The new Waldorf Astoria has opened its doors, and the property’s ability to stay true to its brand while still being unique enough to clearly feel like a DIFC property is remarkable. The property welcomes you in with emerald green marble floors, clean cuts, and a very luxurious bank feel. You then take the elevator up past all the offices to reach the hotel. We were invited to dine at the newest talk of the town: Bull & Bear.
Since it opened in New York in 1931, The Waldorf Astoria has been a popular hub for Manhattan and Wall Street’s financial elite, with Bull & Bear being the steakhouse come men’s club of choice. Bull & Bear DIFC definitely has more of a Dubai flair to it. It’s more modern, has the quintessential Dubai touch of gold, and feels a lot less mahogany and has much cooler tones like marble, cobalt and Yale blue.
Keeping in mind that this is the hotel’s breakfast, lunch and dinner restaurant, it’s great. It’s easily one of the nicest ‘all day diners’ I’ve been to. Ambience and fit-outs play a huge roll in how enjoyable a meal is for me, and I was completely taken by the hues of blue, bronze and gold. The food was all beautifully presented too, and while most of the food was enjoyable, to be quite honest nothing stood out enough for me to distinctly remember it’s flavors or crave after I left.
Here’s what we had:
It was a hot day, so the first thing I requested was a Ginger & Elderflower mocktail. It was delightfully refreshing and excellently balanced. It didn’t taste overly sweet or syrupy, nor did it taste like cheap ginger ale (a valid fear).
I. LOVE. BREAD. My excitement when I saw this plump, warm boule of bread and disc of perfectly demi-sel butter placed on our table cannot be put in words, but I’m sure my dilating pupils said it all. I could’ve easily eaten two of these, with thick slathers of butter. I’d go back just to have more of the actually.
I also particularly enjoyed the ginger and soy glazed yellowfin tuna tataki with pickled cucumber, white radish, yuzu pearls and avocado mousse.
The iconic ‘Alligator Pear” was sadly most underwhelming. It had no balance or boldness of flavors, was quite bland and didn’t;t do justice to the description on the menu.
What I’d go back for: the John Stone Dry Aged Beef Tartare. As stated on the menu itself, ‘John Stone’s premium cattle and hand-reared in Ireland, contentedly grazing for a minimum of 300 days to produce beef that’s renowned for its rich marbling and distinctive flavor.’ With saffron aioli, Bull & Bear DIFC is able to give a unique and local touch to this classic and it was quite sublime, especially once smeared on toasted bread.
I wasn’t a big fan of the ‘prawn cocktail’, mainly because I don’t like saffron, of which the force was strong in this one.
I did however like the burrata, and the presentation was easily my most favorite ever! Love those paper-thin slices of dried tomato in there, as well as the variety of locally farmed tomatoes.
The 180 gram tenderloin steak was perfectly medium, just as we had requested, which we enjoyed with the chimichurri sauce.
The organic half chicken is what really caught me by surprise, as I find the ‘healthier’ option to be dry and under-seated more often than not, almost as if the chef didn’t even bother trying. This one, however, was juicy, succulent, nicely seasoned and beautifully seared.
Dessert was ‘The Big Apple’, and wasn’t just all talk! This homage to Bull & Bear NYC featured apples four ways, and was a whimsical play on textures with the right amounts of sweet, salty and nutty.
The million dollar question: would I go back? For a lunch meeting, yes.
