A Tour of Hyatt Regency Dubai's Unique Staff Office and Dinner at Miyako

When you think of hotels, more often than not you think of comfort and luxury, where everything is beautiful, clean and organized, and all your needs can be taken cared of just by calling Room Service. When you think of the hotel’s backroom, on the other hand, what comes to mind is usually the complete opposite. The corridors, kitchen, and cafeteria used by the backroom staff are hidden and aren’t places you would really be interested to see, because, well, these aren’t exactly pleasing to the eye, right?

However, when the Sales Manager of Hyatt Regency Dubai invited me and my family to visit their hotel, I couldn’t resist. He promised a tour of their one-of-a-kind staff area, and since I’ve never actually seen the hidden side of a five star hotel, I agreed immediately.

So after work on the 1st of May, my family and I met Guillaume at the lobby. He immediately led us up to one of their floors and showed us their Standard King Room which had a beautiful view of Deira and the corniche, impressing my daughters so much Sophie even told me “Mommy, it’s amazing!”

Shahrzad was closed that night, so it gave us the perfect chance to freely look around the hotel’s Persian restaurant. It had a couple of private tables on the balconies, which allowed diners to enjoy views overlooking the hotel lobby while enjoying the sounds of the music coming from the restaurant.

We then followed G into the "No Back of the House" through The Avenue, and saw the absolute opposite of what we expected it to be. Their dining area looked just like a restaurant (definitely not a cafeteria!) and it was so organized and classy! Staff had the option to eat on normal tables, on barstools, or in booths at Casa de Jose.

Avenue Restaurant

Private table at Casa de Jose

They even had their own Living Room where employees could relax and pass away their free time or needed to get away from the stress. It had a television, books to read, an electrical fireplace, and swings!

One of the rooms even had a basketball hoop, beanbags, and a chessboard! Their Training Room was pretty cool too, with an aquarium which gave a relaxed vibe.

Since I didn't take as many photos as I wanted of the hotel's back area (I was just too distracted with everything I saw), here's a video so you can see for yourself how cool it is:

It's like the hotel version of the Google office, huh?!

The last areas we were shown to were one of the hotel’s meeting rooms and their newly remodeled Crystal Ballroom. When lights were turned on while we were in the middle of the ballroom, we just stood there in awe staring up at the ceiling. The lights reflected on the crystals made everything so grand!

Caila even whispered to me “It’s beautiful! I wish I can have a birthday party here.” I wish the same too, anak. Let’s continue wishing together ☺

Finally, Guillaume led us to Miyako Restaurant where he had made a reservation for us.

Following his recommendation, we ordered the Miyako Teppanyaki set which Chef Jaesoun prepared in front of us, entertaining us with his skills at the same time.

We heartily savoured the delicious and perfectly cooked teppanyaki, along with California Maki, Sashimi, Miso soup, Ebi Tempura, and Yaki Udon (which I completely forgot to take a picture of). Quite a lot, huh? Amazingly, we finished almost everything with just a few udon left over.

Although we were quite full, I still wanted to order dessert. That day happened to be my 10th year with the company I work for and I wanted something sweet to celebrate it with. So a few minutes after I asked for their dessert menu, I was surprised when the server brought this matcha cake with fruit toppings…with a chocolate greeting!

The area of that gray-colored thing was an edible logo of the company I work for
(which I hid for security purposes ☺)

Caila and Sophie couldn't stop oohing and ahhing over the cake, so I cut a few slices to see if it tasted as good as it looked...it did!  Of course we couldn't finish the whole cake ourselves, so much to the delight of our little girls, our server placed it in a box for us to take home so that we could still enjoy it later.

My family and I really enjoyed the tour and dinner; especially the little ones who were reluctant to leave.  On our way home, they kept telling us they wanted to live and work there ☺ Big thanks to Guillaume and the staff of Miyako for such a delightful and delicious evening.  It was a great way to celebrate my decade work anniversary.