RESTAURANT REVIEW #3 - FRIDAY FUSION BRUNCH @ MELIA DOHA

Friday brunches are becoming a common fare in the household these days considering our baby is in India for a while. We are using the time to spend some quality time and sample our way through various restaurants across the city.

Last weekend, we headed to the Melia Hotel to experiment their Friday brunch infact on the very day of its launch. The brunch here, is a unique concept of Fusion of Indian and Spanish cuisines.

So how it works is that both the restaurants host their respective cuisine in their area and the corridor connecting the two features International cuisine.

Spanish cuisine featured the tapas dishes, sushi, a variety of cheeses and the paella. Highlight also being the live music being played giving the whole ambience a brunch-like mood. The Indian restaurant featured obviously the Indian cuisine and had a kids section in their area playing kids movies. We sat in the Indian restaurant as it was a bit calmer and quieter.

There definitely was a major variety of food being offered as part of the brunch. And I would rate the food overall as "average" with some dishes quite good and others not so much. Liked particularly the parmesan chicken tikka and hariyali kebab in the Indian area. The chicken biriyani and curries were so-so and I thought it lacked the flavor punch. However their Indian breads were delicious and served hot and made to order.

From the Spanish section, liked the goat cheese with caramelized onion dish, Spanish frittata, patata bravas and the arancini. But the biggest flaw I thought was that majority of the dishes were quite cold, and for atleast the hot starters they maybe should look at serving them hot and make-to-order. We did not try the sushi or the arabic mezze.

Major positive was that we found some of their desserts absolutely spectacular namely the Gajreela Um'ali (Carrot Um'ali) and Rabdi which were absolutely delicious and were generously flavored with saffron. Also the chocolate truffles were decadent and incredible. However, the chocolate mousse was disappointing as the texture was powdery instead of silky smooth.

Pricing of this brunch is really competitive with 190 per head with soft beverages and 250 per head with unlimited alcoholic beverages i.e. house wines and cocktails. Service was a big plus.

Overall, the concept works if only they could just fix some of their dishes. Having said that definitely this newest kid of the city’s brunches offers great value for money !

Criteria	Weightage	Points given	Overall
Food	50%	3.5	1.8
Service	20%	4.0	0.8
Ambience	20%	4.0	0.8
Value for Money	10%	4.0	0.4
			3.8

Verdict

  

Good  J