Friday Fundamentals Brunch at Saffron, Atlantis, The Palm

"Tell us about your first impressions when you arrived.Red carpet, red tables, even red overhead lighting…an entirely crimson room isn’t easy to pull off, but somehow Saffron manages to make it look plush rather than gaudy. What was the crowd like?Saffron’s Friday Fundamentals brunch is known as a party brunch, so expect to see 20 to 30-year old professionals drinking, filling their plates and dancing to the resident DJ (cue nineties hits). What should we be drinking?Drinks are served at spirit-specific bars, and will take you straight back to drunken university days. Those days are best remembered via the After Shock Bar, or the Slushee Bar. If that’s a little too down and dirty, a visit to the champagne and prosecco bar should do the trick. Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown—especially what not to miss.Saffron boasts that its brunch offers over 220 dishes, so arrive hungry. The barbecue station does a full English breakfast, complete with duck bacon and homemade beans. Anyone craving Chinese will love the dim sum selection, served on a Lazy Susan. The chef at the Asian wok station can whip up fresh bowls of Singapore noodles, and the signature crab is great too. Dessert’s pretty standard: pastries, gelato, freshly made waffles, plus some delicious date-based Arabic sweets. What’s the real-real on why we’re coming here?This is the kind of brunch to drag a group of your friends to for an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink, all-out party. Things don’t end at brunch closing time of 4pm – head out for the ‘Brunch There, Daydream Here!’ post-brunch party at N’Dulge, Atlantis’s nightclub." - Maresa Manara