Shang Thai – The Wave
Shang Thai (2455 4774 – Map) has recently opened its second outlet in The Wave Muscat. I reviewed the original branch of Shang Thai in Al Khuwair in 2009 and it has been one of my favourite Thai places in town ever since, I was quite excited to come and try their fancy new branch in The Wave.
Meji’s Aroy Thai – Shatti Al Qurum
Meji’s Aroy Thai (Telephone: 95187422 – Map) is a Thai restaurant located in Shatti Al Qurum right next to Beach Hotel opposite the Oman LNG building.
Golden Oryx – Ruwi
Golden Oryx (Telephone 2470 2266) is a fine dining Chinese/Thai restaurant located in Ruwi. It is one of the most ancient restaurants in town and remains as one of the most popular around.
Golden Dragon – MQ
Golden Dragon (Telephone 24697 374) is a very old Chinese restaurant located in Madinat Qaboos right next to Kargeen and Ziyara.
The Golden Dragon restaurant looks from the inside as if it was stuck in the early 1990s – the place is not exactly ugly, but it looks old, dark, and depressing. There is an area for a live band to play, but the instruments were there and nobody was playing on a weekend’s evening! There was barely anybody else at the restaurant when we went, and they had a big TV screen showing a match. The restaurant has a separated area that looks like an interrogation cell which used to be the non-smoking section. I think that Golden Dragon is licensed to serve alcohol, but I am not 100% sure because I didn’t see a drinks menu and I forgot to ask.
The menu of Golden Dragon is very similar to the majority of classic Chinese and Thai restaurants in town with fried starters, soups, prawn, shrimp, squid, lobster, chicken, duck, beef and lamb main courses, along with noodles and rice dishes. They got us the usual complimentary prawn crackers, and we ordered one Prawns of Toast (RO 3.500) and one portion of Drums of Heaven (RO 2.500) which were basically chicken wings. Both were amazing and I really liked them.
For the main course we got a plate of Sweet and Sour Chicken (RO 4.500) and a plate of Sweet and Sour Prawns (RO 7.000), we didn’t intend to get the same kinda of dish, but we were not really focusing.I thought that they were OK, but I was not blown away, and honestly I thought the sweet and sour sauce we so intense I didn’t find it easy to tell the chicken from the prawns.
Golden Dragon has a number of desserts such as stuffed dates with lychees and toffee apple, but we were not in the mood for desserts, so we didn’t have any.
In total we ordered 2 starters, 2 main courses, 1 noodles, and 1 large bottle of water, our bill came to RO 21.100.
I thought the service at the Golden Dragon was good, the staff seemed to be friendly and nice. Our food came exactly like we ordered and on time.
Even though I thought that the food at Golden Dragon was ok and I really liked their starters, but I cannot see myself going there again, the place is so depressing and dark I cannot enjoy myself eating there. If you want to have Chinese/Thai in MQ you should go to Silk Route instead.
Thai Basil – Al Ghubra
Thai Basil (Telephone: 2449 9565) is a Thai restaurant located in Midan Hotel Suites in Al Ghubra. If you are coming fromthe 18th November Street and going towards Al Ghubra Roundable, you need to take the right turn before the Taste of India restaurant and Midan Hotel would be the second building on that road opposite the school car park.
Thai Basil is very spacious, quite, and looks really fancy. The picture above doesn’t really show how nice the place is, but it almost feels a bit out of place for Al Ghubra as there really isn’t anything like it in this part of town. We went to dine at Thai Basil during a working day evening, so the place pretty empty with the except of a couple of other tables. The place seems to attract couples more than anything else probably because of the quite atmosphere of the place.
Thai Basil offers a number of appetizers, soups, salads, an a collection of main courses. For the starters we ordered a plate of Koong Chup Pang Tod (RO 2.000) which was basically prawn tempura and was pretty good.
For the main course we ordered a plate of Stir Fried Chicken with Cashews (RO 4.500) which had strips of chicken breast stir fried with vegetables and topped with roasted cashews. We also ordered a plate of Bang Chiang (RO 6.200) which had marinated slices of beef cooked with onions, mushrooms, and baby corn. I thought that both dishes were excellent with the right level of spiciness, being the a pro chicken dishes person I would recommend the chicken with cashews over the beef, but the beef was also really really good. You should note that none of these dishes came with rice of noodles, so we ordered a basket of jasmine rice (RO 1.000) separately.
Thai Basil has a number of desserts such as ice cream, fruit salad, and coconut custard, but we didn’t like having any at the time so we didn’t try any. We also didn’t order any drinks and had only water.
In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 main courses, 1 basket of rice for a total of RO 15.050.
I thought that the service at Thai Basil was excellent and the waiters seemed to be friendly and talkative. The food didn’t take long to get to our table and was in perfect condition.
I cannot decide if I like this place more than Shang Thai or not, but it surely is one of the nicest Thai places to go for around that area. I highly recommend this place to someone looking for nice quite Thai dining.
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?
Narjeel – Shatti Al Qurum
Narjeel (Telephone: 2456 0606) is a Thai restaurant in Shatti Al Qurum. The restaurant is located at the somewhat dodgy Asas Oman hotel apartments in Shatti. If you are coming from the CCC and going towards Crowne Plaza along the Qurum Park road, you take the right turn after the small roundabout and before the little mosque.
Narjeel is not a super fancy restaurant, but it feels authentic. Unlike the dodgy feel of the hotel and the sign of Narjeel, the restaurant inside is quite spacious and feels welcoming. We went for a meal on Friday evening and the restaurant (and hotel) seemed empty. During our entire meal there wasn’t anybody else other than us in the restaurant.
Narjeel is a Thai restaurant and serves a number of soups, salads, starters, Thai main courses, seafood, and a number of others things as well. For the starters we had a Tom Yum Koong (RO 3.800) which was a spicy seafood soup cooked with vegetables. The portion of the soup was very large and it was a bit spicy even though was asked for the mild version of it, but we still enjoyed it thoroughly.
Our first main course was a Panang Meat dish (RO 4.5) which had slices of meet cooked in a spicy thai sauce and other herbs. I am not an expert in Thai food, but I did not like the taste of this dish. That is not to say that there was anything wrong it, but it was just not our cup of tea.
The second dish we ordered was a Chicken Kapow (RO 3.8) which was another dish of chicken shreds cooked in a spicy thai sauce and green beans. The description of the dish clearly stated that it is cooked in a spicy sauce, but we did not expect it to be THAT spicy. I thought the dish was good, but way too spicy we couldn’t even finish it.
The main courses do not come with anything so we also ordered a plate of steamed rice (RO 0.5) and another plate of plain noodles (RO 0.5). The main courses came with a complimentary plate of orange slices which I think are supposed to be had while eating the main course to cool off the spiciness of the main course.
For the drinks we had a Pina Colada (RO 1.5), a non-alcoholic coconut and pineapple juice mix, which was really well made. We did not try any of the desserts.
In total we ordered two soups, two main courses, two side dishes, and two fresh juices, our bill came out at RO 23.800.
The service at Narjeel was excellent and the food quickly arrived, except for our chicken main course which the waiter forgot to write on his notepad and which we didn’t notice was missing when he repeated the order.
I liked the soup and juice I had at Narjeel, but I was not crazy about the main course probably because we did not expect them to be as spicy as they were and because we did not ask for recommendations on what to have. However, I can understand why people are crazy about the restaurant and I think I would go again to try some more authentic Thai food.
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