“A popular sports bar, offering a variety of crafted and creative drinks, Appaloosa is a casual venue which combines great American food, customary beverages and a lively ambience.” Marriott Al Forsan
Marriott Al Forsan recently launched their B.Y.O.F casual Friday Brunch at the hotel’s upmarket sports bar, Appaloosa. The four-hour table brunch offers sharing platters of American-inspired pub grub accompanied by a range of free-flowing premium beverages.
Held every Friday between 1pm and 5pm the brunch is particularly affordable, especially with the free-flowing drinks, at just AED 249 per person or AED 222 per person if a party of ten or over. As mentioned it’s a table brunch so food and drinks are served to you, platters can be reordered if you like a certain dish and the staff are friendly. The drinks menu offers a selection of beer, wine and mixology options alongside gins prepared at your table from a frequently visiting bartender and his trolley.
The food options were a little underwhelming, starters consisted of some poorly presented salads, a 70’s prawn cocktail and some grilled flat bread with dips. The second platter was better with breaded brie served with relish, BBQ chicken wings and mushrooms on toast topped with cheese. Next up was butter chicken, lamb pie and fish and chips, as there was no vegetarian option the staff kindly arranged for me to have a veggie burger.
Pork lovers would enjoy the piggy platter that included a huge Bavarian pork knuckle served on potatoes, sticky belly ribs with apple slaw and bangers and mash with onion gravy but sadly again no vegetarian option on the regular menu for this course. Dessert also failed to impress with a somewhat bland New York style cheesecake and Kaiserschmarm, strips of Austrian pancakes made with rum soaked raisins and served with a fruit dipping sauce.
The Abu Dhabi brunch market is a crowded place so making a good impression is always important, sadly the Appaloosa brunch didn’t quite hit the mark with us. Sadly it lacked atmosphere and was extremely quiet when we visited. You either sit inside the very smoky bar and enjoy the live band or sit outside on the terrace where you can just about make out the muffled music through the glass. Outdoor speakers would connect the two areas and up the tempo of the whole affair, I felt the bands efforts were somewhat wasted as half the guests couldn’t hear them.
If you like laid back, casual brunch with pub grub or maybe you live in Khalifa and fancy trying something different in your neighbourhood then this is the brunch for you. Top tip bring a big group of friends and create your own party atmosphere.
Appaloosa B.Y.O.F Friday Brunch
Location: Marriott Al Forsan, Al Fursan Street, Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Telephone: 02 201 4000
Website: www.marriottalforsanlife.com/dining/appaloosabar
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I was invited to review the brunch. Unless otherwise stated, all photos on this page © Jo Brett 2019. All rights reserved. First photo used with courtesy of www.marriottalforsanlife.com/dining/appaloosabar