Iftar Buffet at The Village Club

Our company sponsored an Iftar for its entire staff yesterday. Despite a glitch on the reservation, all went home satisfied, or at least I believe that everybody felt satisfied.

It was a night of fun and a chance of loosening up from the pressure at work especially for the top bosses on project sites.

Iftar is the evening meal taken when Muslims break their fast during Ramadan. Iftar buffets are popular in the UAE. During Ramadan, several hotels and restaurants are offering all-you-can-eat meals. Our company-sponsored Iftar was booked at The Village Club at One to One Hotel. Last night was full-packed and I wonder if it is always the same every single Iftar night.


Photo credit: Jenny (Twin Sister of Agua)

The Iftar buffet at The Village Club is priced at AED110 per head exclusive of tourism tax and service charge. I find the price quite reasonable compared to other buffets hosted by other well-known hotels that cost more. Our colleague though mentioned that the Iftar buffet package at Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi is less expensive than The Village Club.

The food was abundant, mostly Arabic cuisine and a few European dishes plus plenty of deserts such as fresh fruits, cakes, nuts and dried fruits.

I ate just enough. A little taste of almost everything I dare to taste. Everything I put on my plate was delicious. I had bow pasta in cream sauce top with parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves, salmon fillet cooked in cream and lemon, stir-fry broccoli, chicken kebab minus the skewer, circular-sliced potatoes cooked in some herbs. For deserts, I shared with hubby a platter of chocolate cake, slices of watermelon and cantaloupe, dried fruits, pecan nuts and walnuts. My most favorite desert last night was the brazo de mercedes paired with bite-size fresh fruits in season. The slight sourness of the fruits complemented the overly sweet brazo de mercedes. Hubby did not like it much though.

The chicken kebab was the only Arabic food I tried last night because it just looks like grilled chicken breast. I wasn’t brave enough to try another Arabic dish. Hubby tried the lamb biryani (I forgot the Arabic term for it but it looked like biryani to me). Biryani is a rice-based food made of basmati (long grain) rice, spices and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. Also, he particularly liked the smoked salmon on his salad plate.

The selection of drinks were smoothies of different kinds of fruits, which I fail to remember except for the watermelon that I welcomed happily since it is my favorite, and fresh orange juice. Water on bottle is not included on the buffet but can be ordered separately, which costs at AED10 per bottle. Likewise, coffee and tea were available on separate orders, and shisha too!

Overall, the experience was great. We had fun seating on the traditional Arabic floor couch, despite the occasional gliding, and posing for lots of picture taking.