The rooms offer a wide view of Sheikh Zayed Road. Pullman Dubai JLT
The rooms offer a wide view of Sheikh Zayed Road. Pullman Dubai JLT

Hotel Insider: Pullman Dubai Jumeirah Lakes Towers



The welcome

After the customary detour around the perma-roadworks-blighted JLT that’s necessary to reach almost all of its clusters through an infuriating circular one-way system, we find the Pullman’s small but functional valet entrance. After a short queue at the front desk, a very pleasant receptionist takes us up to the 16th floor for check-in at the executive lounge, and escorts us to our room on the same level.

The neighbourhood

Situated in Cluster T of JLT, the Pullman couldn’t have much better transport links, overlooking Sheikh Zayed Road and the nearby Damac Properties Metro station. It’s a short drive from Dubai Marina and Dubai Media City – although if you’re unfamiliar with the constantly evolving roads in this area, it’s worth taking a taxi rather than risk taking an erroneous slip road and ending up several kilometres in the wrong direction.

The room

Our executive room is well-equipped, with a pleasingly wide king bed (with memory-foam pillows), a widescreen TV on a central island at the end of the bed, a Bose bluetooth dock, Nespresso machine, a dresser near the room door and a mini-sofa. The bathroom is spacious enough, with a deep bath and separate rain shower. The hotel’s position at one end of JLT lends our corner room wide, claustrophobia-free views across Sheikh Zayed Road towards the Marina, and in the distance, the Burj Al Arab.

The scene

The clientele is varied from European and Asian tourists to Gulf families and Levant expats, plus a good influx of British revellers circa brunch o’clock on Fridays. The hotel’s modest, but well-formed range of bars and restaurants gives a welcome choice of atmospheres, from the demure Italian restaurant Manzoni to the tapas bar Amarillo’s funky party chic. We’d love to report back on the Pullman’s spa, but our reservation turns into a shambles. When we arrive, the receptionist has no record of us, and with the spa fully booked, we ignominiously wait around for about 45 minutes to resolve the problem – but to no avail.

The service

Variable. The reception staff and waiters at Manzoni couldn’t be more agreeable; the spa staff are less impressive, while at breakfast in the all-day-dining restaurant Seasons, one or two of the servers regard requests with all the surly cheer of somebody complying at gunpoint.

The food

Manzoni, on the ground floor, and Amarillo, in the basement, are the undeniable picks. The former specialises in Italian fine dining, but prizes friendliness over pretension, serving up reasonably priced dishes such as trotie pasta with an array of seafood (Dh85). Amarillo, by comparison, is much less of a sit-up-straight establishment, with kooky, geographically themed tapas-sized dishes, including the “Chinese” deep-fried vanilla ice cream with tart Szechuan peppercorn-and-redcurrant sauce (Dh40). The breakfast buffet at Seasons is less remarkable, but ticks all the basic boxes.

Loved

The views, the balcony and the location (one-way system aside), as well as Manzoni and Amarillo.

Hated

The spa mix-up. And we spend half a day unable to connect to the Wi-Fi, which is logged into with your room number and surname. It’s not until we switch on the TV and see my name spelled incorrectly on the welcome screen that we realise what’s afoot.

The verdict

You’ll be hard-pressed to find better value at this end of town, with a clutch of above-average dining options for good measure.

The bottom line

Double rooms at the Pullman Dubai Jumeirah Lakes Towers (www.pullmanhotels.com; 04 567 1100) cost from Dh560 per night, including breakfast, Wi-Fi and taxes.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Company%20Profile
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Our legal consultants

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

The specs

Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo

Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed

Power: 271 and 409 horsepower

Torque: 385 and 650Nm

Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Frida%20
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Results

United States beat UAE by three wickets

United States beat Scotland by 35 runs

UAE v Scotland – no result

United States beat UAE by 98 runs

Scotland beat United States by four wickets

Fixtures

Sunday, 10am, ICC Academy, Dubai - UAE v Scotland

Admission is free

Cricket World Cup League Two

Oman, UAE, Namibia

Al Amerat, Muscat

 

Results

Oman beat UAE by five wickets

UAE beat Namibia by eight runs

 

Fixtures

Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia

Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE

Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia

Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia

Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
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Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

BULKWHIZ PROFILE

Date started: February 2017

Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: E-commerce 

Size: 50 employees

Funding: approximately $6m

Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Klipit%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Venkat%20Reddy%2C%20Mohammed%20Al%20Bulooki%2C%20Bilal%20Merchant%2C%20Asif%20Ahmed%2C%20Ovais%20Merchant%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Digital%20receipts%2C%20finance%2C%20blockchain%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%244%20million%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Privately%2Fself-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3EHigh%20fever%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EIntense%20pain%20behind%20your%20eyes%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ESevere%20headache%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EMuscle%20and%20joint%20pains%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ENausea%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EVomiting%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ESwollen%20glands%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ERash%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIf%20symptoms%20occur%2C%20they%20usually%20last%20for%20two-seven%20days%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
TEST SQUADS

Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed.

Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

Batti Gul Meter Chalu

Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5