Not too long ago there was a little event that occurred in Abu Dhabi, you might have heard of it… the Formula 1?
Yes, well. Much hoo-ha was made over it all over the world and though it appeared that the UAE had gone F1 crazy (!!!), most of the people I spoke to were decidedly “meh” about the whole thing. The biggest draw was not the cars, but the bands playing after each day of racing. We had Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Aerosmith – all very exciting but the shame was that you had to shell out for a race-day ticket in order to be able to see the bands.
The lead up to the race weekend was quite mental. For months there were stands in the malls where you could win tickets to the races, advertising was everywhere, they closed roads to clean and re-paint the sides and markings, the Corniche was brought to a standstill while one of the cars was filmed going up and down, up and down, up and down the same strip to be used in various kinds of PR and road safety stuff.
Ferrari Red was the colour of the season, and no-where more so than on Yas Island.
Abu Dhabi is an island, separated by a very thin strip of water from the mainland. The island of Abu Dhabi is, itself, surrounded by loads and loads of smaller islands, some of which are accessible by car and some by boat. Some are natural and some are man-made, created as a result of dredging the very shallow waterways around Abu Dhabi Island in order to create “paths” for boats to avoid getting banked.
One of the natural islands is Yas Island and Yas was selected to be the site of the F1 track. In a rush of construction that is still on going today (I can’t seem to find out when it was actually started) Yas, which was first turned into a nature reserve, now has the Marina Circuit (site of the F1) which is straddled by the island flagship Yas Hotel, a golf course, several other hotels and in the future will be the site of Ferrari World (allegedly the world’s largest indoor theme park), Yas Mall, a water park, a Warner Bros theme park, residential buildings and a scattering of marinas.
Formula 1 came and went and life returned to normal, except that now there is a whole new glut of hotels and their bars and restaurants to explore!
This weekend, O and I decided to explore Yas Island. We had the choice of going to the new Rotana (we are rather fond of Rotana hotels, since we stayed in one most of the time we were out here exploring and looking for a place to live) or the Yas Hotel. Cuisine was the deciding factor so we booked in to the Japanese restaurant, Kazu, in Yas Hotel.
It was a good thing that we went for the Yas Hotel because it’s a sight to behold. The outside has no sharp lines, it is all curved and smooth covered with lights that cycle through a small range of colours, which gives the impression of being organic – especially when seen from the approach out of Abu Dhabi. The inside is incredibly modern, the lobby and public areas of the hotel look like the space shuttle terminal out of 2001. It is all WHITE and very bright. Once your eyes get used to the assault of so much glaring brightness it is an interesting structure, but rather clinical for a hotel. It is a little too easy to get disoriented because all of the corridors look the same, but this in itself added to the sense of adventure for the first time visitor.
We were escorted to the restaurant, which is along a corridor that appeared to house all of the other restaurants also. After glancing briefly into the other restaurants I’d complain that the sense of being in some sort of terminal (either airport or spaceport) remains – each seemed to be of the same basic design with only the soft furnishings and the colour of the walls differentiating one from the other (although, this is based on only a brief glance inside and I may have the wrong impression).
We sat outside on the “terrace” which overlooks part of the race track. The terrace, again, perpetuates the airport feel – all of the tables and chairs along the row were exactly the same, even though they belonged to different restaurants and the view was somewhat less than exciting since the track was empty.
The food was simply awful. Actually, that’s not fair, not ALL of it was awful, but enough of it was so bad that we complained. Grilled chicken skewers (yakitori) was delicious, so I suspect the tepanyaki or anything from the grill would be good, but the edamame with chilli and garlic tasted like it was smothered in kebab shop chilli sauce, the seared scallop sashimi wasn’t seared in the slightest, the tuna belly nigiri was off and the other nigiri had been made a while before and left to sit out, resulting in an unpleasant sheen to the salmon and a distinct lack of flavour. So put off by this point we didn’t even try the yellow tail. The salmon sashimi was fresh and delicious and the spicy tuna hand rolls were nice although the nori was incredibly tough and we had to request the hand rolls to be made without the spicy mayonnaise that they always seem to come with here.
Our complaint was received with good grace and offers to replace what was below standard. We declined. The offending items were removed from the bill and we were given complementary scoops of green tea ice cream, which was a nice gesture though – sadly – the ice cream tasted awful. Clearly made from and tasting very much of UHT milk/cream and barely a whisper of green tea.
We moseyed on down the terrace to the outdoor seating for Atayeb which describes itself as a Pan Arab dining spot. Despite the identikit furniture, this looked very nice, and they offer shisha on the terrace. After pausing at Atayeb for a smoke (not cigarettes – still off those, go me!) and a beer or two we found our way to one of the four bars Yas Hotel boasts. We went to “Rush”, the hotel’s signature bar. Despite it being absolutely empty (well, not absolutely, but near enough) and the pretentious name the atmosphere at Rush was quite nice. I’d definitely go back again, even though the drinks cost an arm and a leg – although that is pretty standard out here.
The only snag, really, was getting home. Since Yas Island is not yet a popular destination for the late-night revellers (even on a Friday night) there is a distinct lack of taxis coming and going between there and Abu Dhabi island. I fully expect this to change, but for the time being it is necessary to ask the concierge to phone for a cab. In our case, he at first wanted to charge an extortionate fare – but the concierge was able to find someone much more reasonable. He only charged us twice what it cost to get there.
It was a lot of fun visiting a new place. Abu Dhabi isn’t small, but it isn’t large enough so that a new restaurant/bar/hotel/anything opening gets lost in the noise. Which means that anything new gets a lot of attention and buzz, whether it deserves it or not! Though there are still some restaurants and bars to be discovered, I predict the lure of Yas Hotel will be short lived. There are other, comparable, hotel-complexes which have more character and diversity that are no further away (and in fact are currently more easily accessible) than Yas.
Yes, well. Much hoo-ha was made over it all over the world and though it appeared that the UAE had gone F1 crazy (!!!), most of the people I spoke to were decidedly “meh” about the whole thing. The biggest draw was not the cars, but the bands playing after each day of racing. We had Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Aerosmith – all very exciting but the shame was that you had to shell out for a race-day ticket in order to be able to see the bands.
The lead up to the race weekend was quite mental. For months there were stands in the malls where you could win tickets to the races, advertising was everywhere, they closed roads to clean and re-paint the sides and markings, the Corniche was brought to a standstill while one of the cars was filmed going up and down, up and down, up and down the same strip to be used in various kinds of PR and road safety stuff.
Ferrari Red was the colour of the season, and no-where more so than on Yas Island.
Abu Dhabi is an island, separated by a very thin strip of water from the mainland. The island of Abu Dhabi is, itself, surrounded by loads and loads of smaller islands, some of which are accessible by car and some by boat. Some are natural and some are man-made, created as a result of dredging the very shallow waterways around Abu Dhabi Island in order to create “paths” for boats to avoid getting banked.
One of the natural islands is Yas Island and Yas was selected to be the site of the F1 track. In a rush of construction that is still on going today (I can’t seem to find out when it was actually started) Yas, which was first turned into a nature reserve, now has the Marina Circuit (site of the F1) which is straddled by the island flagship Yas Hotel, a golf course, several other hotels and in the future will be the site of Ferrari World (allegedly the world’s largest indoor theme park), Yas Mall, a water park, a Warner Bros theme park, residential buildings and a scattering of marinas.
Formula 1 came and went and life returned to normal, except that now there is a whole new glut of hotels and their bars and restaurants to explore!
This weekend, O and I decided to explore Yas Island. We had the choice of going to the new Rotana (we are rather fond of Rotana hotels, since we stayed in one most of the time we were out here exploring and looking for a place to live) or the Yas Hotel. Cuisine was the deciding factor so we booked in to the Japanese restaurant, Kazu, in Yas Hotel.
It was a good thing that we went for the Yas Hotel because it’s a sight to behold. The outside has no sharp lines, it is all curved and smooth covered with lights that cycle through a small range of colours, which gives the impression of being organic – especially when seen from the approach out of Abu Dhabi. The inside is incredibly modern, the lobby and public areas of the hotel look like the space shuttle terminal out of 2001. It is all WHITE and very bright. Once your eyes get used to the assault of so much glaring brightness it is an interesting structure, but rather clinical for a hotel. It is a little too easy to get disoriented because all of the corridors look the same, but this in itself added to the sense of adventure for the first time visitor.
We were escorted to the restaurant, which is along a corridor that appeared to house all of the other restaurants also. After glancing briefly into the other restaurants I’d complain that the sense of being in some sort of terminal (either airport or spaceport) remains – each seemed to be of the same basic design with only the soft furnishings and the colour of the walls differentiating one from the other (although, this is based on only a brief glance inside and I may have the wrong impression).
We sat outside on the “terrace” which overlooks part of the race track. The terrace, again, perpetuates the airport feel – all of the tables and chairs along the row were exactly the same, even though they belonged to different restaurants and the view was somewhat less than exciting since the track was empty.
The food was simply awful. Actually, that’s not fair, not ALL of it was awful, but enough of it was so bad that we complained. Grilled chicken skewers (yakitori) was delicious, so I suspect the tepanyaki or anything from the grill would be good, but the edamame with chilli and garlic tasted like it was smothered in kebab shop chilli sauce, the seared scallop sashimi wasn’t seared in the slightest, the tuna belly nigiri was off and the other nigiri had been made a while before and left to sit out, resulting in an unpleasant sheen to the salmon and a distinct lack of flavour. So put off by this point we didn’t even try the yellow tail. The salmon sashimi was fresh and delicious and the spicy tuna hand rolls were nice although the nori was incredibly tough and we had to request the hand rolls to be made without the spicy mayonnaise that they always seem to come with here.
Our complaint was received with good grace and offers to replace what was below standard. We declined. The offending items were removed from the bill and we were given complementary scoops of green tea ice cream, which was a nice gesture though – sadly – the ice cream tasted awful. Clearly made from and tasting very much of UHT milk/cream and barely a whisper of green tea.
We moseyed on down the terrace to the outdoor seating for Atayeb which describes itself as a Pan Arab dining spot. Despite the identikit furniture, this looked very nice, and they offer shisha on the terrace. After pausing at Atayeb for a smoke (not cigarettes – still off those, go me!) and a beer or two we found our way to one of the four bars Yas Hotel boasts. We went to “Rush”, the hotel’s signature bar. Despite it being absolutely empty (well, not absolutely, but near enough) and the pretentious name the atmosphere at Rush was quite nice. I’d definitely go back again, even though the drinks cost an arm and a leg – although that is pretty standard out here.
The only snag, really, was getting home. Since Yas Island is not yet a popular destination for the late-night revellers (even on a Friday night) there is a distinct lack of taxis coming and going between there and Abu Dhabi island. I fully expect this to change, but for the time being it is necessary to ask the concierge to phone for a cab. In our case, he at first wanted to charge an extortionate fare – but the concierge was able to find someone much more reasonable. He only charged us twice what it cost to get there.
It was a lot of fun visiting a new place. Abu Dhabi isn’t small, but it isn’t large enough so that a new restaurant/bar/hotel/anything opening gets lost in the noise. Which means that anything new gets a lot of attention and buzz, whether it deserves it or not! Though there are still some restaurants and bars to be discovered, I predict the lure of Yas Hotel will be short lived. There are other, comparable, hotel-complexes which have more character and diversity that are no further away (and in fact are currently more easily accessible) than Yas.
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