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| The dome in the lobby of the palace |
The Emirates Palace is a 850,000 square meter complex that houses a "7 star" hotel furnished with gold and marble throughout. It also has bars and restaurants including Hakkasan, a London favorite of mine but more on that later.
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| The start of the overwhelmingly large and long entrance "driveway" |
Nothing in Abu Dhabi seems to be just one thing which makes it very convenient when you're trying to have an evening out.
The heat outside and the fact that everything is so far away from everything else means air conditioned tricked out complexes with restos, cafes, bars, clubs, conference halls, accommodation and access to a beach are a winning source of entertainment.
It really is a sight to see.
They even have a vending machine that dispenses GOLD BARS y'all. Actual real gold bars.
You really have to do have to appreciate the concept of excess when it's executed to such bad ass levels.
So after about 15 minutes walking around to find Hakkasan, we finally arrived.
Hakkasan in London is one of my favorite treat places. I've been lucky enough to eat here numerous times thanks to work, useful especially as it's not cheap. It is however worth it as the food is fab.
From the comfort of our AC equipped taxi there, we fell in love with the idea of al fresco dining. Then they showed us to our table outside and the heat reminded us of just where we were lol. We swiftly asked to be relocated back to the climate controlled indoors.
The view from outside though was pretty cool. Shame about the temperature.
Once inside, we got to the fun task of ordering.
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| The menu |
And then the cocktails arrived! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Hakka - Belvedere vodka, sake, lychee juice, lime, coconut, and passion fruit.
SHHHHHAAMAAAZING!! We kept them coming lol.
Then came allll the yummies. It dissappeared as soon as it arrived but I managed to capture a few of the numerous dishes we over ordered. Gotta love the collective appetite of our little group!
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| Duck salad |
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| Crab meat special |
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| Pipa duck with extra crispy skin |
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| Chilean sea bass |
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| Wagyu rib eye beef stir fry |
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| Scallops |
We were stuffed after a couple of hours of eating and decided to get another round round of cocktails instead of desserts.
This was all my friends saw of all night lol.
We sat around and chatted for ages catching up with each others' lives and of course acting very age appropriate in this fancy establishment.
Yaaayy we are so grown up!
We decided to find a place for dancing off all the food and settled on a rooftop bar called Pearls and Caviar where we proceeded to dance to the 90s hip hop and rnb choonage until the early hours.
The view wasn't half bad either as is poorly illustrated by this picture (camera got sent home for safe keeping). Visit their website for much better pictures of the venue.
And of course, last but not least let's not forget the OOTD. This outfit has already featured on my blog before but what the fudge. The necklace is different, it's a tribal inspired necklace from Monsoon, similar here.
This week was excellent. The company was fab and my overall UAE experience was positive I'd say.
I found that if you were respectful (especially as a female) and dressed appropriately, people were perfectly pleasant. The architecture in Dubai and Abu Dhabi was certainly a sight to see. Never seen anything like it!
Cons for me was the humidity heat combo and the cultural restrictions on the female form which effectively made every outfit I brought seem virtually pornographic lol.
Worth a visit though simply for the sheer culture shock factor of it all.
Oh and I'll leave a review up on the hotel soon.
xx