Aama’s Steakhouse – MQ

Aama’s Steakhouse (Telephone: 9677 8541) is a new steakhouse is MQ located somewhere near Pavo Real and restaurants in that area. Aama is supposed to be one of the words in Arabic for mother – so that name of the place is something like Mom’s Steakhouse.

The seating is Amaa’s is pretty nice and very spacious. The restaurant has some funny American-Omani fusion theme, so there are bikes and guitars and other random things, along with a huge photograph of the Sultan Qaboos in the middle and random framed khanjars. I am undecided on whether or not the theme makes any sense, but it is interesting to look at at least.

Even though Amaa’s has opened for a few months now, its menu is not finalized yet. They don’t have a written drinks or desserts menu, but they have a temporary menu for main courses and starters. For the starter we ordered Quesadilla (RO 2.900) which I thought was quite nice, though not exactly very memorable.

Amaa’s has a very small selection of steaks, but you can customize them by choosing what two sides to have with steak and what sauce to have it cooked in. I ordered a Ribeye steak with cooked vegetables, french fries, and garlic mushroom sauce. (RO 6.900). I thought that their steak was great, even though it didn’t seem to be exactly consistently cooked as I ordered my well done, but somehow some sections of it were not cooked as much as the rest. I still thought that it was great, the portions were a lot, and I really liked the sauce even though I’m not a big fan of mushrooms.

Amaa’s didn’t have a written dessert menu, but they told us that they had an Oreo Fudge Brownie (RO 1.300), which I unfortunately didn’t like because the ice cream was coffee flavoured or something – It was just too bitter and not exactly my cup of tea. Amaa’s again doesn’t have a written drinks menu, they told me what they had, and I ordered a Cranberry Cooler (RO 1.900) which I frankly didn’t like much either!

In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 steaks, a dessert, 2 drinks, and 1 bottle of water, our bill was RO 23.100.

I thought that the service at Amaa’s was good, the waiters seemed very friendly and our orders came quickly. My steak didn’t come exactly like I ordered (wasn’t consistently cooked like I asked), but that wasn’t a major blooper for me.

I am surprised that Amaa’s still doesn’t have a proper menu yet even though it has been open for a while now. I had a pleasant overall experience, even though I didn’t like the dessert or the drink I got, but I am sure they have other drinks and desserts. I recommend this place for those who want to go to a steakhouse in MQ.

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.

Pavo Real – MQ

Pavo Real is a Mexican restaurant in MQ (Madinat Qaboos), it is located in Al Madina Plaza right next to Starbucks. We realised that the place is known for being more of a bar than actually a restaurant as it is licensed to serve alcohol. Pavo Real also has a dance floor and live music. Due to some government regulations, all restaurants in town have currently suspended all their dancing until future notice.

We went to Pavo Real for dinner around 7.30, we were told at the door that the place is almost fully reserved for later in the evening so they told us that we can only get in if we do not plan on staying for too long. We said OK and got in. At 7.30 the place was already quite crowded with mostly of Caucasian expats of all ages. Pavo Real is kinda large from the inside, but the lighting was pretty dim, the image above looks the way it does because of the camera flash. It was nothing like the picture.

We were seated right next to the dance floor and directly in front of the band that was playing real load. We practically were shouting at each other to speak. The live band was made up of Asians and were covering all sorts of random songs from Kylie Minogue all the way to One Republic – it sounded weird and was more disturbing than entertaining.

Once we were seatined we were instantly given the drinks menu, and it was the real drinks menu, but none of us drinks alcohol, so we ended up having just coke (not pictured, each coke glass costs RO 0.800 – not refillable). All tables get a free complimentary basket of corn tortillas and a tomatoe tip. It was quite spicy and nice.

The menu of Pavo Real is quite big with about 55 items. We had a tough time choosing what to have. We ended up having a Chicken Fiesta Classica (Pictured above – RO 6.400) which was made up of chicken wings, some chicken rolls, quesadilla, and some nice potato skins deep fried and topped with chicken. The starter did not take a long time to arrive and it was delicious. We all really liked it. The potato skins and the rolls were my favourite among the others in the collection.

For the main course I had a “Pollo Ala Mexicana” (pictured above – RO 6.700) which was a rice and carry sort of dish made up of spicy chicken cubes cooked with onions and capsicum in spicy tomato sauce. It came with rice and a bean/tortilla syrup. I liked the chicken and the rice, the bean thing not so much. But overall I enjoyed it.

My friend had a Fajita Burrito Beef (pictured above – RO 5.750) , which was a beef strips dish cooked with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers and tomatoes – all wrapped in flour tortilla. It comes served with guacamole, sour cream, and the pico de gallo sauce. My friend said that he thought he enjoyed its unique taste at the start but got bored of it half way through.

My other friend had a Beef & Chicken Fajita (pictured above – RO 7.900) which came with rice, a side platter of beans, guacamole, and hot flour tortillas. My friend said that it was ‘OK’ ~ but I saw his plate wiped clean!

In total we ordered 4 soft drinks, 1 starter and 3 main courses, our bill was RO 35.000.

I thought that the food at Pavo Real was really good, I enjoyed it. I did not like the service that much, our main course took so long to get to us we had to ask them about it. The place also has a proper bar on the side and pints keep on coming back and forth no matter where you sit. I am not sure if there is a non-smoking area, but we were not offered to sit in one and people were smoking right next to us. The place was also too dark and the music too loud.

There are a lot of people who would enjoy their time at Pavo Real, but it is surely not for everyone.