The Olive Branch: Metropolitan Al Mafraq Restores This Shakhbout City Restaurant to Its Proper Hotel Context
The venue is hotel dining, not an isolated Shakhbout City restaurant
The most important correction to the older intelligence record is structural. The Olive Branch operates inside Metropolitan Al Mafraq Hotel on Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Road, and that hotel context explains both the breadth of the menu and the long all-day schedule. The current first-party page describes Mediterranean-inspired flavours meeting global cuisine through a buffet format that changes with the season. This is not trying to compete with Abu Dhabi’s destination tasting rooms. It is a practical, full-service hotel restaurant serving guests, local residents and families in Shakhbout City, an area where resort-style dining is less concentrated than on the Corniche or Saadiyat.
Buffet breadth is the selling point
The Olive Branch’s identity rests on variety rather than one signature dish. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all buffet-led, allowing the kitchen to move between Mediterranean flavours and broader international cooking. The hotel highlights fresh seasonal ingredients and a relaxed atmosphere, while its wider dining roster includes more specialised outlets for Arabic food and evening entertainment. That separation helps The Olive Branch stay useful: it can be the easy breakfast room, a straightforward business lunch or a family dinner without pretending to be something more formal. Independent hotel reviews still reference the restaurant positively, even as newer venues within the property receive more of the social-media attention.
Current hotel details replace the older mobile listing
The official contact for Metropolitan Al Mafraq Hotel is +971 2 659 6666, which is more reliable for publication than the older mobile number associated with directory listings. Buffet breakfast runs from 6am to 10:30am, lunch from 12:30pm to 3:30pm and dinner from 7pm to 10:30pm. The address is Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Road, Shakhbout City. For Simply Abu Dhabi, The Olive Branch is valuable precisely because it widens the geography of the dining guide. Abu Dhabi hospitality is not only the islands and central city; this is a functioning, current hotel restaurant serving a residential catchment that deserves to be represented accurately.
Practical details
Location: Metropolitan Al Mafraq Hotel, Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Road, Shakhbout City, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Cuisine: Mediterranean-inspired and international buffet dining
Telephone: +971 2 659 6666
Hours: Breakfast 6:00am-10:30am; lunch 12:30pm-3:30pm; dinner 7:00pm-10:30pm
Editorial status: Open – current hotel identity and telephone corrected