Crowne Plaza Festival City -The Opulence Weekend Picnic Pantry

Minus the traditional Scotch eggs, boring sausage rolls, egg pies and even cream filled scones, yet you still can’t resist some of the family-friendly picnic food. From lavish quality barbeque meat and seafood plus a walk-in picnic pantry with artisanal picnic desserts carefully crafted to suit the theme, filling up your picnic basket and enjoy the outdoor on a perfect sunny winter’s day in Dubai on the spacious lawn of semi-shaded benches overlooking Dubai Creek. The weekend splendor of Picnic Pantry in Crowne Plaza Festival City is an opulence of joy to eat, drink and socialize (with required distancing) to start your lazy-easy-breezy weekend. mylifestylenews writes.

The word picnic derives from the French word pique-nique meaning it relates to eating and socializing outdoors with friends and family on a sunny day at the park or beach is what you will be mainly doing. The Dubai brunch scene is going full steam ahead with new options popping up every other week and there aren’t many F&B establishments that have the proper concept or set up that caters for a true picnic experience with the right ambience and spirit.

Yes, the usual brunch where you are spoilt for choice by an enormous buffet sounds perfectly fine if you are not up for any new ideas, but what if you had the option of filling up your own picnic basket with colorful goodies of your choice, as many times as you want and bring it back to your soft cushioned mat well placed on the lawn or outdoor benches to enjoy your spread of outdoor picnic fun. And that is not it, a complimentary pool access where you can enjoy by running back and forth to the pantry to salivate your food craving handsomely as a value-added bonus.

The set up is a mix of picnic tables and benches and bean bags/cushions with mats on the lawn and plenty of umbrellas to shield you from the Dubai sun, should you need to, although some vitamin D is always good.

The concept is simple and straight forward and prior reservation is essential and preferred for proper flow control as well as to secure your preferred spot on the picnic lawn adorned with food carts, sandwiches, wraps, sushi and dessert pantry as well as barbeque and smoke grill station, kid’s corner and more….You can also opt for a picnic with soft drinks, or include the alcohol package with beers, wines and various summer cocktails (Gin Fizz would thirst your quench) from the well stocked outdoor bar. Refreshments were aplenty and while they were from the house pouring menu list, pleasing nonetheless.

PORK STOP station

True BBQ flavours

You are set up with some starters that are brought to your table – fat chips, guacamole corn chips and breads with some homemade spreads – then you proceed to pick up/choose your food from the multiple food stations – ‘your pantry’ – and then have a picnic! The food presentation is beautifully packaged and convenient and then others cooked and plated in takeaway boxes in small portions and you can always go back for more. Sounds like Christmas brunches or celebrations had just been extended but with your spring outfit on.

Fresh breads and homemade spreads delivered in picnic basket

To begin with you are not aware of how extensive the offerings are, as you get to choose from gulf prawns, Norwegian salmon, lamb kofta, chicken drumsticks, corn on the cob, cheese kasekrainer sausages, pork ribs, crispy pork belly, organic Cumberland sausages, braised red cabbage, beef brisket, king fish, rib eye and much more.

While the day was a bit windier than expected, the sun was shining and we felt like we were having a picnic with not a care in the world. The meats from the smoker were delicious, tender and juicy and packed with flavour. The live BBQ was spot on, the big smoker produced a great flavour in everything that came out of the big beast and the pork section had some sensational crispy pork belly and save some room for dessert. Regret not!

Norwegian salmon

With more than 25 items to choose from, the larder fridge had so many choices and such a sensible way to ensure you tried many things by encapsulating a menu item in a seal tight jar that had a few mouthfuls, but not too much that you ran out of our room, so excellently thought through. It is packed with so many jars of tasty goodies: cheeses, pates, salads, sandwiches, assorted sushi, hummus, olives, muhamara, yogurts, fruit salad and then a selection of 10 desserts in a jar. Covering panna cotta, oreo cheesecake, chocolate mousse, lemon meringue tart, salted caramel rice and the list goes on. Absolutely bottomless!

We could go on, but it is well executed and we sampled just about everything in bite size portions to ensure we got a good cross section of all that was on offer. The service is friendly, spot on and cheerful, but of course the idea is that you avail yourself of all the stations and go to the stations when you are in need of more sustenance, but the staff are on hand to assist at any point in time. We left feeling very replete and could not possibly have eaten another mouthful. For a picnic culinary triumph and a weekend outdoor event to remember, this is a winner to everyone!

Tried & Tested:
Location: 4/5
Design & Decor: 4/5
Food & Beverage: 4.5/5
Service: 4/5
Value For Money: 5/5
Experience: 5/5

Picnic Pantry - Crowne Plaza Festival City Dubai

Dubai Festival City

P.O. Box 45777

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Tel: +971 4 701 2222

Reviews are based on actual day of visit and experience. mylifestylenews reserves the right of final decision in case of any disputes. All images are photographed by mylifestylenews team without any photoshop enhancement and are the property owned by mylifestylenews unless otherwise stated.