Omani Cuisine

Pizza Inn is a casual dine-in and delivery pizza restaurant. It has relaunched recently and has two branches one in Qurum (2456 6111) and the other in Ruwi (2478 4555). We recently paid a visit to the branch in Al Araimi Complex in Qurum.

Pizza Inn has a very similar feel and look to Pizza Hut, but a bit flashier because it has very recently opened. We went on an evening of a week day and the place was pretty busy, but we had no trouble finding a table.

The menu in Pizza Inn is very similar to Pizza Hut, for starters they have garlic bread, chicken wings, french fries and potato wedges. In addition to these they have some salads, pastas, and, unlike Pizza Hut, they also serve RO1.5 Submarine sandwiches that come with french fries and a drink.

For the starters we had garlic bread with cheese (RO 1.2) which was really well done and not as hard as those served at Pizza Hut.

Pizza Inn has a variety of pizzas including a Taco Pizza, a Tandoori Pizza, a Hawaiian Pizza and several other ones. Pizzas come in small, medium, large, or family size (12 slices). We decided to have a family size Pizza Inn Special pizza (RO 6), this pizza had  pepperoni, sausage, beef, onions, mushrooms, black olives and green peppers. We really enjoyed it, we thought that the dough was very tender and barely had any traces of oil. The toppings also felt fresh.

We didn’t try any desserts but they had a couple pizza-style sweets. For the drinks we just had soft drinks, but surprisngly they were served in fast-food style plastic cups even though were dining in. The drinks were not refill-able.

In total we had one starter, one family size pizza, and four drinks, our bill came out to RO 9.800.

Overall we thought that the service was good and the food was really excellent. I was not happy about the way our drinks were served and I thought that our table was too small for our plates. If you are going to dine-in at Pizza Inn make sure you do not sit at the small tables if your group is going to be more than two people.

Shang Thai (Telephone: 2448 3083) is a Chinese-Thai restaurant in Al Khuwair that opened earlier this year. The restaurant is located right next to McDonald’s in Al Khuwair. It shares its venue with Mirchi, an Indian restaurant, but you have to go upstairs to dine in Shang Thai. The restaurant is operated by Bu Al Hickman, the same company that operates Pizza Express in Oman.

Shang Thai is a very nice looking restaurant, but it is not as fancy as Silk Route or the Noodle House. The place is quite spacious. We went on a Wednesday evening and only about one third of the tables was taken.

The menu of Shang Thai is pretty extensive, it has a number of vegetarian and non vegetarian starters, soups, salads, and various kinds of fish, seafood, chicken, duck, meat, and vegetarian main courses. After we made our orders we got a complimentary Shrimp Chips intro with some dips. It was nice, but nothing special.

For the starter we shared a Xiang Zha Dui Xia, (Prawns on Toast – RO 2.5). This was fried marinated minced prawns on toast which was served with plum sauce. I really liked it, I thought it was very tender and the sauce was excellent.

For the main course we had a Chuchee Goong (Prawn with Red Curry – RO 6) which had flavoured king prawns cooked in a spicy red curry. We also ordered a Gai Phad Samoon Phai (RO 3.6) which had stir fried chicken with Thai herbs and was served with some lemon grass and lemon leaves. We also ordered a Thai Fried Rice (RO 3) which was made up of stir fried Jasmine rice with shrimps, eggs, and vegetable.

The portions of the main courses are big and the waiters will offer to serve a bit of each dish you ordered with everyone on the table. We liked everything we ordered, I preferred the chicken over the prawns, but my friend preferred the prawns over the chicken. The fried rice was also excellent. We really enjoyed eating everything we ordered.

For the drinks we had a Ginger Lemonade (RO 1.2) and a Citrus Mint Cooler (RO 1.6). I had the Citrus Mint Cooler, which was supposed to be a orange, lemon, and mint juice mixed with Soda, but due to the unavailability of soda on that night it was mixed with water. I still quite enjoyed it, but I can’t say that I was blown away. For the desserts we had a Kluay Thod (RO 3) which had fried bananas served with vanilla ice cream. I initially liked it, but then couldn’t finished my portion cause I thought the banana was just too sweet for me handle, but that’s probably just me. I thought that it was better than the one I had in the Noodle House long time ago.

The service at Shang Thai is excellent, the waiters were friendly and gave us a lot of recommendations as to what we should order. The food came quite fast and the waiters helped serve it on our plates.

In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 main courses, 1 rice dish, 2 juices, and 1 desserts. Our final bill was RO 20.900.

I enjoyed the food I had and I thought that the service was excellent. Try this place if you want to have fancy Thai food in Al Khuwair.