George & Dragon

Basic British in Bur Dubai's oldest hotel Discuss this article

Situated in the Ambassador Hotel, the very first hotel to be built in Bur Dubai, the George and Dragon is an institution. The interior is predictable of an old mock-English boozer, apart from the large stained glass windows depicting George jousting with the dragon. The essentials are all there: pool table, dartboard and television; mottled walls hung with a jumble of pictures; banquettes bearing the stains of years’ worth of spilt drinks; and a team of portly regulars looking as much a part of the furnishings as the stools at the bar.

Although the hotel is 35 years old, the George and Dragon only goes back 15 years, (still, that’s old by Dubai standards.) Our waiter, who had been there for most of that time was a mine of information, and an asset to the establishment. The service was very quick and he was helpful and obliging. This is a man’s pub and is frequented predominantly by visiting sailors and middle-aged drinkers.

The menu offers starters, sandwiches, mains and puddings. The deep-fried Camembert was fried to a stage well beyond golden crispness. The Mahogany coloured crumbs formed an impenetrable barrier around the cheese, which was disconcertingly rubbery inside; not the usual molten cream running out. The ‘steak, mushroom and Guinness pie’ with mash and vegetables can only be described as boarding school food, on a bad day. The pie was a square of solid gelatinious mass cut from an even bigger square, with pasty pastry on the top. The peas and carrots had been boiled to an unhappy shade of grey and the mash was watery and unseasoned. We left without trying any apple pie or ice cream.

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