Cocoa Room by breakfast, Slider Station by lunch.
Hidden away in a corner of the Galleria mall, Cocoa Room has been recommended to me by a few people, and to the delight of Insta-bloggers, it is ranked as one of Dubai’s most ‘Insta worthy‘ restaurants by Zomato. Having previously been turned away for no space, I made it a point to start my Friday here last week. Surprisingly, although it made up the busiest portion of the rather quiet Galleria mall, it wasn’t as crowded as I had anticipated. Here’s a place with decent tasting breakfast, a cosy and vibrant ambience, but unfortunately service that does little to complement the food and vibe.
The hostess showed us tables by the entrance, and told us the more spacious lit up area was already full. When I asked how much the wait would be or if we could just walk through it, she seemed unwilling and rather rude. We just went back to the original area by the window and placed our order. We started off with an orange juice and a green apple juice. Although I’ve had great orange juice elsewhere to and this was no exception, I feel like I need to talk about how amazingly fresh the green apple juice was – it was like drinking a green apple, if you know what I mean.
Both my friend and I ordered from the ‘Eggs & More’ section. I got the ‘hit me waffles‘, while she got the ‘eggs menemen‘. Since we were both doing savory dishes, we decided to share the nutella donut later (great call!). The rest of the servers were helpful, however the overall service was definitely on the slower side.
To our disappointment, the menemen arrived a good 15 minutes before the waffles, and my friend ended up having to wait quite a bit for my food. I thought bringing out mains at the same time was assumed, unless asked or specified. That being said, both the menemen and the waffles were very visually appealing. The scrambled eggs (menemen) had a flavorful tomato-onion base, but they were no where close to the ‘extra spicy’ we had requested. That wasn’t too much of an issue because we ordered black pepper as well as chilli flakes on the side. We replaced the arabic bread with toast, and thoroughly enjoyed the mediterranean-style eggs. The ‘hit me waffles’ were made of layers consisting of: poached eggs, roasted chicken and jalapeño potato waffles, covered in chipotle hollandaise, bacon and cheddar. The portion was quite large and although I tried to find the distinct flavors, it’s a bit of a blur now that I look back. I have to admit I had never had potato waffles, and the entire combination of potato waffles with chicken and eggs was quirky in a fun way to say the least. Kudos for creativity! I found the pulled roasted chicken however was overcooked and very dry, which was kind of a bummer. The poached eggs were delish though, and the right texture too.
I have a very sweet tooth and have always typically been a ‘sweet for breakfast’ kind of a person. It comes as no surprise then that the nutella donut was the highlight of my meal. It was brought out with a nutella-filled syringe leading to the inside of a donut. Expect Cocoa Room to give something as simple as a nutella donut such unique presentation. Insta worthy for sure. The donut was super fresh, and with nutella on top, also irresistible.
Overall, a vibrant place with unique but tasty breakfast choices. Great juices, fresh breakfast, lots of interesting fusion-y things to come back for. All Cocoa Room (desperately) needs is better service.
Farah gives Cocoa Room a 4/5.
FilmyFarah 