Ramadan treats: Lamb thereed

Roasted pumpkin, goat cheese and walnut salad, part of the iftar meal at the Intercontinental Hotel. The National.

I had the chance to savour yet another iftar on Sunday night, this time at Selections, Intercontinental Abu Dhabi’s all day dining restaurant.

I haven’t eaten at Selections before so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this was a buffet with a view. It’s on the third floor of the InterCon and it offers beautiful views of the beach and marina.

The restaurant was packed for iftar, which is always a good sign. As I wandered around looking for something new, I needed to look no further than the salads.

Selections has many more salads than you’d expect at a buffet and I was happy with each one I tried. There were a few that stood out: a small, fresh crab salad in a shot glass; the roasted pumpkin, goat cheese and walnut salad and the watermelon, feta cheese and balsamic vinegar salad.

I was told most of the salads are not unique to the iftar; that these are available during regular hours as well. That will warrant more trips to Selections in the future.

Ready for heartier food, I sampled the meats and found some great flavours in the lamb thereed. I have to say this is one of the tastiest thereeds I’ve had. And then I tried the feteer meshaltet — this alone is worth a trip to the iftar at Selections.

This Egyptian speciality is a flaky, layered dough that’s baked pizza-style. Once baked, it’s topped with cheese and honey. I went back for seconds and I would have gone back for thirds had I not stumbled into the dessert section. There are plenty of sweets to choose from — I had a pistachio/yogurt combo that didn’t take long to devour.

The food at this iftar is a little more interesting and has more depth of flavour than the food I’ve tried at many of the other iftars. This is clearly a result of the executive chef’s experience.

Intercontinental’s executive chef is Danny Kattar, who won Gourmet Abu Dhabi’s Executive Chef of the year in 2013. His culinary excellence and know-how shows in the wide range of dishes on offer. I was full and happy at the end of the night — this is definitely an iftar to remember.