For me, The Pavilion is a work of art: exhibition space, mini-cinema, library, ‘working-from-home‘ office, living room, and café serving up truly great food with attentive yet un-intrusive service.

We arrived one Saturday morning for a late breakfast with the intention of staying for a few hours to enjoy the space and food.

The space:

The building itself is low lying, glass fronted to make the most of it’s view of the tallest building in the world, with a little light building work thrown into the foreground, just so you don’t forget where you are.  Light and airy, with a living wall, with such a great feeling of space you so rarely find in eateries, the aim is usually to jam as many people in to maximise income, well not here and it works really well.

There’s a mixture of seating options, you can dine outside on squat sofas or at table & chairs under a parasol, then inside there’s a mixture of benched communal tables, four seater booths, the shed, and if you’re not there for food, or after you’ve finished, you can chill out on some very comfy sofas.

The innovative work/eat/chill spaces, like the ‘shed’, and a living wall made the Pavillion just that little bit more special.

The food:

Range of breakfast, salads, sandwiches & wraps, more substantial main courses, deserts, and hot and cold drinks, including fresh juices and smoothies.

Milky Date and Cardamom smoothie – fabulously thick and super tasty with little pearls of date delight flavoured heavily with cardamom.  A real taste sensation and something a little bit different from the usual fruit smoothies.

Egg Basket – two perfectly soft poached eggs on little fluffy flat breads, served with an frazzled falafel, a little bowl of foul medames (bean mixture) and hummus.  What you get was exactly how it was described on the menu, everything is fresh looking and hot.  The only let down being the falafel, I do like falafel, but this was a wee bit overcooked & crispy for me, however, I won’t bear a grudge!  For me, the portion size was just right, I wasn’t feeling glutinously full which meant there was room for a treat…

Pain au chocolate – two rather cute looking mini two-bite chocolate croissants, perfectly designed for sharing when you’re halfway through digesting your main breakfast!

Green tea with fresh peppermint leaves – fresh and clean tasting tea served in very cute glass & saucer.

Mango Lassie – another thick, flavourful and gloriously sunny smoothie.

Complimentary bread basket & Arabic dips.

I didn’t try the cakes on this occasion, however, they looked fresh and extremely tempting, although not as home-made looking as i’d like, the proof would be in the tasting…next time, watch this space, in the mean time, prepare to drawl…

Presentation:

Everywhere and everything in the Pavillion looked clean and nicely presented.  Food was artfully laid out on crisp white crockery.  I was rather taken by the glass cup & green saucer.

Pricing:

Very reasonably priced for great quality, tasty food, in a very cool urban space.

Service:

You get a hello on arrival, are allowed to hunt down your own seat and the guys are always around should you need to order that extra smoothie.

The staff knew all about the exhibitions, were happy to give me a mini tour of their space, including their kitchen, and tell me about their food offerings as I drawled over their cakes.

Contact:

http://pavilion.ae/

Tel: +971 4447 7025

Categories:

Alfresco dining, café, art, something a little different, chillaxing