Chado Tea Lounge – Shatti Al Qurum

Chado (Telephone: 2469 1110 – Map) is a fancy tea lounge located in Oasis by the Sea mall in Shatti Al Qurum. It’s actual location is right next to Pizza Express inside Oasis by the Sea, but it also has seating area outside outlooking the ocean.

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Cafe Glacier – Zakher Mall

Cafe Glacier (Telephone: 2448 9245) has recently relaunched its new menu and brand identity in its main branch in Zakher Mall. Glacier is one of the oldest cafes in town and has been famous since the mid 90s fors its waffles and ice cream. You can check our previous review of Glacier in 2008 here.

The new revamped Cafe Glacier features black leather seating and a long leather cushioned wall on the other side. The place looks way more sleek, nice and polished now, but somehow it doesn’t seem that they got the right number of tables or something because the place somehow looks empty and awkward – especially in the middle. We came for lunch around 2.30 on a working day and the place didn’t seem busy at all.

The menu of Glacier has been streamlined and shorted in a manner that makes it really easy to navigate, there are now basically two sheets, one for main courses and the other one for desserts. On the main menu you have appetizers, salads, mains (such as grills, steaks and savory waffles), sandwiches, croques, and breakfast options. On the dessert menu you have a guide for your ice cream base (cup, cone, pancakes, or waffles), ice cream type, and then toppings, in addition to special desserts and drinks.

We decided to try out new things during this visit at Glacier, so I went for the Soup of the Day (RO 1.900) which was a Crab and Corn soup – it came with a few slices of bread, I thought it was OK, but really not very memorable. I wasn’t a big fan of the texture of the soup and now I don’t think it’ll be something I’ll try again. For the main course I thought I’ll go for a Steak and Prawns plate (RO 7.900) which came with a side dish and sauce of my choice. I had mine with fries and peppercorn sauce. The new Glacier menu seems to be big on steaks as it has manu configures at which you can have your steak, but only offers Ribeye pieces. I ordered mine well done, but it came burnt from one side and wasn’t very pleasant – I still finished everything that was on my plate, but again I don’t think I’ll go for steak again at Glacier.

For the desserts we thought we’ll try out something new, none of the ‘selection of the day’ were available so we tried the Warm Chocolate Fondants topped with ice cream (RO 2.700) which wasn’t really warm when it got to us and it looked, I don’t know, kinda sad. Again we wiped our plate clean, but it wasn’t the best dessert we had at Glacier.

In total we ordered 2 soups, 2 steak main courses, a juice, 2 small bottles of water, and 1 desserts. Our bill came to RO 25.300.

We thought the service at Glacier was average as always, not terrible, but not spectacular either. We were not impressed by any of the new items we tried at Glacier. Don’t get me wrong, I think that I still like Glacier, but I think that I will go back to have the good old dishes that we are used to having at Glacier such as the amazing Club Sandwiches and their good old waffles for dessert.

The new interior and seating looks much nicer than what it was before, and the design and layout of the new menu is excellent. I don’t have an item by item comparison, but the average price for an item at Glacier has surely gone up and steaks  cost up to RO 7.900.

We are happy to see that Glacier try to reinvent itself, but I think I’ll stick to their old dishes like I always have.

Mydan – Millennium Resort (Al Mussanah)

I was invited by the Millenium Resort in Mussanah (Telephone: 2687 1555) to try out Mydan – their buffet and a la carte restaurant. Millenium Resort is a bit less than a 100 kilometers away the capital, and it is remembered by many as the resort that hosted the Asian Beach Games in 2010.

We visited Millennium on a working day and there were no special events or conferences held, so the place was quiet and barely anybody else at all was at the restaurant. The Mydan restaurant is located on the right side of the main building of the hotel and has a breathtaking ocean view. There are tables outside all along the marina, but sitting outside is the not the best idea at this time of the year due to humidity and the heat.

Mydan does not serve a specific cuisine but a mix of continental, Mediterranean and Indian food. It has a pretty extensive menu with cold and hot starters, salads, soups, pastas, pizzas, grills, sandwiches, and other main courses. Mydan is fully licensed so some of its dishes may contain bacon and/or alcohol.

At the start of our meal we were treated with a variety bread basket that came with butter and oil dips.

For the starter we ordered a plate of cold lebanese mezze selection (RO 4) that had  hommous, tabouleh, muttabal, feta cheese, and pickles and came with Arabic bread. I liked the greens and the cheese, but the homous wasn’t not very remarkable. We also had a lentil soup (RO 2.8) and market salad (RO 3.5), the lentil soup was nice, consistent and well flavored.

For the main course we had one plate of Roganjosh (RO 7.5) – boneless lamb cooked in traditional indian spices served with basmati rice, and one plate of grilled tiger prawns (RO 8 ) that came with couscous and seasonal salad. I really like the lamb curry I had, the beef was well cooked, tender and nicely thready and it was really awesome how it was served with a small plate that had two slices of onion, lemon, atchar, and two thin long green chilis for that spicy kick you need when having your rice and meat – it was great and I enjoyed it! The grilled tiger prawns excellent especially when dipped in the lemon sauce that came with it.

For the dessert we had a double devil (RO 3.5) – a chocolate brownie topped with vanilla and whipped cream. and place in the middle of a sauce of mixed raspberry, vanilla, and chocolate. I thought that it was great and the addition of raspberry to the sauce was a surprisingly nice addition that added some sweet freshness to the mix.

I thought the service at Mydan was great, our starters took a bit of time to be brought to our table, but we did not mind the wait as we enjoyed the the sipping our drinks overlooking the ocean. I thought the staff were very cheerful and friendly and our food was delivered as ordered.

If you are coming to Millennium Resort in Al Mussanah you would enjoy your food here.

La Mer – Shatti Al Qurum

La Mer (Telephone 2469 2883) is a new shisha restaurant on Love Lane at Shatti Al Qurum right at the start of the lane if you are coming from the Opera House.

At the time of writing this review, the indoors section of La Mer hasn’t yet opened and only the outdoors section of the restaurant is. The outdoors section of La Mer looks pretty and has many tables and seats scattered under palm trees. It was difficult to take a nice picture of the place because it was pretty crowded during our visit.

La Mer does not specialize in any specific cuisine, it serves a few sandwiches, salads, and some continental dishes. It does not exactly have an appetizer/main course/ dessert sections in the menu, but I we did order a Tabooleh Salad for the starter (RO 2.500) which came a bit late at the same time as our starter, but was alright.

For the main course I ordered a Herbed Chicken Risotto (RO 6.000) and my friend ordered a Grilled Beef Steak (RO 6.800). My risotto was a little bit too thick for my liking, but I guess that’s just me, I quite liked the chicken. My friend wasn’t an expert on steaks, but he enjoyed his, too.

For the drinks we ordered a couple of their mixed fresh juice drinks (RO 2.600 each) which were nice. We did not try any desserts at La Mer.

In total we ordered 1 salad, 2 main courses, 2 juices, our bill came to RO 23.990.

I thought that the service at La Mer was OK, the place was a bit crowded so things did not exactly come fast. I do not smoke so I didn’t try any shisha at La Mer, as a non-smoker La Mer does not really appeal to me much even thought the place is open and you do not get chocked my the smoke at all, but I just did not think that there was enough variety in the menu and even though I liked what I had, I wasn’t exactly blown away. If you are a smoker or you like to hang out in that kinda of scene you might like La Mer more than I did.

Stomach – Jawharat Al Shatti

Stomach (Telephone: 2469 2486) is a restaurant with a very weird name located on the first floor of Jawharat Al Shatti mall. It is located right in the back of the mall and not a lot of people seem to know that it exists, so it is not exactly a crowded a place (I’ve been to it a few times and I’ve never seen anybody eating other than us at the restaurant). Stomach serves a bit of everything from chinese food to pasta and steak.

The seating in Stomach is pretty nice, there is some interesting artwork on one of the walls and a huge shelf wall at the front. Like I said before, not a lot of people seem to go there – at least for dinner, so it is pretty quiet and peaceful.

Stomach offers a wide variety of food, they have soups, salads, sandwiches, Indian dishes, Chinese dishes, and continental food. For the starter we had the “All Arabian” starter (RO 2.5) which had hummus and prawns and came with a basket of Arabic pita bread. Hummus was pre-prepared canned hummus, which was obviously nothing special at all, the prawns were OK, and I have no memory of what the thing on the side tasted like.

For the main course I ordered a Chili Chicken dish (RO 3.000 – not pictured) which came with vegetable fried rice. The dish was seriously spicy I barely managed to eat it. I thought it was OK, but again nothing special at all. Other people with me ordered a Chicken Steak (RO 4.000 – pictured above) which my friend thought was very good, a spicy prawn dish which came with rice (RO 3.500) this was again very spicy and my friend barely managed to eat it, and a dish of vegetable noodles (RO 2.200) which was good.

In total we ordered 1 starter, 1 side dish, 4 main courses, 1 juice, 1 soft drink, 2 bottle of water, and an extra basket of bread for a total of RO 18.600.

I thought that the service at Stomach was slow, it took a while for the food to come even though we were the only people at the restaurant. I really wasn’t blown away by their food and thought it was very average. It’s no wonder that the place is empty most of the time.

Has anybody else been to Stomach, or has the name weirded you all out?

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?

Abala – Bareeq Al Shatti

Abala is a continental restaurant in Bareeq Al Shatti (Telephone: 2469 5903). It is located right next to the food court inside the mall. I think it opened earlier this year, was closed for a short while very recently, but is now open for business as usual.

Abala is all glitz and glamour. Everything from the tiles on the floor, the chairs and all the way to the cutlery napkins are super stylish. Abala also has some seating outside the restaurant for those who want to enjoy the nice weather of the winter. We went early in the evening while a big match was taking place, so the place was empty.

The menu at Abala is very extensive and serves everything from soups, salads, and nachos, to burgers, risottos, steaks, and pastas.

We were undecided between having Calamari or the Turkey Bacon Wrapped Shrimp (RO 3.5) for the starter, we ended up having the shrimps, which came out as four pieces of shrimp wrapped in a small slice of turkey bacon. It tasted alright, though the *dip* below the shrimp tasted better than the shrimp itself.

For the main course I had a club sandwich (3.5) which came with chips. The chips felt as if it was precooked earlier and then reheated just before it got served to me. It was dry and cold. I didn’t like the sandwich itself either, the toast was very dry, almost burnt, and the filling was a bit too salty for my liking.

My friend had a risotto with chicken and mushrooms (RO 3.5), he asked them to change the mushrooms  with dried tomatoes. He thought that his dish was “acceptable”.

For the drinks we had a Citrus Splash mocktail (RO 1.9) and a She Said Red mocktail (RO 2.1), I had the She Said Red, which had orange juice, strawberry juice, and pomegranate juiced mixed with crushed ice. We really liked both of our drinks and thought that there were the highlights of the visit.

The service at Abala was really good, everyone seemed friendly and our food came really fast. Not sure if it is always like that or just because nobody was dining at the restaurant at the time we went. In total, we ordered 1 starter, 2 main courses, 2 mocktails, our bill came to RO 16.

We did not like the food at Abala, I did not think that the starter was special at all and I really didn’t like my main course. I cannot really recommend this place. Has anybody else been here? What do you guys think?

Reviews That Were Never Written – Part 1

I’m going to travel in about a week’s time and I won’t be able to write any new reviews for the Omani Cuisine, I have been to many restaurants which I photographed and everything but never got to write a review for – most probably due to some bad time management skills!

Three Star Restaurant, Al Hail

I once wanted to have a post titled ‘Battle of the Generics’ where I thought I’ll post a joint review of all these generic Indian-Chinese restaurants that have the same exact menu that has the name of every single Indian and Chinese dish ever invented. 3 Star was one of these. Not sure if this restaurant is really three star, maybe just 2.5, they have a fountain in their restaurant with plastic frogs inside it. It is located right next to City Center.

Al Aktham Restaurant, Al Khuwair

Al Aktham is the king of generics, it is one of the oldest and most famous restaurants in town, its boardsign boasts with the word ‘Restaurant’ without a brand name. It has private dining rooms used by conservative families and guys taking out girls on dates (.. to al aktham? We’re going on a data to AL AKTHAM?!). This restaurant is found somewhere near Al Safeer Hotel in Al Khuwair Commercial Area.

Grill House, Al Khuwair

Grill House is my favourite generic restaurant, I can have their Schezwan Chicken Fried Rice dish for dinner, lunch and breakfast. Favourite side dishes include a green salad and chips. This restaurant is next to the MQ traffic lights. Their food is nice, but they badly need to work on their restaurant front image!

I used to think that I had photos of Spicy Village as well, can’t find them though. Will make another post with some other restaurants.

Chili’s – Muscat City Centre

It’s hard to believe that we never wrote about Chili’s on the Omani Cuisine even though we mention it in almost every other post we make. Chilis is an international casual dining restaurant chain that serves Mexican/American food. The only Chili’s branch we have in Oman is found in Muscat City Centre opposite the old Starbucks near the food court. Even after the opening of three other dine-in restaurants in City Center over the past two years, Chilis is still undeniably the most popular.

(Boneless Buffalo Wings)

The crowd at Chili’s is mixed and it attracts people from all age groups, probably because it was the ONLY proper place to dine in in City Centre and the Seeb area generally for a while. Chili’s is pretty big in size andis  spacious, it has a designated place for smokers down inside and has a sitting area for those waiting for take away orders and those waiting for a table to get cleared during peak hours.

(Club Tacos)

The menu of Chili’s is pretty big and has many different sections that include starters (RO 2.5 to RO 4), salads (RO 3.2 to RO 4.9), burgers (RO 2.4 to RO 3.1), sandwiches (~ RO 3), grills (RO 4.8 to RO 7.9), steaks (RO 6 to RO 7), misc courses (RO 3.9 to RO 4.9), desserts (RO 2.5 to RO 2.7) and drinks (starting from RO 0.9). 

(Fajita Quesadillas)

There are several nice starters in Chilis, but like the majority of their dishes, they are large in quantity and should be shared with another person. I advise you to only order more than one starter if you are in a group of more than three people. Our favourite starters are the Fajita Nachos, Triple Play (Fried Cheese Rolls, Chicken Wings, and Eggrolls), Texas Fries (Chips covered with chili sauce and jalapinos), and the Boneless Buffalo Wings. Go for the Triple Play if you are three or four people, and take the Texas Fries only if your main course is not served with chips.

Selecting a main course at Chili’s can be quite hard because there is so much to choose from. If it is your first time I suggest that you go for a steak or a fajita, as they are Chili’s highlights. There are a variety of fire grilled steaks seasoned with different sauces. All steaks come with two pre-selected sidelines such corn and mashed potatoes along with garlic bread. You can always ask to have something else instead of these sidelines if you wish. The waiters might not tell you this, but you can have rice, beans, chips, or cooked vegetables instead of the corn and mashed potatoes. 

Chili’s Club Sandwiches

Another first time selection which you can go for is a fajita (not pictured), which can be chicken, beaf, or prawn, cooked with vegetables and mexican sauces and comes served with flat tortila bread and dips which you can use to create your own sandwiches as you eat. You can have a mix of chicken, beef and prawns instead of selecting one and you can also optionally add mushroom to the mix. This is one of the main courses which you can share if you do not think you can finish it all by yourself. It is a little bit messy and will require you to use your hands, so only select it if you are ready to do that.

Of course there are loads and loads of other dishes to try if you do not like any of the ones mentioned above, I always go for the Club Tacos when I feel like having something ‘lighter’ or a Fajita Pita when I feel like having a sandwich. There are also some other dishes like the pasta pictured above, the quesadillas, burgers, salads, and others.

The most popular desert at Chili’s is the Molten Chocolate Cake (RO 2.7), it is a hot chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream on top. It is enough for four people to share after a meal. If you are sick of having the awesome Molten Chocolate Cake I suggest that you try to the Cheese Cake which I only tried once but really loved.

A meal at Chilis for two people at Chilis would cost around RO 12 to RO 15 if you have a starter, two main courses, two soft drinks and a desert. 

I think that the food at Chilis is really good, it is one of the few places on Al Seeb side of town to dine in, we never get sick of it. I am not sure about how good the service is these days, it used to be much better in the past as we have had several incidents on which the service was extremely slow and sloppy even when there weren’t many people dining. However, we always go back because we love their food.

Jean’s Grill Reviewed @ Rashad’s

Blogger Rashad made a post about Jean’s Grill, the restaurant up in Sultan Center. I’ve never been the place myself, but according to Rashad the place serves an awesome breakfast buffet for RO 2.5. Check out his review over at his blog.