O Sole Mio – Shatti Al Qurum

O Sole Mio (2460 1343) is an Italian restaurant located in Jawharat Al Shatti mall on the right side before D’Arcy’s Kitchen.

O Sole Mio is a pretty big restaurant with loads of tables, but it kinda looks ugly and is not very appealing. During day time the place is at least bright and airy, but at night it can be dark and miserable inside. I don’t know if there are people who dig this kind of look to a restaurant, but I surely don’t. There was barely anyone else at O Sole Mio during lunch time when we were there, I think that the place gets a bit more crowded at night.

O Sole Mio has an extensive menu with cold starters, hot starters, salads, soups, pastas, risottos, pizzas, and many more kinds of Italian dishes. It is fully licensed so it serves alcohol and uses wine and pork as an ingredient in many of its dishes – those who do not drink alcohol or eat pork would have to watch out because the Arabic translation of the ingredients for some reason omits the fact that such an ingredient is used, so read the English text instead.

For the main course we had a Calamari Fritti (RO 3.900) in which the squid was perfectly fried and came with a delicious dip. I thought the portion was big and can easily shared with one or two people.

For the main course I had a Petto Di Pollo Del Sole Mio (RO 7.500) which had a chicken breast cooked with cream, saffron, chili, capers, and oregano, my friend had a Penne Alfredo (RO 4.800) which was penne pasta with mushrooms, chicken, cream, and parmesan cheese. I am not usually a big fan of cream but I really enjoyed my Petto Di Pollo and the combination in it of saffron and chilis was really nice.

Unfortunately we did not get the chance to try any of the desserts at O Sole Mio. For the drinks I had a lemon mint which was pretty good.

In total we ordered one starter, two mains, two juices, and a large bottle of water. Our bill came to RO 23.600.

I thought that the service at O Sole Mio was good, the food I had came quickly and as ordered.

O Sole Mio might not be the trendiest place in town, but their food is still awesome. Come here if you want to have fancy Italian food.

Just Grilled – Oasis by the Sea

Just Grilled (Telephone 2460 1290 – Map) is a new grilled food restaurant in Oasis by the Sea in Shatti Al Qurum. The restaurant is located on the right side of the mall right before Costa Coffee. It is a local brand and owned by the franchise owner of Cafe Ceramique.

A serious problem with Just Grilled is the seating – there are a few tables outside the restaurant besides the road, but it is so damn hot at this time of the year no sane person would stay there except those who have to get their cigarette fix. Inside the restaurant itself there are three micro tables that seat only two persons each, and they directly face the grilling station making it is hard not to get irritated by the smell and all the cooking. Fortunately there are a few tables on the inside section of the mall (literally just four tables) and they are the most acceptable place to sit in, but still they are not perfect as a lot of people pass from there and it is hard not to see a million people you know coming and going back. We were unlucky to have a couple of families dine in the same area with kids, so there was a lot of running and shouting making the place almost feel like a food court.

Just Grilled has a big menu with a breakfast section, salads, sandwiches, grills, burgers, vegetarian grills, and pastas, yet even with all these things there are no proper appetizers in this whole menu – except for soup of the day which turned out to be sweet corn chicken soup.

We asked the waiter if there is anything we can have as a starter and he suggested we pick something from the vegetarian section like the Spring Rolls with Sweet Chilly Dip or the Roast Pepper & Hallloumi Wrap, we thought we’ll go for the spring rolls, but we were informed later that they weren’t available, so we went for the Roast Pepper & Halloumi Wrap (RO 2.800 – pictured above), which turned out to be nice, but seriously not a good option for a starter because it was as heavy as a main course and came with the same salad and fries that came with my main course.

For the main course we thought we’ll pick something from the primary “Just Grilled” section of the menu, so I had a Grilled Chicken with Warm Tomato Corn Salsa (RO 3.700) which was amazing! The chicken was nicely tender and the salsa was spicy and full of flavour. I really really liked it. The side salad was alright and their fries were nicely done, too. My friend had a plate of Olive Chicken Skewer and Feta Salad (RO 3.700) which he thought was good, too.

For desserts Just Grill has a selection of cakes and chocolate fondue, we got a Blueberry Cheese Cake (RO 1.800) which was creamy, soft, and divine, surely one of the best cheesecakes I had in a while.

There were loads of different options for drinks, and many of them had some really strange combinations with yogurt and  coco nut milk, I ended up having a Strawberry and Kiwi Smoothie which I quite liked.

I thought the service at Just Grilled was alright, even though I wasn’t happy about the advice we got to get the halloumi wrap, everything else was perfect, our food came quickly and as ordered and I thought that the staff were quite friendly.

In total we ordered three main courses, two drinks, and 1 dessert. Our bill came to RO 15.098.

Even though I wasn’t happy about the seating arrangement and the lack of starters, but I have to admit that I really liked the grilled chicken breast I had at Just Grilled and I will surely be visiting this place again to have that dish or try out different items on the menu.

Have you been to Just Grilled? What did you have and what did you think of it?

Hot Pot & Grills – Bareeq Al Shatti

Hot Pot & Grills (Telephone 2440 4291) is a new Asian grill restaurant located in Bareeq Al Shatti Mall right next to B+F and Wasabi.

The seating in Hot Pot is pretty good with a brick and bamboo theme nicely set. The place is relatively small though and it can seem that you are almost sitting in the middle of the walkway if you sit right next to the entrance.

The concept of Hot Pot is that you order to have a platter of vegetables, chicken, meat, or seafood that gets cooked on your table for you on the circular grill you see in the image above. The platter comes with a variety of vegetables and noodles that gets boiled to be served as soup while the meat or whatever you are having will be grilled  and eventually the whole thing is served with steamed rice and two bowls of soya and chili sauce.

While the concept sounds like fun, it can be a little bit weird because the waiter puts everything for you on the grill, flips the food to make sure it is properly cooked, and then serves it for you on your plate – it can be a little bit awkward to have the waiter standing over your shoulder for the whole time. I am not sure if you can ask to cook your own food on the grill, but I am aware that it could be a little bit risky as some people might eat things raw or burn their food completely if they do not know what they are doing, another thing I should point out is that there is only place for one grill on each 4-person table, so if each person ordered a different thing you will have to wait for each of them to get cooked before you can have the thing you want – this means that the only appropriate way to order these platters is to order different things and just share everything with everyone.

We tried the chicken platter and the seafood platter and I really liked them both, but I have to say that I liked the chicken one more just because I am a big chicken fan!

I thought that soup was way too much that what a person can handle – each one of us just had one small bowl which was barely one quarter of what we could have had.  We were a little bit irritated because the steamed rice only came after we finished the first platter.

In addition to the special hot pot platter, Hot Pot offers a number of soups, salads, dim sums, and sandwiches. We ordered a beef dim sum which took a really really long time to arrive, but was actually pretty delicious when we ended up having it. My friend tried a Hot Pot Burger and quite liked it.

Hot Pot offers a variety of silly-named juices and smoothes, I tried the Lemonino with Mintino (AKA Lemon and Mint) which was as good as what you get in other places.

For some reason, like Wasabi, Hot Pot does not offer any desserts.

In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 hot pot platters, 1 burger, and 2 fresh juices, our bill was RO 23.217.

I thought the service as Hot Pot was OK, the waiters seem to be very polite and friendly, but the order in which our food came was messed up (the starter came at the end). Hot Pot is not exactly a new place at this point, so it really makes you wonder why they can’t get this right.

I enjoy my experience at Hot Pot and I recommend it to those who want to try some different Asian food.

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.

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?

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?

Ubhar – Bareeq Al Shatti

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?

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.

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?