Month: March 2012

I've been following @ChefDavidMiras from @AlMaha_Resort on twitter for a while now and am often tweeting him about his amazing food - usually because he's made me feel hungry ! (Follow him and check out his regular pictures - you won't be disappointed !)Anyway, with the arrival of guests from the UK imminent, I contacted Chef David to ask if Al Maha did afternoon tea and was delighted when he advised that they did. This is the fourth visit for my visitors and we all now how difficult it can be to do something different for them each time. A trip to Al Maha fitted the bill perfectly.The drive to Al Maha is a short one hour trip from Dubai along the Al Ain Road and in no time at all took the exit off of the main road and were driving to the resort. After a 15 minute drive through the desert we arrived at reception and received a fantastic welcome by the staff who showed us to the terrace overlooking the desert and the waterhole. From here we could see for miles as well as watch some of the gazelles and Oryx who live in the Al Maha reserve.Afternoon tea is a help yourself event served on the terrace, with a variety of savoury and sweet treats to choose from including delicious scones with blueberry jam and real thick Cornish clotted cream (which I have a bit of a soft spot for). This is served with free flowing tea and coffee. By the way, I highly recommend the lattes which looked beautiful as well as tasting great. Everything myself and my guests tasted were fantastic and looked great too. And all for a very reasonable AED 120 per person.Chef David and the team surprised us by serving us a bottle of champagne and a Birthday cake for my guest who was celebrating her birthday on the day of our trip which was completely unexpected and a lovely gesture.After a couple of hours sampling the delights of afternoon tea and taking in the beautiful scenery we were led through the resort (which is stunning) and were lucky enough to be able to take a trip through the desert on camels to the sun downer spot to watch the sunset over the resort and take plenty of pictures. It also gave us the opportunity to meet some of the other resort guests who seemed to be having a fabulous time.On return to the resort Chef David gave us a tour of some of the facilities in particular the terraced dining area and private dining room and I was also fortunate to take a quick peek at the kitchens and to see the staff being briefed on the dish of the day - which is often the feature of Chef David's evening tweets and hence how the trip came about.A final picture of all of the kitchen staff in the dining room concluded our stay at Al Maha as sadly we prepared to leave and head for home using the great service of SafeDriver (at a very reasonable AED 200).We had a great trip to Al Maha resort, the staff could not have been friendlier, the resort is beautiful and the food and service was fantastic. Although you may think of Al Maha as a residential only resort, Chef David explained that they have just started allowing non guests to dine at the resort for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea or dinner. So if you are looking for a new venue to try and some tranquility just a short drive away from Dubai, I suggest you give Al Maha resort a try.I will definitely return to stay in one of the beautiful tented villas and to sample the other delights of the resort and to confirm that the clotted cream tastes as good as it did the first time around.Special thanks go to Chef David Miras, to Vivek who served our tea, to Complex General Manager, Patrick Antaki, who came and had a chat to us and everyone at Al Maha resort who made us feel truly welcome.For further information about Al Maha check www.al-maha.com