Saffar Restaurant

Saffar is the all-day buffet restaurant at the InterContinental Ras Al Khaimah Mina Al Arab Resort, named for the Arabic word for 'journey' and built around a wall of windows that open onto the resort's beachfront and the Arabian Gulf beyond. The dining room is calm and elegantly restrained - polished woods, soft neutral tones, large family tables - with a terrace that works particularly well in cooler months. The buffet format is genuinely international, with live cooking stations running across breakfast, lunch and dinner and a rotation of themed evenings. Produce quality is a step above the resort average, the breakfast spread is notably comprehensive, and iftar during Ramadan is one of the better-pitched in the city. Special requests at the live stations are usually accommodated without fuss. Saffar's edge is its long-serving front-of-house team, led by a restaurant manager whose name appears repeatedly in return-guest feedback. Regulars describe it as a home-away-from-home because the team anticipates preferences - a specific morning coffee, a favoured table, dietary needs - before they're asked. It's the natural choice for in-house guests and a legitimate destination meal for outside visitors wanting breadth and view together.