Zabeel House, a Staycation in The Greens

Zabeel House is a relatively new hotel chain by The Jumeirah Group. They offer a more modern hotel experience for those who want luxury and comfort at a pretty reasonable price. Zabeel House has a few branches, the one we visited was in the Greens. Since it is located Greens, the hotel is pretty central for the newer side of Dubai.

We had the chance to spend a night at the LG Experience Suite. If you want to check out the experience of all the tech, head on over to the review on Absolute Geeks by clicking here.

Check-In

The entrance and lobby areas of Zabeel House are pretty great. High ceilings with interesting lighting and decoration. You feel welcomed and at ease thanks to the openness.

The check-in process was pretty quick. Head to the check-in desk on the left when you enter, where you give your booking details and IDs. You are then presented with your room keys and you are on your way. Your bags get dropped off shortly after you arrive in your room.

We usually prefer to carry our bags with us, as it always leads to a faster process, but in this case the process was just as quick.

The check-out process is just as easy, but we chose to carry our bags ourselves. If you don’t have any pending amounts to be paid, then you simply check-out, give your valet card at the hotel entrance, load up and you are off. A simple way to end your trip.

Yes this is pretty standard stuff, but you would be surprised how many times this simple task can go wrong. Zabeel House has it down pat, and so it goes off without a hitch.

Hotel Decoration

The general look and feel of the hotel is pretty nice. Zabeel House has a modern, chic look about it. Where you feel like everything is luxurious without feeling expensively over the top.

We found that overall the little attention to detail is pretty nice.

The interior decor is very contemporary without being jarring or overly contrasting. We both loved the overall look and feel.

This design language continues to your floor as well. With the room signage done in an innovative way so that you actually feel like you are coming home. The room number is on a little plaque made of wood, and even has a tiny plant on it. Even the sign that tells you the direction of the room numbers are very nicely done.

To say the least, we were fans of the overall look of Zabeel House the Greens. Jumeirah should be proud.

Room

The room we stayed at is called, The Apartment. It is the epitome of Zabeel House’s room selection and is a one-off room, which is quite different from the rest of their offerings. This particular time, there was a special setup in partnership with LG, built to showcase their special products. This means that if you happen to be in the same room, you probably won’t have the exact same experience. But it should be close enough. 

The Apartment is… well a one bedroom apartment. You enter into the main living space which consists of the living room, dining room and kitchen. The whole space is cozy and just adequate. The decoration is pretty good and carries forward the design language from the rest of the hotel. The room also has a small powder room for the living area.

Heading further in, you get transported into the bedroom with an attached bathroom.

The bathroom is a huge, all glass room. It has a huge tub on one end, and the toilet and shower on the other end. There is a huge empty space in the middle with its combined single sink with two taps. Mentioning all these details might seem strange, but this is the first time we have seen such a setup. It is quite unique.

The bedroom is also quite big with a decent sized bed, a small reading nook and the open closet space. The living experience is very comfortable and when you factor in the price you absolutely feel that it’s worth it.

Restaurants

This review would not be complete unless we speak about the in-house restaurant. It’s called Social Company and is located in the lobby of the hotel. The restaurant is beautifully decorated and has a very relaxed chilled out vibe to it. The music doesn’t get extremely loud and the huge glass windows let in ample light during the day. We had the chance to try them out for both Dinner and Breakfast, but we had two wildly different experiences.

Dinner at Social Company

The ambiance of Social Company at night is rather romantic thanks to the dim lighting and modern aesthetic. We aren’t sure if this is by design, but we liked it. Unfortunately our experience of the food was not that great.

Starters

Burrata Cheese & Heirloom Tomatoes

We love our burrata and so maybe we generally have high expectations of this dish. Unfortunately it just wasn’t up to the mark. The burrata itself was strange, it wasn’t as creamy as you would expect, instead it was a bit chewy. The salad itself was also not great. There was no dressing to speak off and the ingredients didn’t make sense. They also didn’t give any pine nuts, which is an ingredient mentioned in the menu.

We asked the servers for some balsamic vinegar as a dressing as well as the pine nuts that were supposed to be on the dish. We got the balsamic but were informed that the pine nuts were not available. However another server provided us with it after a few minutes. Perhaps a lack of communication there but overall not a great start.

Mains

For mains we ordered the Maple Glazed Salmon. Unfortunately the situation doesn’t get any better with this dish. We felt that the salmon was both overcooked and bland. We only saw the sheen of what must have been a glaze, but unfortunately we didn’t taste it at all. We also got a few boiled vegetables on the side. They were also not seasoned and really not worth it at all.

Dessert

For dessert we had the Chocolate Fudge Brownie. We had some hope that this would redeem the evening. Unfortunately it was a hit or miss dish. The brownie was more of a non-fudgy cake like consistency. We also got some vanilla ice cream, which was pretty good (however it didn’t seem to be made in house). They however seemed to be trying very hard because the dessert was covered in chocolate and caramel sauce, a bit of an overkill of sweetness there. Again nothing great, but actually this turned out to be the best dish of the night. 

The restaurant is licensed, so you can at least wash down the unfortunately disappointing food with some decent drinks.

Breakfast at Social Company

The breakfast was a different experience from dinner. The spread was pretty decent. Nothing too extravagant but with a decent selection that you would expect from a buffet breakfast. 

You get a mix of continental, Arabic and Indian hot and cold dishes. The service was great as well.

They have a made to order egg station at the counter where hot dishes are served. We went with a spicy omelette, our standard order, which was done quite well. There was also fresh fruit, cold cuts and cheese, cereals, a vegan spread and breads and pastries. A decent enough variety to choose from. Coffee and tea is served at your table by the wait staff. We enjoyed all the dishes we tried, which was a breath of fresh air from the previous night’s dinner.

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