Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental,Abu Dhabi

“Amazing Hotel”

Came for a visit, had iced coffee and cake at episodes cafe and served by Rian Nold who was very friendly and gave excellent customer service. Next time we will book to stay here.

“Almost perfect”

Sadly we are leaving MO Emirates Palace today after the most wonderful relaxing week. The service and attention to detail has been second to none. The staff at this hotel go out of their way to make your stay special. The photographs of this amazing building don’t do it justice. It is stunning. F… more

Sadly we are leaving MO Emirates Palace today after the most wonderful relaxing week. The service and attention to detail has been second to none. The staff at this hotel go out of their way to make your stay special. The photographs of this amazing building don’t do it justice. It is stunning. Firstly, our room was a garden room with king bed. This was plenty big enough for 2 adults and very pleasant for our stay. Thevankumar from the housekeeping team greeted us every morning and kept the room spotlessly clean. Thank you Thevankumar for all the extra little touches, it’s this that sets the hotel and its employees above its competitors. We had meals in most of the hotel restaurants and all were fantastic with the exception of Hakkasan. This is more style over substance and the food was average. Broadway was amazing with the best Beef Wellington we have ever tasted. Again, the extra touch of Executive Chef George Lyon coming to meet us made our evening just a bit more special. Gavin was great fun and looked after us perfectly all evening too. Chef George also came to see us the following evening at Lebanese Terrace and introduced us to Chef Elias, just a lovely gesture. The Lebanese food was so good. Rajib looked after us during our meal and again it was perfect service. Breakfast is a large buffet style and typical of UAE hotels with a massive selection and the addition of ordering from a small menu. Again to see Luci and her smiling face every morning made for a good start to the day. We had no issues at breakfast and felt it was excellent quality, selection and service even at busy times. We only left the hotel once as we know Abu Dhabi well and the purpose of our trip was to relax which we did at the beach and pool. We spent our time at the quieter pool (opposite end of the hotel to the kids pool with the slides) and thank you Kofi, Pradeep, Artur and Miriam - we always had excellent service at the poolside Mexican restaurant and beach with an endless supply of cold water and daily frozen fruit lolly! There was a negative to our stay that should be mentioned for this to be a fair review. We had an issue twice at Sand and Kohl beach bar and restaurant. The first time was with a drink order - a Tom Collins was served but the whole of the tall glass was filled with a block of ice (see photo). When paying approx £20 per cocktail/glass of wine it needs to be a fair measure of drink. We raised it and it seemed the manager wasn’t surprised so I suspect it’s been highlighted by a guest before. The 2nd issue occurred after being invited during our breakfast to the Sand & Kohl White Party that evening. We went along and we were surprised to be shown to the back of the bar where the servers were collecting drink orders. We were “not allowed” to stand or sit in the actual seating area. Other hotel guests were also told to stand in this bar area only! We were told we could only have a cocktail from the small reduced menu. We noticed non hotel guests (was it a coincidence they were much younger than the hotel guests??) were shown to the normal seating area beside the beach and were offered the regular drinks menu too. We decided to leave and again the manager offered us a free drink and to please stay and move to the actual seating area (that was empty as the party wasn’t very good) where we had sat every other evening drinking expensive sun downers. You can’t treat paying hotel guests that way. We have still to hear from management after raising this. The hotel is so large it feels almost empty at times. There is plenty of space on the beach and always loungers available at the pool. We are already planning our return trip next year but we won’t be going to the Sand and Kohl White Party!

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“Excellent experience”

We came during the afternoon to the Cafe Fountain and ordered the afternoon tee with two additional cappuccinos. It includes a variety of food (salty and sweet), very delicious. We went there to celebrate our wedding anniversary and they included also a small cake. It is an excellent place to have … more

We came during the afternoon to the Cafe Fountain and ordered the afternoon tee with two additional cappuccinos. It includes a variety of food (salty and sweet), very delicious. We went there to celebrate our wedding anniversary and they included also a small cake. It is an excellent place to have great food, beverages and amazing view of the buildings.

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“Lovely hotel … mixed service”

This was the 4th time we have stayed in this hotel, but the 1st since it was taken over by MO. It was a special occasion so we booked 3 rooms for the family. I was really disappointed on the day of arrival that the rooms I booked were not available - nothing complicated, just king rooms sea-facing … more

This was the 4th time we have stayed in this hotel, but the 1st since it was taken over by MO. It was a special occasion so we booked 3 rooms for the family. I was really disappointed on the day of arrival that the rooms I booked were not available - nothing complicated, just king rooms sea-facing and close together. We therefore had to move rooms on the second day which meant we couldn’t really settle in. The service was inconsistent for what I had expected from this hotel - eg we had turndown service in some rooms, on some nights and the welcome card in my room had the name of another guest. They could not confirm if the birthday cake they send had nuts or not (as my son has an allergy) Whilst these may all be small things, and management were very apologetic, it is just not what one expects from a hotel of this calibre. The staff all around the hotel are however very friendly, polite and helpful which is great! It is wonderful to see so many nationalities represented and also that the staff take time to communicate with you. The hotel is fabulous with great restaurants but they do need to pay attention to detail if they still expect to be regarded as world class. I for one spent too much time talk g to management on this trip !

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