Downtown Rotana, the new five-star property of the Rotana Group umbrella is what BTW is talking about this week based on its first-hand experience of a fantastic and soul-sating stay! Nestled in the heart of Bahrain, steps away from the key business and financial hubs on one hand and at a walking distance from Bab-al-Bahrain, and the traditional ‘suq’, this is a perfect haven for business or leisurely stay, corporate meets and mind-blowing banquets and dining experiences.
It was late evening when I reached Downtown Rotana with my cameraman. The elegant and colossal 26-floor Downtown Rotana stood invitingly beautiful silhouetted by the neons of the evening. The lights of the cityscape around it got enchantingly reflected by the hotel’s glass exterior.
As we entered, we were touched by the genuinely warm smiling faces of the staff everywhere—right from the vallet parking to the front desk and the lobby.
Downtown Rotana boasts of extremely stylish and spacious rooms suites that range between 36 sq metres to about 110 sq metres depending on the kind of room one chooses: from the Classic rooms (available in both King and Twin size), to the Club Rotana suites (one bedroom and 2 bedrooms), the 26-floor property offers 249 stylish luxury rooms and suites that are plush and complete with modern facilities and amenities, and most importantly, extremely efficient high-speed Internet. I was booked at the Club Rotana Premium Room that offers access to the Club Rotana Lounge where one can enjoy private and express check-in and check-out, a classy lounge offering complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea, evening cocktails, with complimentary use of the boardroom and Deluxe in-room amenities. After a quick look at the room that I was booked at, I set off on a tour of the property with the Manager on Duty, Mr Hisham Boubarakeh, the IT Director of the hotel and my cameraman to know more about all the facilities and services.
We learnt that catered to meet business needs, the hotel offers extremely modern and technologically advanced board rooms, banquet halls and meeting rooms of various sizes as per requirement with highly efficient Internet packages, projectors, video-conferencing facilities. Clubbed with that is the hotel’s banquet facilities that are tailor-made keeping the client’s requirements in mind.
Downtown Rotana possesses Bodylines fitness and wellness club that includes a state-of the art gym, an open-air pool and jacuzzi, steam, Sauna and spa treatment rooms.The gym as we noted was well- equipped with a fitness trainer for personal training. A variety of health and fitness membership packages tailored for singles, couples, families, as well as corporate usage at extremely affordable rates makes it an irresistibly attractive feature of the hotel. Adjacent to this is the open-air infinity pool and the relaxation area. While the pool is accessible both for a leisurely swim as well as serious training by coaches available in-house, the spa offers rejuvenating treatments including aromatherapy massages, active muscle massage (sports massage/deep tissue), Swedish massage, hot stone experience, and back, neck and shoulder massages.
While showing us around, Mr Hisham diligently shared with us all these details and then led us to Downtown Rotana’s signature restaurant, Teatro Downtown, where the F&B team received us with utmost cordiality. Teatro Downtown is a derivative from the word ‘Theatre’ and as the name suggests, is extremely awe-striking and theatrical in its interiors with an enormously large cellar of wine from several countries, an open kitchen live cooking stations, a Peking duck oven and two tandoori ovens on display and a modern bar. The restaurant boasts of over 130 exclusive dishes from Italian, Indian, Chines, Japanese and South East Asian cuisines. Chef Sanjeewa displayed to us the mind boggling Crème Brûlée on the lid as well as the Cappuccino Mushroom Soup, absolute gourmet wonders for and masterpieces of an artistic chef!
It was also breathtakingly fascinating to watch Bartender Tarun prepare the Downtown Tokyo and Tiffin Punch cocktails both refreshingly fascinating in their ingredients and truly unique and close to heart in their presentations, reaffirming the artistry that goes behind every dish prepared at Rotana worldwide.
Our dinner was delectable and while all the dishes were awesome enough to be written home about, the ones that need a special mention are the Crab Cake, Steamed Edamame, Teatro vegetable spring rolls, served with an assortment of sauces, paired with Tom Yum seafood soup. The main course was extremely delightful followed by the sweet ending, the Big Show: Teatro’s favourite dessert tasting platter of which the Banana Wontons and the Lemongrass Crème Brulee.
With a sated soul, I retired for the day to my luxurious room where the ceiling to floor glass walls made Bahrain’s panoramic night view look celestial.
The next morning was slated for a lazy, sumptuous and multi-cuisine breakfast buffet spread at Flavours restaurant, refreshingly bright and sunlit by the hotel’s unique architectural wonder of the continuous glass exterior. The fresh green and marine blue interiors is certainly a treat to the eye of guests especially those who are there on business and hardly find respite from their busy schedule. I was greeted here by Ms Rola Khatib, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, who told me that the restaurant offers an incredibly affordable Friday brunch with quality alcohol and unbelievable low charges! What’s more, the hotel offers free valet parking for over 200 cars that saves guests from hunting around a parking in the busy downtown!
Besides the Teatro Downtown and the Flavours restaurants, Downtown Rotana offers two more F&B outlets: City Lobby Lounge and the Sundeck Pool Bar.
My leisurely breakfast was followed by an aromatherapy massage at the spa which helped every nerve and sinew of my workaholic body unwind, loosen up and relax, and my soul wonder into the dreamland that the soft piped music weaved.
After a relaxing soak in the tub following this, it was time for lunch where Ms Rola Khatib joined me along with our camera man and we tucked into an assortment of delicious salads, sea food, sushi and sashimi, Lebanese mezzes, and out-of-the-world Indian and
Italian dishes.
As the clock ticked away and my stay was coming to its end, I wished I could stay a bit longer as within that short stay I had made quite a few friends amongst the staff who with their charming smiles had already made me feel quite at home.
As I checked out from Downtown Rotana, satiated, the gorgeous and elegant Rotana stood tall, perhaps confident to soon become the Island’s primary destination for business and leisure travel and meets, as well as exclusive dining experiences!