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.
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.
Cowboy Grills – Bareeq Al Shatti
Cowboy Grills (Telephone: 2440 4233) is a new mexican grill take out restaurant located in the food court of Bareeq Al Shatti. It serves salads, hard shell tacos, burritos, quesadillas, sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, and pastas. The main highlights of Cowboy’s menu are the tacos, burrito, and quesadillas section for which you can pick whatever filling you want to have in them and the salad and salsa to have added. An individual taco costs RO 0.800 and does not come with anything else, burritos and Quesadillas on the other hand cost RO 2.000 each and come with tortilla chips (you can replace that for french fries if you tell them early on).
Grand Lounge – Ruwi
Grand Lounge (Telephone 2481 1191 – Location) is a Turkish Restaurant located in Ruwi right behind the Sheraton. Somehow the location of Grand Lounge is undiscovered yet and there is no problem with the car parking at all near it.
The Grand Lounge has a gorgeous seating area indoors and outdoors and has a number of private rooms as well. We sat inside during our visit, but the outdoor seating looked really nice. We went to Grand Lounge on a Wednesday night and only a few other tables were occupied when we were there.
The menu of Grand Lounge offers a couple of soups, some appetizers, salads, sea food dishes, beef main courses, chicken main courses, and a special section for casserole baked dishes.
For starters we asked if we can have a half and half plate of Mutabal and Babaganush (RO 1.200 – pictured above) which came with freshly baked thick turkish bread. We also had two pieces of Lahmacun (RO1.000 – pictured below), which was a very flat piece of bread with thin layer of beef and vegetables smothered on top of it, something similar to fatayer but much more thinner and lighter. I wasn’t a big fan of the recipe Grand Lounge uses for its Mutabal or Babaganush, even though the bread that came with it was delicious and felt fresh out of the oven. The Lahmacun was much nicer than our other starter, we learnt that you are supposed to use it to make a rolled up sandwich with the salad that came with it and have it that way. It was pretty nice, but we though maybe one piece would have been enough for two instead of having two pieces.
Strangely the Grand Lounge serves a great variety of fish and beef main courses, but barely any chicken main courses and no chicken kebab at all. There is also a collection of fresh fish at the entrance which you can pick and have cooked for you in the way you like if you want to have a whole proper fish for your meal.
We ended up having Adana Kebab (RO 3.500 – pictured straight below) which had two skewers of beef kebabs marinated in hot spices and came with a rice, and a Beyti Wrap (RO 4.000 – pictured further below) which was a beef, cheese, and vegetable wrap served on a plate. I thought the portions of the main courses were big, and they were quite well done. The kebab was well flavored and the wrap was slightly crunchy from the outside and the moist and tender from the inside. We enjoyed both of them thoroughly.
For the dessert we thought we’ll try the baked Rice Pudding (pictured below) which was a very strange dish because it had the caramel on top of it almost burnt, yet came cold and was way too sweet for our liking. Other desserts served which we didn’t try were the Kunafas and Buqlawas.
In total we ordered 2 starters, 2 main courses, 2 fresh juices, and 1 dessert. Our bill came to about RO 16.000.
We thought that the service at the Grand Lounge was great, the staff members were a bit awkward but friendly and helped us pick our dishes. Our orders also came quickly and exactly as we ordered.
I thought that I had a good experience on my visit to the Grand Lounge, I wouldn’t advise you to try the mixed appetizers and instead go for something else like the Lahmacun, I heard mixed feedback about the Grand Lounge because of their consistency issues, but I think that it is surely worth giving a try.
Gelo Fredo Ice Cream in Jawharat Al Shatti
Long time Omani Cuisine ‘frenemies’ Dream Cones have recently opened a new gelato and ice cream cake outlet in Jawharat Al Shatti Mall in Shatti Al Qurum. Gelo Fredo has only opened a few days ago and offers a very similar ice cream collection to these offered at Dream Cones in Zakher Mall which includes a wide variety of flavors including watermelon, creme caramel, creme brulee, blueberry yogurt, raspberry yogurt, and a variety of other regular and sugar-free flavors.
A single scoop costs RO 0.9, while 2 scoops cost RO 1.600, and 3 scoops cost RO 2.400. Their menu mentions toppings and syrups, but I wasn’t offered any of them when I ordered my ice cream, but was asked later if I wanted some strawberry syrup after I sat down. I had a raspberry yogurt and blueberry yogurt ice cream which I thought was refreshing and delicious. I was not pleased about having a plastic spoon with my relatively fancy looking ice cream cup though.
In addition to the ice cream Gelo Fredo offers a number of ice cream cakes and cupcakes which can be seen in their fridge in the back, they looked pretty cool, but I didn’t try any of them.
The actual official opening of Gelo Fredo is next weekend and will be running a special to buy 1 scoop and get another for free between the 30th of September to the 7th of October. If you have not tried Dream Cones before this would be a good chance to give it a try.
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.
Cafe Glacier – Zakher Mall
Cafe Glacier (Telephone: 2448 9245) has recently relaunched its new menu and brand identity in its main branch in Zakher Mall. Glacier is one of the oldest cafes in town and has been famous since the mid 90s fors its waffles and ice cream. You can check our previous review of Glacier in 2008 here.
The new revamped Cafe Glacier features black leather seating and a long leather cushioned wall on the other side. The place looks way more sleek, nice and polished now, but somehow it doesn’t seem that they got the right number of tables or something because the place somehow looks empty and awkward – especially in the middle. We came for lunch around 2.30 on a working day and the place didn’t seem busy at all.
The menu of Glacier has been streamlined and shorted in a manner that makes it really easy to navigate, there are now basically two sheets, one for main courses and the other one for desserts. On the main menu you have appetizers, salads, mains (such as grills, steaks and savory waffles), sandwiches, croques, and breakfast options. On the dessert menu you have a guide for your ice cream base (cup, cone, pancakes, or waffles), ice cream type, and then toppings, in addition to special desserts and drinks.
We decided to try out new things during this visit at Glacier, so I went for the Soup of the Day (RO 1.900) which was a Crab and Corn soup – it came with a few slices of bread, I thought it was OK, but really not very memorable. I wasn’t a big fan of the texture of the soup and now I don’t think it’ll be something I’ll try again. For the main course I thought I’ll go for a Steak and Prawns plate (RO 7.900) which came with a side dish and sauce of my choice. I had mine with fries and peppercorn sauce. The new Glacier menu seems to be big on steaks as it has manu configures at which you can have your steak, but only offers Ribeye pieces. I ordered mine well done, but it came burnt from one side and wasn’t very pleasant – I still finished everything that was on my plate, but again I don’t think I’ll go for steak again at Glacier.
For the desserts we thought we’ll try out something new, none of the ‘selection of the day’ were available so we tried the Warm Chocolate Fondants topped with ice cream (RO 2.700) which wasn’t really warm when it got to us and it looked, I don’t know, kinda sad. Again we wiped our plate clean, but it wasn’t the best dessert we had at Glacier.
In total we ordered 2 soups, 2 steak main courses, a juice, 2 small bottles of water, and 1 desserts. Our bill came to RO 25.300.
We thought the service at Glacier was average as always, not terrible, but not spectacular either. We were not impressed by any of the new items we tried at Glacier. Don’t get me wrong, I think that I still like Glacier, but I think that I will go back to have the good old dishes that we are used to having at Glacier such as the amazing Club Sandwiches and their good old waffles for dessert.
The new interior and seating looks much nicer than what it was before, and the design and layout of the new menu is excellent. I don’t have an item by item comparison, but the average price for an item at Glacier has surely gone up and steaks cost up to RO 7.900.
We are happy to see that Glacier try to reinvent itself, but I think I’ll stick to their old dishes like I always have.
Omani Cuisine Interviewed By Y Magazine
I got interviewed by Y Magazine in their latest issue (Issue 185) which you can read in full at their website, or alternatively you can just download the PDF file for the interview text here.
TGI Friday’s To Open In Al Khuwair Soon
According to this Facebook page, TGI Friday’s will soon be opening in the City Seasons Hotel in Al Khuwair. No specific dates announced yet.
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.
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