Jumeirah Hotels in Mekka

We stayed at the Jumeirah for our Umrah trip. Our room was fantastic but we were so appalled by the dining service and quality of food. At breakfast, the service is terrible. The staff are unfriendly and unhelpful and the people behind the live food stations need to smile like the gentleman on the egg station. I asked 5 times for a karak chai from the start of entering the breakfast until the end; I was there for 1.5 hours and every single person I asked was unable to get me the karak. They kept ignoring and disappearing. In the end I had to remind the waiters how long I had been waiting only to be told it had run out. I was waiting for a very long time just to be told this! In the end someone did get me the karak but it was so hard to just ask for something so simple. Also every day at breakfast the tables are not set out with the cuttlery and napkins missing. Every time I ask someone for some cutlery as there isn’t any on the table and it doesn’t get replaced but again we are always ignored and have many times helped ourselves to cutlery from other tables or the station where staff store the cutlery. We got very tired of the service here and it definitely doesn’t live up to the standards of other 5 star hotels (except the hotel and room itself). The staff are very unhelpful and the kitchen staff are awful. Having come from a hospitality background, there needs to be more structure in your kitchen and managers need to stop prioritising specific tables. All guests should be treated the same. We came to the buffet dinner and we’re looking forward to a lovely meal however the food was absolutely awful quality. The lamb shoulder was so over cooked and dry. We have never tasted anything quite like it. I have attached a picture to show the quality. It was inedible. There were literally no staff at any of the service stations. We wanted some of the grilled meat and chicken and we had searched for someone to serve it to us and he took one handful of it and put it on our plates. That is not an adequate protein portion. The portion was enough to fit a tablespoon of meat. The options were so poor. Again, no table service and no napkins and cutlery. We had to keep asking for things that should have been there. We didn’t even have water bottles and the table next to us had 5 water bottles for 2 people. We were really looking forward to the dinner but it was the worst buffet we have been to for a five star hotel. Nothing was fresh and the dessert selection was terrible too. Definitely nothing 5 star about it. The pastry was old and stale and very sweet without any flavour. It’s such a shame at such a high price which does not reflect any quality at all. We were so disappointed with the stay. We were hoping to return later this year with our family but we will have to find another hotel as this is hotel is not at the standard to bring our family to. Your location, decor, room size are amazing but your customer service and quality of food really lets you down. It is such a shame as we were really looking forward to staying here again. Best, Umar Raza