Kurkum | Mattrah

Kurkum (Telephone: 24714114) is a fancy new Indian restaurant in Mattrah. It’s located on the corniche between the main entrance of Souq Muttrah and the branch of Bank Muscat on the corniche.

Kurkum is a relatively small restaurant and has a few tables outside if you want to enjoy the weather during winter. The place has a white clean theme and looks very fancy, tables located near the windows enjoy a nice view of the Sultan Qaboos port.

Kurkum currently has two different menus for lunch and dinner. The lunch menu is a lighter one that offers soups, salads, sandwiches, and a few finger dishes, while the dinner menu is an extensive one with soups, salads, variety of indian starters, along with chicken, lamb, fish, and vegetable main courses that could be had with rice or bread.

Before our starters came we were presented with a couple of free complimentary intros, the first was a dish of fried bamya which I’ve never tried before and was pretty nice. We were also then offered a single potato finger which also tasted awesome.

For the starters we ordered one a fish soup (RO 3.5), a tomato soup (RO 1.8), and a dish of chicken dimsums (RO 2). My tomato soup was creamy and I really enjoyed it. The chicken dimsums had tamarind chutney in them, I thought that there were OK, but I’m not the biggest fan of dimsums, so I wasn’t exactly blown away.

For the main course we ordered a dish of Goan Coconut Chicken Curry (RO 4.5) which basically had boneless chicken pieces cooked in Goan style coconut curry. Our second main course was a dish of dry Tandoori Fish (RO 6) which had chunks of hammour fish marinated with spices grilled in the tandoori oven. We ordered a mixed bread basket to have with our main courses both of which turned out to be excellent and were cooked to perfection.

For the drinks we were offered a selection of juices, soft drinks, and a variety of flavored lassi, we ordered mango flavoured lassi (RO 2) which tasted super fresh and refreshing. We didn’t try any of the desserts, but asked to have karak tea, which wasn’t on the menu, but somehow they got it for us! When we asked to pay the bill we were also offered complimentary Omani halwa which was very nice!

In total we ordered two soups, one starter, two main courses, a basket of bread, 1 lassis, one bottle of water, and tea cups of tea, our bill came to RO 23. When I got back home I was checking the bill again and realized that Kurkum made some mistake and forgot to charge us for a couple of things we ordered, our bill should’ve been RO 26 at least.

The service at Kurkum was excellent, all the staff members were friendly and cheerful, the food came quickly and was presented in an elegant manner. We loved everything about Kurkum and had an awesome food there. The restaurant is still new and nobody seems to know about it yet, we hope that this excellent service and food continue remain even after more people discover this place. If you are going to take someone to see Souq Muttrah there is no better place to go to than Kurkum, but I guess only if you can find a place to park your car at the corniche which seems to be a serious hassle!

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Bamboo Kitchen – Qurum Commercial Area

Bamboo Kitchen (Telephone: 96969645) is a Thai/Chinese restaurant located in the basement of Al Araimi Complex in Qurum Commercial Area. It is jointly operated with Golden Bean Cafe, which is a bit confusing because both the restaurants are attached to each other, have their menus joint, and share staff. Bamboo Kitchen is the restaurant with the green coloured furniture (pictured above) and its items are on the green pages of the menu, while Golden Bean Cafe is the purple-themed place and its items are on the purple pages of the menu.

Bamboo Kitchen is a pretty nice looking restaurant and it is quiet spacious, but there are no tables that seat more than four people at a time. We went on a Monday at 8pm and the place was pretty empty. Al Araimi is not exactly the most happening mall so I’m not sure if the place ever gets crowded.

Bamboo Kitchen serves a good variety of Thai and Chinese, for the starters we had a portion of Prawn Rolls (RO 1.900) which came with a sweet chili dip and it was great!

We also ordered a Crispy Prawn Salad (RO 3.200), which to our surprise had the same prawn rolls we ordered for our starter – it was fine because we liked the prawn rolls, but we thought we would be getting something different.

For the main course we had a portion of Chuka Suba & Chicken (RO 4.2000) which basically was a chicken noodles cooked with various spices and baby corn. The other main course we had is Spicy Beef (pictured below – RO 4.800) which came with a side plate of boiled rice. I thought that both dishes were okay, but a bit too spicy for me – even though I consider myself a fan of spicy food.

In total we ordered 1 starter, 1 salad, 2 main courses, 1 juice, and 1 small water, our bill came to RO 16.400.

I thought that the food was OK, though no super special and in my opinion not better than Shang Thai or Noodle House, we were very irritated by the service of Bamboo Kitchen, it took a seriously long time for the waiters to acknowledge our presence, everyone seems to be on the other side of the restaurant (Golden Bean Cafe) and they just didn’t see us. Even after they realised we are there, took our order, and starter bringing the food, we couldn’t get anyone to get us an empty plate when we needed one to share the food.

I was not really impressed by Bamboo Kitchen, did anybody try this place? What was your experience like?