International hotel, desi guests: 4-star in Dubai serves poha, plays Hindi news channels

Poha and parathas for breakfast? The desi touches in a Dubai hotel have amused Indian viewers.

Updated on: Jun 11, 2025, 14:04:46 IST

By Sanya Jain

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Indian viewers have been left much amused by a four-star hotel in Dubai that appears to cater to a predominantly desi audience - to the extent that it serves an array of Indian dishes in the breakfast buffet, offers Hindi news channels on the television, and has IPL pennants in the sports bar.

A Dubai hotel is going viral for its several desi touches. (Instagram/@majesticcityretreat)

Even the clock hanging in the hotel gym has a desi touch - it was bought from Big Bazaar.

Desi touches in Dubai hotel

A video highlighting the Majestic City Retreat Hotel’s desi touches was shared on Instagram by stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant. “When your international hotel is basically Indian,” Pant captioned his video, which opens with a view of the Dubai skyline.

The camera then moves inside to show the Big Bazaar wall clock hanging in the gym. “Breakfast buffet has poha, Jain poha, 19 parathas, 18 types of rajma, dosas,” says Jain in the voiceover, moving his camera to show the Indian dishes.

The Indianisms do not stop there. Inside the room, guests can watch Hindi language news channels. If they step out to the hotel sports bar, they are greeted with IPL-themed decor.

And last but not least, Indian tourists have no reason to be homesick because the bathroom has not just a bidet but also a jet spray.

Watch the video below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sorabh Pant (@sorabhpant)

“Welcome to Majestic City Retreat, your home away from home,” quipped one person in the comments section. “Tell us you are in Bur Dubai without telling us,” another said with laughing emojis.

Dubai is a very popular destination for Indian tourists, thanks to easy accessibility, inexpensive flights and a huge diaspora population. The Bur Dubai area has a large population of Indians, giving it the unofficial nickname of ‘Little India’.

(Also read: Dubai firm vanishes overnight without a trace, Indian investors lose millions: ‘Like they never existed’)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

Dubai

Get Latest Updates on Trending News Viral News, Video, Photos and Weather Updates of India and around the world