Long’s Bar – Towers Rotana Hotel

In a nutshell: Cheap and cheerful brunch!
Score: 4/5

Dubai has so many over-priced brunches so it’s great to find somewhere that offers a Friday brunch for just Dhs 149 (less if you have the Rotana Rewards card). You know how it is when you’re organising a get together, figure a brunch will be easy since it’s a fixed price but then you realise that not everyone will want to pay Dhs 400 or more! Well this offers a good solution to that problem.

The drinks list is fairly extensive and includes sparkling wine as well as house red and white, a variety of beers and the usual spirits. They have a policy of only giving you a fresh drink once your current one is finished but the staff kept a good eye on the table and we never had to wait long for refills. We also ordered water and this was included – I’ve been to a number of brunches where you can have as much alcohol as you want but have to pay extra for water!

The buffet wasn’t huge, but was more than sufficient with a selection of salads, breads, carvery items (beef, lamb and chicken), a couple of curry items and then the all important desserts. There’s a live omelette and waffle station, plus breakfast pastries for anyone who’s just rolled out of bed at midday. My only gripe was the usual thing about pepper! The roast beef was literally crusted with pepper but the chef was great and carefully cut it all off for me…I didn’t ask him to but he offered when I told him it was such a shame it was covered in it.

Atmosphere-wise, it is pretty lively but when we left at 4:30 it hadn’t yet descended into the dancing and partying you’d find at Yalumba (although it is a couple of years since I went to Yalumba). Dancing would have been difficult since our table was set up on the actual dance floor. Long's is down in the basement of the Rotana with no windows so you can easily lose all sense of time and a couple of hours turns into half a day!

If you want a fancy, high brow brunch with views of the city then this is not for you. But for a brunch that’s reasonably-priced with good food (although it won’t blow you away) and a general unwind with friends…this is just the place.