Glory for Reflets at Time Out Restaurant Awards

[L-R] Etienne Haro, Kieron Haro, Christian Knerr, Tom Lord, Tom Meyer, Olivier Biles, Steven Greenwood and Katerina Dixon.

“To us, fine dining simply means the highest quality possible, the best we can achieve to provide excellence to our clientele,” he explained. “But there’s no special formula — you just have to put in the work and do what you do.

InterContinental Hotels Group Dubai Festival City area general manager Tom Meyer said he was “delighted for the Reflets team”.

“I think our restaurant has succeeded where perhaps many other restaurants haven’t — that is, in looking after the interests of every single diner,” he said.

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“I don’t think there’s another restaurant that’s so focused on everyone’s experience. They’ve done an amazing job with that."

Other big winners on the night included Al Qasr Hotel, Madinat Jumeirah, which took home gongs for Best Friday Brunch, Best Romantic Restaurant and Best Seafood Restaurant; and newcomer Desert Palm, which won the coveted title of Best Steakhouse Restaurant as well as Best International Restaurant.

The property’s F&B manager, Emily Shaw, said the key to their outlets’ success was consistency in food and service, with an additional personal touch.

“It’s much more of a personalised service that we offer; we’re not stiff. We are fine dining in the aspect of service, and in the aspect of quality of food, but we offer a very personalised service. If a customer comes in and wants something very different to anything on our menu, then we will develop that,” she said.

Executive chef Lionel Boyce added: “I think we can sum it up too by saying we’ve made a good base and now it’s matter of growing that base, improving on what we’ve built so far.”