Mrs BTR and I arrived for dinner after drinks at Uptown Bar (Also at JBH - see separate blog) and were greeted by name and awareness of my booking for our special occasion of our 5 year anniversary - a very nice touch that I believe should come as standard in high quality establishments.
The table we were given was as requested, viewing the Burj Al Arab by the window and perfectly matched the special occasion, and from here we were also able to view the evening entertainment of music and dancing - all of these providing an excellent dinner experience.
Food - The quality of food was excellent; for starter we had the Pepper Gratin and Tempura Prawn, both of which were of a very good quality, portion size and I could have eaten twice over for sure.....I even stole a bit of Mrs BTR's prawn as it was so good to be honest. The breads that came prior to the starters were also freshly baked and warm and therefore very nice to eat with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Mrs BTR and I both had the rib eye steak for main, which was cooked to a perfect medium, was juicy and well delivered. With this we had some of the seasonal vegetable and thick cut chips. The vegetables could be less oily, but were ok.
Our dinner at La Parrilla was excellent.....but not quite perfect, for just a couple of reasons:
- We ordered our starters and asked for a few minutes to then order our mains - partly so that our dinner wasn't rushed and we could fully enjoy the evening. However, when the breads arrived the starters almost arrived straight after (within 1-2 minutes) and therefore we had to eat our hot starts before eating some of the fresh bread.
- Unfortunately, when we finished our starters our main courses also arrived very quickly after and it was quite rushed which is a shame as we would have liked to have let our starters go down before enjoying the steak. This is pretty much the restaurants only downfall for our dinner as everything else was of a very high standard and they went the extra mile for our special occasion.
Service - The overal service of the staff and restaurant was excellent, and when we did not order dessert as we wanted to have something downstairs in another part of JBH to my total surprise our waitress brought out a small dessert saying Happy Anniversary. This touch from the restaurant was really appreciated and a touch of class you expect from such an establishment........However, although our waitress was good throughout and very helpful and friendly, when we ate our steaks she did not check with us at any point if the food was ok, or that our steaks were cooked as requested.
Overall - an excellent dinner and experience provided by La Parrilla for a special occasion, and hopefully if we visit in future the timing issues between courses will be resolved.
BTR Expert Tip - Reserve a table in advance and request a window table viewing the Burj Al Arab.