Emirates Palace: An elegant iftar

The sundown buffet at the Emirates Palace hotel is sumptuous and plentiful with stand-out dishes from the new restaurant Mezlai.

Attending an iftar as a western expatriate can sometimes prove something of an etiquette minefield. But before we broached the question of our manners, right or wrong, my friend Holly and I had first to discover the Ramadan Tent at Emirates Palace.

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So down the escalators, along the carpeted halls and through the air-conditioned tunnels we went. "It's in a different place to last year," commented Holly, who is fond of food and attended the Emirates Palace iftar "four or five times" last Ramadan.

After several minutes of travel, the tent finally revealed itself - naturally, decked in reams of gold fabric and with trees stationed at various intervals between the tables and the buffet stations. Only half the room was full, so atmosphere was lacking somewhat (and the air-conditioners are fiendishly loud), but the tent's grandeur is undeniable. Holly and I were ushered to one of 30-odd tables for 10. We sat. Dates and dried fruits in small bowls already furnished the table; a waiter appeared at my shoulder and poured out a glass of water. Chefs in white overalls drifted about lighting small flames underneath the vast silver trays of food. We frowned at one another. Did this mean we could begin yet or not? Around us, a few other tables of tourists were looking similarly confused. A man on an adjacent table chuckled at our bewilderment. We smiled back sheepishly.

But, after maghrib prayer sounded and completed on the large flat-screen televisions around us, he picked up a date and ate it. Holly and I did the same. We took a sip of water and, emboldened, stood to proceed towards the buffet. First, soup and the usual array of Middle Eastern nibbles. There were various soup options, including lentil, as well as large bowls of creamy hummus, moutabal, tabbouleh, fried aubergine with tahini sauce and plump, thumb-sized dolmades. The labelling was poor (I later learned that lambs brain salad lurked among these bowls), but helpful staff stood nearby to help with queries. Among it all stood several bowls of salad too - chopped peppers, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. I gave Holly a knowing look; we both needed to take advantage of the greenery before moving on to the more substantial dishes further up the buffet chain.

We shuffled back to the table with our leaves, to find that hot flatbread had appeared on our side plates. You will not go short on carbohydrates at the Emirates Palace iftar. But salad is salad. All very well, if a tad unexciting, and really a vehicle for salad dressing. So, that dispatched, we stood again and headed back towards the hot section of the buffet. Here you will note the influence of the chef Ali, the master of the kitchen at the hotel's new Emirati restaurant, Mezlai. Fish machboose, for example, which featured large steaks of hammour sitting on a bed of stock-infused rice, onions and raisins. Beside that tureen was Mezlai chicken - meaty thighs of the bird cooked in a bean and tomato sauce. And then, naturally, to the ouzi - a spit-roast lamb sitting atop a mound of flavoured rice.

Silly not to try everything, surely? Holly and I enthusiastically spooned much of it into little piles on our plates, before visiting the "continental section" where a few nuggets of tortellini were chucked on for good measure. Along with the hearty Mezlai chicken, the tortellini was one of the most successful elements to it all. As was the delicious yellow saffron rice which came with several shrimp kebabs. And partly, this is simply because they were warm enough. Temperature control is a hard thing for any buffet to master, but the food here was disappointingly cool and not helped by the cold plates stacked nearby.

Holly had to remove her belt at this point, so we ordered a pot of fresh mint tea and rested for a few minutes before staggering up for dessert. This was more successful. Their um ali was sublime - crispy on top, sprinkled with pistachios and gently infused with rose water. Had I not also managed to force down a syrup-soaked almond and honey cake and a handful of chocolates, then I would have struggled back up for seconds. As it was, I was too full even for shisha, so we tottered back out again.

It's just as well, really, that the tent is stationed some way from the main entrance. Such indulgence called for a brief stretch of the legs. Iftar at the Emirates Palace Ramadan Tent costs Dh215 per person (excluding taxes). All meals are paid for by The National.