The Garden Social – Saturday Brunch at Belgian Beer Cafe Abu Dhabi

The Garden Social is a Saturday brunch held outdoors at Belgian Beer Café in Abu Dhabi. It is built around the garden setting: food is served from outdoor carts rather than a single buffet line, and live music runs through the afternoon, giving the weekend meal a relaxed, social feel.

The food carts cover a good range of tastes. There is a live braai and BBQ grill, where meat is cooked in front of you over the flame, and a fresh mussel bar, a nod to the café's Belgian roots. Dishes are prepared fresh, so you can wander from cart to cart and build a plate to your own taste.

Drinks are organised into stations. An Aperol Spritz Station offers the classic bittersweet aperitivo, an Espresso Martini Bar takes care of coffee-based cocktails, and ice-cold beers are poured on tap, which suits a venue named after Belgian beer culture. The music comes from The International Playboys Duo, who play energetic live sets to keep the afternoon lively without taking over the conversation.

Belgian Beer Café is a casual dining and drinking spot in Abu Dhabi, built around the idea of a classic European beer house with a good outdoor space. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and its dining scene is spread across waterfront promenades, hotel districts and island neighbourhoods, which makes a garden brunch a pleasant way to spend a weekend outside the usual restaurant routine. Because the venue is in Abu Dhabi, it is a drive from Dubai, roughly an hour to an hour and a half by car depending on where you set off from, so it works well as a day out for Dubai residents who fancy a change of scene.

This brunch suits friends meeting for a long Saturday afternoon, couples and groups who like to graze and share rather than sit through set courses. Expect a sociable, standing-and-wandering kind of meal with food stations, drink stations and a live soundtrack, the sort of afternoon where you can easily stay a few hours.