Myself, DH and 6 wk old baby stayed there last May. It's nice if you like knobs and knockers style hotels. The rooms are spacious. If you plan on having dinner at the hotle, my advice is to make a reservation. The souk is within walking distance too and there's lots of rests' there..
We stayed there some months ago, lovely, our only observation, which we passed onto them was they should have an 'adults only' pool. They have 2 pools, a big one with a paddling pool at the side, which is ideal for families. Then another smaller one which would be great for adults only, but the grassed area next to it became a football pitch for the youngsters. Whether they did anything about creating dedicated adult only areas or not, I don't know. Not been back...yet. But our room was lovely.
It is not on the corniche beach (which is what AAQ is probably referring to), but the Shangrila does have their own private beach. There is more than one beach area in Abu Dhabi.
I lived there for a year. It's a fantastic hotel. Not sure why AAQ said its far from the beach because it's actually on the beach and they have a really nice pool overlooking Sheikh Zayed Mosque. Highly recommend it.