Burj Al Arab – Instagrammable Settings
At CheeseburgerMe.com, we are primarily looking for the best cheeseburger in London, but that does not stop us from looking out for the best cheeseburgers around the world too.
On a recent trip to Dubai, I had a chance to get out for a couple of memorable cheeseburgers which I will cover here in the blog. In the last post, I tackled my views on Black Tap, and this week I want to talk about a very memorable lunch at the Burj al Arab, the landmark hotel on the Dubai coast that looks like a sailboat.
When someone offers you a free lunch at perhaps the world’s most iconic hotel, you don’t say no. In other hotels, you might consider the lobby coffee bar/restaurant to be a bit basic, but inside the Burj, nothing is basic. Everything is impressive from the security to get to the island it’s on, to the service coming through the door and up the escalators past the amazing aquaria on both sides of the lobby. At the top of the escalator, you are met with fountains and the incredible view up the open atrium inside.
We ate a late lunch at Sahn Eddar (https://www.jumeirah.com/en/dine/dubai/burj-al-arab-sahn-eddar). The menu is very western with pasta, burgers, salads, etc as you would see in any business hotel in the UK or USA. I was kind of glad there were not really any more compelling options as I did want to try the burger knowing I may never be back. However, I did save some room for the world-class dessert cart that we were shown on the way to our table.
I ordered the wagyu beef burger with cheese and it came on a very fluffy, but lightly toasted brioche bun. It was a very good size and had a lovely flavour. Maybe just a little firm, but that is being picky and I only mention it because the lack of give from the bun meant some of the condiments were squishing out as I ate.
The condiments and veggies both start with mayo mixed with shredded lettuce and are heavily coated on both the top and bottom bun. For a moment, I wasn’t sure it was mayo as the texture was much thicker, almost like cream cheese, but a taste confirmed it was indeed mayonnaise.
The other garnishes are a couple of thin slices of Roma tomatoes and a few thin dill pickle slices. The tomatoes were a little slimy from being served under the patty and warmed up, but were fine. The pickles were sweeter than dill and a little too thin. A pickle fan at the table gave them a score of 6/10.
Besides the piles of lettuce mayo, the other condiment is BBQ sauce, which was more like smoky ketchup. If you have ever had ketchup-flavoured crisps in Canada, then you will know exactly how this sauce tastes. It did add a very nice tang, but I would have loved some onions and mustard too.
The cheese is a good basic cheddar, and it was cooked ok, but the burger needed more of it, and maybe a little more flavorful variety. Good for creaminess, weak for flavour.
The beef came in two options, medium or well, and I usually like somewhere in between. I opted for well but stated my preference, yet it came very, very cooked. Not burnt at all to be fair, just no juiciness and little stodgy. It wasn’t exactly dry either. It may have sat on the pass bar for a few minutes (as evidenced by slimy tomatoes) and so had any remaining juices run out while the whole thing steamed under the heat. Certainly a good rich flavour, but I wished I had opted for medium afterward.
Overall, this is an ok cheeseburger. If this was an official review, it would fall in the low 60s. So if this was room service at a Heathrow Airport, I would be satisfied. When the price is nearly £40 (yes, that is the conversion price of 195 Dirhams), and you are sitting in the middle of an architectural masterpiece on a beautiful day, you honestly want a little more.
The service was impeccable, the coffees we had with lunch were great and the desserts were what you expected, so it was not a bad meal by any stretch. It was just memorable for everything except the cheeseburger.
