Originally Posted by stargold

Okay, what an interesting 24 hours I had at the Lana. Spectacular in some respects, yet so utterly disappointing in others.

The good:
- Hard product is by far one of the best I have seen in Dubai. Fresh, bright, tasteful and high quality materials. Room, public areas and even the empty corridors of the function rooms on ground floor were all top notch.
- The view towards the marina is very nice. It's visible from all of the public areas of the hotel, and really comes to life after sunset. Thanks to a somewhat decent breeze, I was able to enjoy a few drinks on the rooftop without feeling hot.
- Unusually, the pool is open until 10pm (might be a summer thing) - most Dubai hotels will close the pool after sunset so this is a nice bonus during the summer.

The neutral:
- Food prices were a little much even for Dubai standards, and the quality was not necessarily there - for example, the AED 250 (US$ 70) porcini pizza, which turned out to be quite a small portion (around 9in and comfortably fitting on a standard plate), had no discernable taste of mushroom as the tomato sauce dominated over all else. I would have been much better off choosing a Margherita at AED 150 (US$ 40) instead, which would have tasted exactly the same. Also, the olive oil that I asked to the table was cheap frying quality oil, not the fragrant high quality olive oil you would normally expect on the table. To be clear, the standard was generally high on average, but it really has to be perfect at those prices, and unfortunately that wasn't the case.
- The menu choices at breakfast (which was entirely a la carte) was puzzlingly small, and the menu indicated that each person could only order one dish beyond the standard continental breakfast set. I suspect I would feel bored of the menu quite quickly.
- Service was generally okay, with some bright spots dotted around the place, but it was also clear that a lot of the staff were still quite inexperienced and not yet fully confident. I also noticed that some staff seemed quite aloof and did not really seem to want to engage on a personal level. This is a fairly prevalent issue around the UAE, and I had hoped that this hotel would avoid it, but perhaps it still needs more time.
- The pool had great views, but otherwise felt too small for the hotel, particularly in terms of sunbeds and shaded areas. I would not want to see how it looks on a weekend afternoon during the winter peak.

The bad:
- Service at breakfast beggared belief. Just about everything that could go wrong, went wrong - coffee orders taken incorrectly, main dish orders not taken for ages, main dish not delivered for 30 minutes, items requested and then forgotten, main dishes delivered to the table 5+ minutes apart, staff looking harassed and unsmiling, finished tables left uncleaned for far too long, so on and so on. Needless to say, proactive and anticipating service was out of the question. Puzzlingly, there were 10 tables at most at any given time, and at least 5 servers. I had invited a friend over to breakfast and felt really quite embarrassed by the experience. Hard to believe such a stressful morning can take place at a Marriott, let alone a hotel that wants to pitch above the FS.
- When arriving for breakfast, I asked the receptionist to request housekeeping to refresh the room, which had not been done by the time we returned from breakfast some 90 minutes later rather stressed. I then flicked the Housekeeping button on, then went up to the pool. It was still not done by the time I returned 3 hours later. Again, something that would have been annoying at a half decent Marriott, and unacceptable at this level.

Personally, I'm glad I gave it a try, but I would think long and hard before returning. I'm also now more curious than ever how they see themselves in the market - location is such a big part of a hotel's overall offering, and this hotel feels very much out of place in the unappealing Business Bay area (with the exception of the view). People on holiday would be better served in a true resort, and those on a business trip may well find that somewhere like the FS DIFC makes more sense at much lower prices.

Edited to add: Whilst the breakfast experience should never have happened, to be fair, the manager at breakfast tried very hard to recover towards the very end of the meal - she comped my friend's breakfast unprompted, and gave us a takeaway box of pastries (which were very good btw).