Sultan Center Sushi Bar – Qurum Commercial Area

Sultan Center (2456 7666) has recently announced the launch of a new sushi bar in its Qurum branch where you can dine in and get takeaways from. The sushi bar is located in the far back of the ground floor of Sultan Center near what was supposed to be the hot food section (it was empty). The sushi bar at Sultan Center has about five or six stools to sit on which are extremely uncomfortable because they are way too low. Before we sat we asked the chef what kind of sushi we can order today, he handed us the menu and said we can order anything on it, but then it turned out that they were out of salmon so half the menu was unavailable.

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Tokyo Taro – Al Falaj Hotel

Tokyo Taro is a Japanese restaurant located in Al Falaj Hotel (2470 2311) in Ruwi. If you are coming from Seeb you take the very first right directly after the Darsait bridge and continue on that road until you see Al Falaj Hotel on the right side of the road. Tokyo Taro is the oldest Japanese restaurants in town and probably for that reason a lot of people refer to it as “The Japanese Restaurant” (I think that’s the officially registered name of the place.)

Tokyo Taro is quite a big restaurant with one private room that can take up to eight people, two central tables in the middle that can take up to 18 people, and several tables with a window view of the downtown Ruwi. Tokyo Taro also has eight seats for Teppanyaki – this is where you have a set menu and the chef cooks the food in front of you.

Tokyo Taro is usually not crowded on weekdays, but it can easily get fully booked on weekend nights, especially for teppanyaki, if you are coming on a weekend it might be a good idea to reserve a table in advance.

The menu of Tokyo Taro is quite big with set dinner meals, box set meals, sushi, tempura, soups, and other dishes, too. Tokyo Taro is fully licenses, so you should watch out for dishes that have pork if you do not eat it. Alcohol is also served at Tokyo Taro, but I do not think that it is used in cooking anything except one of the teppanyaki desserts. If you cannot eat raw fish Tokyo Taro can cook the sushi for you before it is served (not that I recommend you do that, but at least you have the option).

For the starter we got one plate of  10 pieces of California Rolls (RO 3.4000) which basically was prawn, cucumber, and mayo maki rolls. I thought that it was nice, even though a bit simpler than what you would usually get in for California Rolls in other places.

For the main course we thought we’ll go for a Take Bento Box (RO 6.500) which had a sashimi mix, vegetable and prawn tempura, chicken teriyaki, grilled fish, omelette, salad, pickes, miso soup, and plain rice. The other options for bento boxes are similar. Having a bento box is a really great idea if you want to try out different things. I really loved everything that came with in my box EXCEPt the omelette, I don’t know, I guess it is just not my cup of tea.

Tokyo Taro offers a few juices, lemon soda, and some alcoholic beverages. I just had a lemon soda, which I thought was OK.

I have never tried any of the desserts at Tokyo Taro except something I had for teppanyaki a while back and I can’t remember how it was.

For this visit in total we ordered 1 plate of sushi, two bento boxes, and two drinks. Our bil came to RO 23.200.

I thought that the service at Tokyo Taro was excellent, the staff is always friendly and cheerful, and the food always comes as ordered.

I really like Tokyo Taro and I cannot recommend it enough for those going out for Japanese food!

Wasabi Sushi – Bareeq Al Shatti

Wasabi Sushi (Telephone: 2469 9490) is a Japanese restaurant located in Bareeq Al Shatti mall. It is located in the far right side of the mall right opposite B+F.

Wasabi is a relatively small restaurant with about six or seven dining tables only, yet luckily the place is not exactly crowded as only half the tables were occupied when we came to dine in on a weekend evening. The layout of the place is quite modern and stylish, though a bit dim to some extent. Fun thing about the restaurant is that they have an LCD connected to a camera right on top of the chef showing the preparation process live. Make sure you check it out!

Besides sushi, the menu of Wasabi Sushi has nothing at all other than soup and salad. We ordered the traditional Japanese miso soup (RO 1.900) to which you can optionally add salmon. I had mine with salmon and quite enjoyed it!

The sushi menu of Wasabi Sushi is divided into Hosomaki (rice roll with filling inside and seaweed wrap on the outside), Futomaki (larger rice rolls with additional toppings on the outside) , Nigiri (fish pressed on top of rice pad), Sashimi (raw slices of fish), and Temaki (hand rolled cones of seafood). In my most recent visited we tried a hosomaki Tiger Roll (4.100 – which had tempura prawns, cucumber, avocado, flying fish roe, and Japanese mayonnaise – pictured above), a futomaki Dragon Roll (RO 5.900 – which had tempura prawns, avocado, tuna, salmon, roasted eel, mayonnaise, flying fish roe and teriyaki sauce – pictured below), a futomaki  Namoro-Maki (RO 4.700 – which had prawns, crab, avocado, and fish roe topping), and California Rolls (RO 4.500 – which had prawns, avocado, cucumber, Japanese mayonnaise, and flying fish roe). I liked everything we had, but I thought my favourites were the Namoro Maki and the California Roll.

In total we ordered 3 soups, 4 maki dishes, 1 soft drink and two small bottles of water, our bill came to about RO 30. I thought that the service was quite good and fast enough. My only complaint about the restaurant is that it doesn’t seem to offer much besides sushi. I mean, they don’t have any drinks other than soft drinks, water, and coffee – they don’t offer juices or any speciality drinks. There are also no desserts at all.

I still had a great time at Wasabi, I like their food and will be going again for sure!

Have you been to Wasabi Sushi yet? Do you think that sushi are going to pick up in Oman anytime soon?