Dubai: Opening Party at Hotel Cartagena JW Marriott Marquis

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to the Hotel Cartagena Opening Party at JW Marriott Marquis. Hotel Cartagena is a Latin American fusion restaurant/bar on the 72^nd floor, so it goes without saying that the view is quite awesome up there. They’ve also done an excellent job transforming the restaurant into what seems like a grown-up version of Rainforest Cafe sans the wild animals (thank god!), and I really liked the vibe of the place.

The party was kicked off with cocktails in the bar upstairs. I think we made our way through most of the drinks menu, before it was time to go downstairs and have dinner. First out was a selection of starters including some quite amazing crab empanadas. Crispy on the outside and stuffed with juicy crab meat.

Then followed a spot-on ceviche, a couple of giant grilled prawns and a bowl of delicious purple goo with raw tuna. I’ve forgot the name of the dish, and I couldn’t find an online menu, but you can see it in the photos below. We had to leave before the main courses arrived, but if you want to read more about the food at Hotel Cartagena, I know that there’s an extensive review of the restaurant over at A to Za’atar.

I went to the party at Hotel Cartagena with Angela, who is one of my new Dubai friends. She’ll soon be moving to Hong Kong, so I really want to see her as much as possible, while she’s still here. She’s a very good writer, and she also has a blog, the.ac.discourse, which you can read here. Maybe you can help me convince her to update more frequently?

Hotel Cartagena, 72nd floor JW Marriott Marquis, Business Bay, Dubai, Tel: +971(0)45601799