my birthday brunch at radisson blu

I turned the double 3 two Fridays ago. We didn’t celebrate it with a big bang or anything; I was just content to celebrate it with my family. So just like last year, we planned to eat out at a hotel restaurant. Fortunately, brunches are the norm here on Fridays (they’re considered as an institution), so after going over the different choices, I called the Sales Manager in Radisson Blu, Dubai Deira Creek on Thursday and asked him for their Friday Fun Food Festival details, and to make a reservation for us for the following day. He said he couldn’t give us a discount because the rate was already their promotional rate, but since it was my birthday, he said he would try to do something.

Around 3:30am on Friday, while I was somewhere in dreamland, my phone suddenly rang…it was Mama calling all the way from the Philippines jokingly telling me to wake up because that was the time I came out into the world. Actually, it wasn’t. I was born 12 o’clock midnight PNG time (that’s 4 hours ahead of Philippines and 8 hours ahead of UAE), but of course I still appreciated what she did. After a few hours, we all woke up to get ready to attend the 7:15am mass at St. Mary’s Church, then we went back home to have breakfast and to get ready, and at 12:45pm, we were in front of Radisson Blu. My sister arrived just a few minutes later.

The restaurants were located on the 2nd floor, and upon arriving, Caila was given a balloon and small pack of sweets. After we were seated at our table in La Moda near the terrace, we walked around to help ourselves with the wide international food selection. The first thing we tried was the Peking Duck, and it was delicious! There were 2 rolls per individual plate and we all finished ours within minutes. After that, I just tried everything: bread, fajitas, tempura, grilled seafood, pasta, pizza, roast beef, salad, waffles, etc…even some stuff from the Kids Buffet! Unfortunately, by the time I had finished, I was too full to try anything from the dessert area, as tempting as they looked. And to think there was even halo-halo! Darn!

While resting, we looked around the forms of entertainment that were going on around us. A staff was offering face-painting to the kids, a live band was playing, there was a play room that had a Little Tikes house, video games, and a mini soccer table, and a magician performed some tricks (although we didn’t get to see him because by the time we found out there was a magician, the band had returned…much to our daughter’s dismay).

A few minutes after we returned to our table, 2 servers came over with a chocolate cake singing Happy Birthday. Of course it was nice, but a bit embarrassing because there were a lot of diners. What immediately followed was the traditional blowing of the candles (I noticed that they put three, just like last year when we celebrated in Hana Restaurant), picture-taking, and cutting and eating tasting of the cake. As expected, it was delicious! The icing was so rich and creamy (not too sweet), and the actual cake was a mix of normal moist cake and something like mousse. Yummy! But it was too big for us (and we were still full), so we simply asked the staff to pack the rest so that we could take it home. For some reason, our daughter didn’t want to have her picture taken with us and the cake, so we went outside and had our pictures taken there instead. Ok, on to the verdict. The food was great, and the selection was wide...especially the dessert. The different forms of entertainment were a lot, so that was a plus. The only downside I could think of was that considering the price (Dhs 155 per adult, Caila was free), the drinks weren’t included; not even water! Plus, there was no announcement or notice as to what time the magician would be performing so we didn’t know when to catch him. Anyway, I still had a good time...just because it was my birthday =)