The much talked and publicized new boom of Dubai already spilled across many sectors of the economy and affected the day-to-day lives of most of the city’s residents.
Not only the real estate agents increased property prices and their commissions. Food retailers followed the example and hiked the cost of basic products. Even at Costa café now a Latte costs 17 Dirhams instead of 16. Starbucks is more considered in that sense and hiked the prices only of it’s bakery delights. And if multinational business operators follow international standards in their pricing policies, local outlets have no such restrictions and increases are implemented with a full speed and capacity.
For our unpleasant surprise, this disputable tendency affected one of the greatest breakfast experiences at the Dubai Mall.
You most probably know the Fauchon café at the center of the Fashion Avenue. It is very popular and proportionally busy. Visitors occasionally can see royals there, while many pretty women are present on daily if not hourly basis.
The reason for the popularity of the café is not only its great location and spectacular public, but also the good breakfast it offers. When we say good, we mean fresh food and fast and friendly service which were offered for a great value for money until recently. Before all, Fauchon café is located in a shopping mall, but not on the 122nd floor of Burj Khalifa or within the seven stars-aiming Burj Al Arab.
Yes, back then it was the great Fauchon breakfast experience! Unfortunately, today may be an expensive and disappointing experience. Some great and good characteristics turned into the opposite. Eggs arrive cold and oily, while the fruits are visibly from yesterday or even the day before. The size of a croissant shrank three times since before. However, the most surprising is the fact that coffee is removed from the Fauchon breakfast.
But what is the breakfast without coffee? The answer is simple! You should order the coffee additionally for an extra cost of 39 Dirhams. Yes, indeed, the cappuccino at Fauchon café now costs 39 Dirhams and it doesn’t taste as good as the Starbucks cappuccino which is also three times larger.
But, there is no mistake – neither the ownership, nor the management of Fauchon café has changed. Simply they adjusted their new pricing policies to the upcoming Dubai boom.
So, the Fauchon café modified the Fauchon breakfast in two ways in order to benefit at earliest from the new boom. At first, they increased the price of the Fauchon breakfast with seven dirhams – from 45 to 52. Secondly, they removed from it the coffee. Additionally, the price of the cappuccino was hiked.
Now, the Fauchon breakfast with cappuccino comes to 91 dirhams – double than before. Pretty steep! The food is not so fresh as before and the service is not as friendlier either, but the double price is a real pullback.
Most probably, we are not the first to experience this changes. Actually, in the beginning of our latest visit it was surprising why the café is nearly empty during regular breakfast hours. But then, when we experienced how the new Dubai boom affected the Fauchon breakfast, it become clear why people don’t go there anymore as much as in the past.
Hopefully, Fauchon’s strategy to get advantage on the new boom will not be implemented by many others, but sadly, everything in Dubai is becoming more and more expensive by the day.
Dear editors and readers, This article is spot on. But it is very important to state that the management has changed. The general manager has left and ever since all the restaurants in this company have started going backwards. Fauchon is not the only one, al halabi at mall of the emirates as well as rich cafe and others have unfortunately lost their good service and amazing food
Yesterday we had a meeting upon request with the Fauchon cafe F&B manager and someone else from the management exactly regarding this article. They said that they are looking to improve the experience in the coming weeks. We will to find out soon