Following my recent post on the joys of discovering Balance 360 Cafe, I had the pleasure to be invited back to the Balance 360 for their bloggers event – a proper introduction to the services provided by the Balance 360 wellness centre.  Being new to the blogging world, I had no idea what to expect…

I was greeted by the lovely Rishi, from the Landmark Group’s PR agency, APCO, who ushered me into the spa and through to one of the yoga studios for an introduction from the Spa Manager, Sabrina Martorana, accompanied with an amazing fresh watermelon juice!  Sabrina explained the ethos behind Balance 360 –  a health club that takes care of your holistic wellness- mind, body & soul through an offering of Ayurvedica and organic therapies, treatments and treats.   Sabrina then introduced us to the spa’s Ayurvedic practitioner, Dr. Chandy George.  Dr. Chandy outlined the basic principals of Ayurvedic philosophy, described how applying these principals to our lives we can be healthier, and how the centre’s treatments are prescribed according to these principals.  Next came yoga with a brief outline of yoga and the benefits of regular practice, a demonstration of a sun salutation, we did a bit of pranayama (yogic breathing) and a seated twist to help activate the digestive system.

Our tour of the spa facilities totally wowed me; the spa is vast and very beautifully designed, which seemed miraculous considering it’s unfortunate surroundings!  We went from room to room to room, each was individual, stylishly decorated in line with the different type of therapy/treatment offered; from sleek changing, shower and sauna areas, a Thai massage room with massage bed and huge spa bath, to the Moroccan hammam room with it’s warmed marble massage table, en suite facilities and beautifully decorated dome ceiling and mosaic alcoves.  Oh and everywhere smelt just heavenly!  As we toured we were loaded up with samples of from the Ila product range, stocked in the Balance 360 boutique.

I had no idea Balance 360 was offering this level of luxury especially when it charges such reasonable prices for it’s treatments, prices that are comparable with any of the chain beauty/nail salons, but what Balance 360 offers looks and i’m sure feels a thousand times more special.

From there we were taken to the food, our area of expertise!  We started off at the Cookery School where Head chef, Yogesh Kumar Rambhujun, gave us a demonstration of how to cook steamed fish with green papaya salad.  The dish was effortless to make with simple ingredients, very little actual cooking, and was incredibly tasty.  I’m ashamed to say I haven’t put what I learnt into practice, yet!

To top off our morning programme we were treated to a three course meal at the Balance 360 Cafe.  I opted for the soup, then grilled fish, with a pear crumble as desert.  The soup was quite bland; mild, buttery and unoffensive.  The grilled fish was beautifully cooked; moist with a really nice flavour, served up on a bed of kidney beans with tomatoes.  This is really my kind of food, simple cooking which allows the real flavour of each ingredient to shine through; no unnecessaries like heavy sauces or stodgy carbs to pad out a dish.  Dessert was a cute little pear crumble topped sponge with a blob of beautiful mango sorbet, absolutely delicious and just enough to hit that sweet spot!  As if that wasn’t enough for the sweet spot, Rishi treated us to a taste (ok, all of!) the chocolate brownies he’d ordered to take away – amazing melt in your mouth, definitely one for treat day!

I left Balance 360 happy in the knowledge there is somewhere is Dubai that offers organic junkies like me a retreat without the ‘small fortune’ price tag…oh and a bag full of goodies!

I shall definitely be going back to find out what their therapies and treatments are like, and I may just have to work my way through each and every room I saw, this could take some time people! Watch this space!