Narenj Restaurant – Al Khuwair

Narenj Restaurant (Telephone: 9415 4154 , 9415 2152 – Map) is a new Irani buffet restaurant in Al Khuwair located right opposite the left side of Al Zawawi Mosque. If you are driving up the service road in Al Khuwair from McDonald’s towards Al Zawawi mosque you cannot really miss Narenj as it has one of the biggest and flashiest signboard on that road.

Continue reading »

Shiraz – Crowne Plaza

Shiraz (Telephone: 2466 0660) is an Irani restaurant located in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Shatti Al Qurum.

Shiraz is located on the far left side of the Crowne Plaza with indoor seating and outdoor seating on the terrace. The seating of Shiraz is a bit old fashioned and not exactly sleek, but still comfy and quite spacious. The outdoor tables oversee the Love Lane and the ocean and can be amazing when the weather is nice. We sat inside though cause we didn’t think that it weather was great that night. A waiter suggested we sit at one of the tables next to the windows, but the one we sat on first was too close to the bread oven which made it feel a bit too warm so we moved to the other table after sitting there for a bit.

As soon as you get seated at Shiraz you get treated to a complimentary plate of mint leaves, walnuts, feta cheese, and some small vegetables, along with a yogurt dip with garlic and mint (not pictured). The walnut salad wasn’t exactly special, but the dip was delicious and addicting, especially when you have it with the freshly baked naan bread that feels so cloudy and divine.

The menu of Shiraz offers a variety of cold appetizers (mostly vegetables), hot appetizers, soups, rice specialities, stews, grilled kebabs, and seafood kebabs. Shiraz also offers some set menu dinning options.

We thought that the complimentary intro was quite filling and decided to go straight to the main courses, I went for a classic Irani dish from the Kebab section called “Kebab Bakhteyari” (RO 10.500 – pictured above) which had combination of grilled lamb and chicken fillets marinated with saffron and olive oil and served with three varieties of rice.  Other friends with me had a Mahi (Fish) Kebab (RO 11.500 – pictured below) and Gormeh Sabzi –  a bowl of lamb and bean stew (RO 9.800 – not pictured). I quit enjoyed my dish and thought that was well done and rich in flavor, I also thought that the portions served were quite large, too.

Shiraz serves a variety of ice cream desserts, but unfortunately we did not try any of them.

We tried one of the special drinks at Shiraz called Doogh, which was a yogurt drink mixed with a variety of spices, I thought that it was nice, refreshing, and not too thick at all.

It is worth noting that Shiraz is licensed to serve alcohol.

In total we ordered three main courses, 2 dooghs, 1 fresh juice, and 2 large button of water, our bill came to RO 48.370.

I thought that the service at Shiraz was OK, the majority of the staff members seemed friendly, but our food took a long time to arrive and the waiter who took our orders did not seem to be in her best of moods. However, that did not affect our overall experience at Shiraz, which was pleasant.

I enjoyed my experience at Shiraz, I thought that their food is great, the atmosphere is nice, and sitting outside during the better times of the year could be really an amazing fine dining experience, albeit expensive.

Irani House – Al Athaiba

Irani House Restaurant (Telephone: 2449 1921 – Map) is local Irani restaurant chain with a branch in Al Khoudh and another one in Al Athaiba. I visited their branch in Al Athaiba which is located in Al Murooj Hotel Apartments that can be found somewhere behind Al Safeer Hypermarket.

The Irani House restaurant doesn’t seem as massive from the inside in comparison to what you would think looking at it from the outside, probably because the restaurant has a separate section for families on the left side of it. The seating Irani House is not too attractive, but it is clean and spacious. I visited the restaurant in Ramadan at night and only a few tables were occupied.

The Irani house offers on its menu soups, starters, Irani rice dishes, Irani grilled dishes, sea food, and stews…. and it is also full of spelling mistakes, but you can’t order that. After we made our order we were presented with a complimentary intro of naan bread and mint salad. The salad was very interesting because it had mint leaves, olives, some sort of feta-like cheese, and walnuts. It was a very small portion, but was nice to crunch on before the meal. I was not a big fan of the bread, it was cold and rubbery a little bit, I can’t imagine that this is how it is supposed to presented.

Irani House offers a number of starters such as hommus, fattoush, vine leaves, kebba, and other similar items. We went for a Shirazi Salad (RO 1.100) which had cucumbers, tomatoes, spring onions, and lettuce, and had some sauce which I wasn’t very sure of what it was made up of – probably a combination of mint, olive oil and some pomegranate. I thought that the salad was pretty nice.

For the main course I had a Special Irani House Chelow Kabab (RO 3.500) which was basically a variety kebab dish served with saffron basmati rice, my friend had a half a grilled chicken served with naan bread (RO 2.600). I was not blown away by the dish I had, even though it was not technically bad or anything, but the grills I had did not radiate with the magical aroma of Irani food and were barely hot when I got them, I thought it was bland.  I tried some of my friend’s grilled chicken and I thought that it was very average. The bread he had with his dish was also just as cold and rubbery as the one we got for the intro.

Irani House serves a number of desserts such as Um Ali, Creme Caramel, and ice cream, but we didn’t try any of them.

The service at the Irani House was quick and our food came exactly as we ordered, the staff members were polite, but they did not seem to be interested in providing us any advice on what we should order.

In total we ordered one salad, two main courses, and one large bottle of water, our bill came to RO 7.500.

I did not think that the food at the Irani House was all that, even though I heard a lot of good things about it in the past and I was surprised to see a lot of Irani people actually having food when we were there. I am not sure if this is a consistency issue or if I just set my expectations too high for this place. I think I might give it another shot in the near future just to see if their food would be better next time.