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Joseph Mater.

Director of Food & Beverage

Heading up a team of 220 staff with five restaurants, three bars and a comprehensive room service offer is Shangri-La director of food and beverage Joseph Matar.

Following six years working for Shangri-La in Sydney, Matar joined the Abu Dhabi property a year ago, and has since overseen the launch of the latest addition to the resort - Pearls and Caviar.

"Pearls is the bar upstairs and Caviar is the restaurant below. It serves a combination of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, with the emphasis on sea food," says Matar.

"It's a hidden secret at the moment, the awareness is not 100% there, and my main priority for the next season will be to get Pearls and Caviar to the next level," he continues.

"I believe by the end of the year it's going to be the most popular place to have a drink in the whole of Abu Dhabi," asserts Matar.

The classy establishment, which has already caused quite a stir thanks to a lavish media launch, does bring with it some challenges, however.

"Shangri-La is quite a large operation and being a large property as well we have restaurants quite far away like Pearls and Caviar and we also have challenges with the room service, the Residences and the Villas," says Matar.

"It can happen that on one weekend, the hotel is full, the Residences are full and the villas are full; this is where there is tension and you have to make sure you balance it well.

"It all comes down to planning, briefing and communication to ensure that everyone is in the same page, making sure that cascading information to the line staff is done," says Matar.

Great service usually guarantees repeat custom, and at Shangri-La's F&B outlets, 70% of guests come from outside the hotel.

"We work on the repeat guests and look after our business," says Matar. "I would say our main advertising is word of mouth. We didn't have to work hard to promote the place; it's a good thing and we have left room to advertise later."

He says that this will become more important as new hotels open "because people like to try new things".

"Definitely we are now the best hotel in Abu Dhabi and we have to work hard to maintain that, as everyone knows it is easer to get to the top than to maintain being at the top, so the next year is going to be quite challenging to maintain the success and keep it going, to be ahead of the competition," says Matar.

He adds that there is also room for new outlets in the F&B division, citing the Plaza Bar, as an example. Currently used for outdoor functions - such as the GIBTM party that catered for 530 people last month - the location "provides the opportunity to have something permanent," says Matar.

"Definitely I've got a plan for that place - a chill-out venue with low seating and weekend beach parties," he reveals.

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