The Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel is the hotly anticipated hotel development that proves Dubai is back on the rise.
When it was announced that Tom Cruise would be making the latest edition of the Mission: Impossible franchise in Dubai, local wags suggested that the more pressing Mission Impossible was how to engineer Dubai’s economic recovery.
A couple of months after its opening, the hotel was surprisingly busy with Emirati families and Eastern European couples. But it was the chandeliers that were most noticeable. Everywhere you look at the Zabeel Saray, another shower of glittering lightbulbs swings, hovering above carpets equally as bright and brash. There’s no room for subtlety here. Service is immediately attentive – guests are even shown how to use the room keycard, which seems slightly patronising at the time, although not so superfluous when we mistakenly lock ourselves out at 2am.
The room itself is long and narrow, with Arabic-inspired design (think traditional calligraphy and paintings of horses) and hit-and-miss views – some look out over the hotel’s rooftops, a shame when it’s so close to the Palm’s beaches. However, the stand-out feature of the room has to be its oversized Turkish bath: large enough for 12 burly rugby players.
Zabeel Saray’s biggest sell is its size: there are ten restaurants and two bars, with the full complement set to open in the coming months.
Amala, the North Indian eatery, impresses us immensely, with a seemingly endless tasting menu: the chef rustling up dish after dish for us to salivate over, from tender patties to butter chicken, Indian ice cream and Indian rosé wine (who knew?). As we walk, or waddle, out, cigar fumes fog the corridor: an international cigar ‘roller’ is in town, teaching guests the craft and set to return to host regular classes. Tempted, but too stuffed to concentrate, we walk on to Voda Bar, an all-white vodka-focused drinking spot, with Sixties-style furniture and an array of cocktails (although our Russian waitress isn’t familiar with the White Russian. Go figure).
Of the hotel’s numerous chandeliers, we have yet to set eyes on its grandest, which swings above the extravagant international breakfast buffet. Diners cover every corner of the vast dining hall and outdoor terrace, lapping up breakfast pancakes, chicken sausages, zesty houmous and chests of cheese. Laying down our napkins, we resolve to survey the Talise Ottoman Spa.
Officially boasting the largest hammam in the Middle East, the space is meandering and maze-like, and the treatment itself authentically vigorous, complete with the gleeful (and nauseating) demonstration of how much skin they’ve managed to take off. Post-Turkish-bath, ironically, all we can manage is a prolonged bob in the mini-plunge-pool back in the room.
Jumeirah Zabeel Saray’s image and decor is a noisy mix of themes and colours, but the service is consistently good. Is it the most ‘Dubai’ hotel of them all? It is – until the next one opens. If you want to see the city’s clash of cultures collide spectacularly with a bizarre colour scheme (and NASA-tested sheets) all under one huge, chandelier-adorned roof, book your stay now.