t think I’ll ever look at bread the same way again

The desserts were by far this sugar baby’s favorite. Plenty of fresh fruit, cakes, pies and shooters in all shapes and flavors.

My heart rejoiced at the sight

And of course the obligatory chocolate fountain made an appearance. I would have liked more dipping options though. Who has a chocolate fountain and does not have fresh strawberries and bananas for dipping?! An unforgivable oversight IMHO.

Decadent dessert

Service was cheerful and attentive without being overbearing. Plates were cleared promptly and we did not have any trouble flagging down the staff when we needed something.

Hits : The chicken do pyaza was fragrant and fork tender. The lamb shank was rich and bursting with flavor. The chicken pakora were crispy bites of yumminess. I will also give the black pepper squid a nod. The seafood dimsum actually had generous chunks of prawn within instead of the indiscernible mince you usually find in dimsums.

Misses : The sushi was a bit of a letdown. The tandoori prawns while packing a flavor punch were a bit too salty for me. The lamb tagine was nothing close to the riotous flavors we experienced in Morocco. The moussaka also seemed to be missing the pasta and the cheesiness we reveled over in Greece.

Price : We used a Groupon voucher and paid AED 579 for a dinner buffet with eight house beverages for four people. The offer is still live so grab some while you can.

Note : No complimentary birthday cake was offered at the end of the meal. Most hotels would oblige with a small cake for occasions but at Rosewater we were told that we would have to pay extra as we were using the Groupon. I will say though that by the end of the meal we had no room left for an atom much less a slice of cake so we left happy.