RESTAURANT REVIEW: FAWANEES RAMADAN TENT
RATING
**
Generally, I’m not a fan of Ramadan tents and try to avoid them as much as possible. Except sometimes, social occasions require me to frequent them, because that’s where everyone wants to go!
My husband and I decided we needed to get out of our comfort zone, and go out past 10 PM for a change. So we headed to Fawanees, the newly launched Ramadan tent at the Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi.
Fawanees is Arabic for “lanterns”, and you will find many of those hanging around the tent. Upon arriving, I could immediately see the dim, red/purple lighting emanating from inside the tent, with the faint sounds of classic Arabic music being played, while a hostess stood outside welcoming guests. She didn’t have much to do as only two tables were filled out, while the rest were completely empty. At first glance, I could immediately tell that the decor was very old-school. The drapes, the lighting, the carpet, the tables set up, the chairs, and the colors were all really old fashioned.
As soon as we took our seats, we were handed the menu, which is quite extensive and gives you a very good variety of options. My husband ordered the Sahlab, which is a traditional Middle Eastern drink that is popular during the winter months, with its rich, creamy and sweet consistency with a hot milk base meant to warm your bones. I ordered a good old Americano, a much needed beverage on those long Ramadan evenings. We were both really happy with our drinks, the Americano was really good and immediately hit the spot, whilst the Sahlab had the right consistency and sweetness, but could have done with more nuts to top it off.
We then skipped all the appetizers and main courses and went straight to desserts. We ordered a fruit platter and knafeh to share, and then took out our backgammon board game (which we brought along with us), and began to play. We weren’t sure how much time had passed, but we were halfway through our second game when we realized our order hadn’t arrived yet. It was strange, because 1. our order did not require any extensive preparation or assembling or cooking, and 2. there was barely anyone else at the tent.
We continued playing, and a little while later we finally got our fruits and knafeh. The fruit platter was really good, with a good selection of fruits that was refreshing. The knafeh on the other hand was not great. It was cold, the cheese to knafeh ratio was far from equal and most disappointing of all, the cheese would not stretch. A good knafeh will be warm, crunchy, and gooey with cheese that melts and stretches for days! The sugar syrup served with it for flavor was really good though, with the right sweetness and balance of sugar, rose water and orange blossom water. Shame that the knafeh did not live up to expectations.
Throughout, there was a performer playing his oud and singing old classic Arabic music that added a nice touch to the overall vibe of the place, but it wasn’t enough to bring it to life.