Quiznos – Sohar

The first branch of Quiznos (Telephone: 2684 4869) in Oman recently opened in Sohar. It located right next to Lulu near the Globe Roundabout. Quiznos is a fastfood sandwich restaurant that is very similar to Subway.

Quiznos is so similar to Subway half the sandwiches are almost identical. They they both serve Chicken Teriyaki, Meatball Marinara, Classic Italian, and Pizza Sub to mention a few, but in addition to these Quiznos also has some unique sandwiches such as the Mesquite Chicken with Beef Strips, Peppercorn Steak, and Chicken Picante.

Sandwiches come in 6″ or 12″ sizes, but unlike Subway, in Quiznos you don’t customize your sandwich bit by bit. The menu specifies what salad and sauce the sandwich will have, but you can explicitly tell them to remove an item from it you don’t want to have it.

I was very frustrated by the menu and the staff, the moment we got in the cashier gave us the menu which doesn’t mention anywhere that the prices on it are for takeaway only and it costs more to dine in. I discovered this only after I paid and discovered that asked him how come we got charged more for each item (even before taxes were added).

The menu also didn’t mention that there are a variety of bread types which you can have your sandwich in, once we made our order, the cashier told us that we can have white bread, brown bread, or rose mary parmesan bread, I asked to have mine in parmesan bread, he replied to me saying “BUT that will cost you 200 baisa extra”. It is not that I cannot afford 200 baisa, but I think that it is just not reasonable to tell me that I have options and I after I make my selection you tell me that I would have to pay extra for this even though other places offer it for free. What’s even worse is that after I got my receipt I discovered that he charged me 300 baisa for it?!! I asked him why he did that when he told me it would cost me 200 baisa. He apologized saying that he made a mistake and ordered two breads instead of one. (I don’t understand how two 200 baisa items would cost 300 baisa, but anyway). He then gave me a 100 baisa back.

I ordered a traditional sub (pictured above) which had smoked turkey breast, roast beef, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, red onions, black olives, and ranch dressing. According to the menu I had it cost RO 1.500 for a 6″. I asked if they had any alternative for a meal deal other than the Lays crisp. I really didn’t feel like having a crisp, so I thought I’ll just have a drink by its own. It costs RO 0.500 to have a refillable cup of Pepsi and RO 0.600 to add a small bag of Lays crisp to it.

I was not blown away by the sandwich I got, even though the bread was in my opinion nicer than Subway’s I think I made a bad choice with my filling. I think that I am more into meaty sandwiches that have solid pieces of beef or chicken. Or maybe I was just bitter about the messed up prices on the menu and the misleading cashier that I couldn’t enjoy the sandwich enough. I don’t know.

B+F Roadside Diner – Bareeq Al Shatti

B+F Roadside Diner is a burger restaurant in Bareeq Al Shatti mall (Telephone: 2469 8836). It is located on the far right side of the mall if you enter from any of the main entrances. B+F (short for Burger & Fries) is supposedly a branch of another restaurant called Burger Boutique originally from Kuwait.

Unfortunately B+F was crowded as usual when we went to it, so we couldn’t take proper photographs of the seating area. The restaurant is not massive in size and is stuffed with many tables and chairs, it is not uncomfortably crowded, but it is not exactly the place to go to if you want to have a private conversation. B+F has a unique theme of low lighting and modern stylish art. It is almost always crowded in the evening, on weekends it is normal to record your name and wait for up to 45 minutes before you get seated. They will offer to take your mobile phone number so that you can walk around the mall until they call you to come inside. B+F does not take phone reservations anymore.

B+F offers a variety of burgers, salads, grilled meals, and pizza, but the place is ALL about the burgers. We do still take starters when we go there, the starters they offer include nachos, soups, beef skewers, and a variety of tex mex starters. We had this time the Spicy Chicken Quesadilla (pictured above – RO 2.450) which I thought was awesome. It was not really spicy, but still full of flavour, the bread was also nice and tender.

There are loads and loads of burgers at B+F, some classics, some gourmet, some in sandwich form, you name it. Each of these burgers may be served in “Burger Style” which is your regular burger or in “Slider Style” in which you will get two mini burgers served on a long pad. This time we had a Bacon Swiss burger (pictured above – RO 2.850) which had a juicy beaf patty, beaf bacon, swiss cheese, grilled onion, grilled mushrooms, lettuce, pickles, and a special B+F sauce. It came in the perfect size and I really liked it, it was juicy as described and the sauce was nice.

We also ordered a Oz Gourmet burger (pictured above – RO 4.250) which had a grilled beaf patty, topped with cheddar cheese, fried eggs, onion rings, bacon, tomato, pickles, beetroot, lettuce, ketchup and mayo. It was a bit hard to handle as it was big, but it was still quite nice!

For the drinks we had a Banana Berry Smoothie (1.950)  which had fresh banans and mixed berries and a Red Planet (RO 2.250) which had red berry, pomegranate, pineapple, and apple juice. I really liked my Red Planet, I thought it was refreshing and the pomegranate bits were cool!

B+F also offers a number of sidelines such as fries and onion rings and desserts such as cakes and brownies, but we didn’t try any of them during our visit.

The service is B+F is good, the staff are very friendly and talkative, the food took a bit of time to get to us, but we did not mind it.

In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 main courses, and 2 smoothies, our bill came to RO 14.438.

I love B+F, their food is amazing and the atmosphere is nice for people who into that sort of place. If you have not tried yet you are really missing out!

If you are another B+F addict, what is your favorite burger?