Pane Caldo – Jawharat Al Shatti

I reviewed Pane Caldo first when it opened back in 2007 and I wasn’t the biggest fan of their food, however, over the years I grew to like the place and it is now it is one of my favorite Italian restaurants in town, so I thought I’ll do a new review of Pane Caldo to share with you some of my favorite dishes at it. For those who do not know it, Pane Caldo is an Italian restaurant located in Jawharat Al Shatti Mall on the left side of it before DQ (Map).

Pane Caldo is quite big and spacious, during day time the place has this nice open airy feel due to the brightness of the place as the light comes through the glass wall. For those who like a little bit more privacy there are a couple of partitions on the right back side of the restaurant. They are not completely private, but will do for those who want to have a partial intimate experience.

Pane Caldo serves a collection of pizzas, pastas, calzones and other Italian dishes – I would personally not recommend having pizza at Pane Caldo because I did not like any of the pizzas there have, but someone on Twitter yesterday was swearing by the pizza he had at Pane Caldo – I am not sure which specific pizza he had.

Once you order at Pane Caldo you are usually treated to a variety bread basket (pictured above), which is usually extremely tender and cloudy and comes with a crushed olive dip and a red chili dip.

There are a number of starters at Pane Caldo, but I always go for nothing other than their Calamari Fritt (RO 2.500) which comes with nice mayo dip. It’s crunchy and not too oily and can be shared between two or three people.

For the main course I never go for pizza like I mentioned earlier, and usually have the Pollo Biancaneve (RO 5.200 – pictured below) which is a chicken breast dish served pasta and a spicy tomato sauce on the side, or the Bucataini Mrinana which is basically a red sauce sea food pasta (RO 4.600 – pictured above). The sea food pasta can be a little bit too spicy for some people, but you can ask them to have not a little bit less spicy that usual if you do not think you can handle it. I personally think that these two dishes are generally really good just the way they are.

I don’t usually have any of the desserts at Pane Caldo, but on my recent visit we had a Tiramisu (RO 2.800) which I thought was quite OK and really huge in size, four people could have easily just shared that one piece.

I really like the service at Pane Caldo nowadays, the staff members are helpful, very cheerful and never mess the order or take too long to prepare it.

On our last visit we had 2 main courses, 2 starters (second starter not pictured), 1 large bottle of water, 1 soft drink, and 1 dessert, our bill came to RO 26.910.

Pane Caldo is currently one of my favorite places in town and I highly recommend it!

BreadTalk Ramadan Specials

The Omani Cuisine received a surprise package in the mail today from BreadTalk – a speciality bakery in Bareeq Al Shatti Mall. The package had a set of BreadTalk’s upcoming Ramadan special mini treats called “Petite Delicacies” which has a combination of savory and sweet items. The “Petite Delicacies” will be available during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid.

I am kind of ashamed to say this, but this was actually the first time I ever try something from BreadTalk – and it was quite good!! Have you guys been to BreadTalk before? What do you think of it?

Omani Cuisine iPhone and Android Apps

We have been working on the Omani Cuisine mobile app as a side project for a while and it is now officially ready! The iPhone and Android Omani Cuisine app is a simple directory for restaurants in Muscat, you can use it to look to search for restaurants we have reviewed, get their phone numbers and check their location on the map.

You can download the iPhone version of the app from this link:

The Android version of the app can be found here:

This is the first time we ever make something like this, so please share with us any comments, suggestions, or problems you have with the application!

Aches for Cakes

The Omani Cuisine was recently invited to try out some of the desserts made by Aches for Cakes – a little speciality home baking business run by Hanan Al Busaidi from her house in Athaiba. Hanan has been in the business of making cakes for over a year now, she has previously trained in the kitchens of Al Bustan Palace and the Chedi, and she is studying at the Oman Tourism College at the moment.

What makes Aches for Cakes standout among all the home cake bakeries in town is that it focuses on experimenting with mixes and nonconventional recipes. During my tasting session I tried a Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcake, a Passion Fruit Raspberry Cupcake, a Mango Tango Cupcake, a Strawberry Cheesecake Frosting Cupcake, a Peanut Butter Cupcake, a Lemon Meringue Bar, a Snickers Chocolate Chip Cookie, and some good old classics like a Chocolate Cupcake, a Dark Chocolate Cupcake, and an Oreo Cupcake.

The cupcakes were delicious, moist, and most of them had a *surprise* filling inside that gave the cupcake a nice kick of freshness – like the mango tango which had a fresh mango filling inside. I thoroughly enjoyed the cupcakes I had at Aches and Cakes, my favorite cupcakes were the Strawberry Cheesecake Frosting Cupcake and the Raspberry White Chocolate Cupcake.

Aches for Cakes accepts orders by email or through Facebook and offers a wide variety of items. Make sure you check out their Facebook page to look at some of the gorgeous cakes and cool looking cupcakes.

Omani Cuisine on Merge 104.8

I am doing an interview for the Omani Talents show on Merge 104.8 radio station this upcoming Friday the 8th of July. Tune in to Merge 104.8 to hear me speak about the Omani Cuisine between 7pm to 9pm Muscat Time. You can stream the show live from Merge 104.8 website here.

Chowpatty – Al Khuwair

Chowpatty (Telephone: 2448 8829 – Map) is an Indian chaat restaurant located in Al Khuwair on Dohat Al Adab Street somewhat near Muscat International Hotel.

Chowpatty is a relatively small restaurant with a nice modern theme that looks much prettier than what you would expect from looking at it from the outside. I have been twice to Chowpatty and it was never too crowded.

Similar to The Bollywood, Chowpatty serves Indian chaat which is a kind of cuisine that does a variety of small vegetarian snack-like dishes. The menu of Chowpatty is divided into five sections: “Snacks” – which has things like samosas, “Pav Bhaji” for dishes which are served in or with a bun, “Chats” which are a variety of light snacks, and “South Indian” section which has some “Dosa” and other Indian specialities, and “Sandwiches”.

The problem I faced in both of my visits to Chowpatty is that I do not understand anything from the menu, there are more than 50 different items on it with names like Dahi Sev Puri, Tawa Alu Chat, Pav Bhaji, and Mayasore Uttapam? There are no pictures of these dishes and  no descriptions or mention of the ingredients of these items. The waiters do not really speak good enough English to be able to explain what these things are. So what I ended up doing in both times is just order random things and then try to guess what’s in them.

Out of all the things I tried I thought the Dosa’s (from “South Indian” section of the menu) were my favorite, these are wraps made up with the crepe-like Indian pancake and have all sorts of fillings that can go with them. You can have them plain, with cheese, with spicy masala, or even  with chocolate if that’s what you want. Some of them come with a dip and cut into smaller pieces like the picture above, while others come as a whole piece like the picture below.  Both times I thought that the dosa’s I tried were delicious.

I tried a dessert at Chowpatty, but as I said in a previous blog post, I really do not like Indian desserts. This thing was milky, had coco nut and saffron, and like all Indian desserts – was too intense for me to do.

The first time I tried Chowpatty I tried their cocktail fresh juice and it was horrible. My friend tried some other juice too and he did not like it at all. I do not recommend any of the juices at Chowpatty.

I thought that the service at Chowpatty was good and the the staff were friendly and welcome even though they were hopefully when it came to explaining what’s actually on the menu. It is cheap – only 2 items out of the 50 or so on the menu cost more than RO 1. I do think that Chowpatty serves some really good food, but it is a big challenge to go there if you do not know anything about chaat because it is almost like playing a lottery as there are no pictures or descriptions of the dishes served

Nando’s Muscat City Center Branch Now Open

Lovers of chicken and peri peri should know that Nando’s opened its new branch in Muscat City Center yesterday. Nando’s is located in the East Wing of MCC right next to where Borders bookshop used to be.

Mydan – Millennium Resort (Al Mussanah)

I was invited by the Millenium Resort in Mussanah (Telephone: 2687 1555) to try out Mydan – their buffet and a la carte restaurant. Millenium Resort is a bit less than a 100 kilometers away the capital, and it is remembered by many as the resort that hosted the Asian Beach Games in 2010.

We visited Millennium on a working day and there were no special events or conferences held, so the place was quiet and barely anybody else at all was at the restaurant. The Mydan restaurant is located on the right side of the main building of the hotel and has a breathtaking ocean view. There are tables outside all along the marina, but sitting outside is the not the best idea at this time of the year due to humidity and the heat.

Mydan does not serve a specific cuisine but a mix of continental, Mediterranean and Indian food. It has a pretty extensive menu with cold and hot starters, salads, soups, pastas, pizzas, grills, sandwiches, and other main courses. Mydan is fully licensed so some of its dishes may contain bacon and/or alcohol.

At the start of our meal we were treated with a variety bread basket that came with butter and oil dips.

For the starter we ordered a plate of cold lebanese mezze selection (RO 4) that had  hommous, tabouleh, muttabal, feta cheese, and pickles and came with Arabic bread. I liked the greens and the cheese, but the homous wasn’t not very remarkable. We also had a lentil soup (RO 2.8) and market salad (RO 3.5), the lentil soup was nice, consistent and well flavored.

For the main course we had one plate of Roganjosh (RO 7.5) – boneless lamb cooked in traditional indian spices served with basmati rice, and one plate of grilled tiger prawns (RO 8 ) that came with couscous and seasonal salad. I really like the lamb curry I had, the beef was well cooked, tender and nicely thready and it was really awesome how it was served with a small plate that had two slices of onion, lemon, atchar, and two thin long green chilis for that spicy kick you need when having your rice and meat – it was great and I enjoyed it! The grilled tiger prawns excellent especially when dipped in the lemon sauce that came with it.

For the dessert we had a double devil (RO 3.5) – a chocolate brownie topped with vanilla and whipped cream. and place in the middle of a sauce of mixed raspberry, vanilla, and chocolate. I thought that it was great and the addition of raspberry to the sauce was a surprisingly nice addition that added some sweet freshness to the mix.

I thought the service at Mydan was great, our starters took a bit of time to be brought to our table, but we did not mind the wait as we enjoyed the the sipping our drinks overlooking the ocean. I thought the staff were very cheerful and friendly and our food was delivered as ordered.

If you are coming to Millennium Resort in Al Mussanah you would enjoy your food here.

The Great Kabab Factory – Al Khuwair

The Great Kabab Factory (Telephone: 2447 8373 – Map) is a Indian kabab restaurant in Al Khuwair commercial area somewhere opposite Pizza Hut and these bunch of restaurants on Al Kuleiyah Street.

The Great Kabab Factory is quite a spacious restaurants that can accommodate a big amount of people. We had lunch on a weekend and it wasn’t crowded at all.

The concept of the Great Kabab Factory is that you pay a specific amount for unlimited servings of kabab that get served to you in a special order at your table. Once you are seated you are asked to selected between the non-vegetarian option (RO 4.900)  or vegetarian option and then they will start serving you the food.

The order in which items come are usually as follows:

1. Salad
2. The signature minced lamb patty
3. Mixed variety of kababs
4. Biryani
5. Dessert

After you get served the variety of kababs you can ask them to repeat any specific kabab you liked to have more of if you wish. Throughout the meal you will also get some dips, dalh, vegetable curry, naan bread, and a yogurt drink, too. From my understanding the actual items that get served differ from one day to the next, at times they serve chicken biryani and at others lamb biryani.

I thought the food at The Great Kabab Factory was amazing, especially their minced lamb patty which we got to spread over the flat bread they got us and make a sandwich out of.  I thought the variety of the kababs was OK, we had a couple of chicken ones and a couple of lamb ones. We had chicken biryani at the end and it was great.

Right when we finished they got us some Indian desserts which I just can’t ever get myself to like, they are way too intense for me to handle. (I know that I am a big disappointment for someone who is this much into Indian food). I think people who actually like Indian desserts will actually like the things they serve at this place.

Besides the yogurt drink you nothing else is included with your food, at that time we were they offered orange juice and watermelon juice – we got good old orange juice (RO 1.400).

I was really impressed with the service at the Great Kabab Factory, the waiters were cheerful, very talkative and tried to explain to us the things that were coming in.

The Great Kebab Factory advertises the non-vegetarian option to be at RO 4.900 nowadays, but this amount does not include an additional 8% service charge and another %9 of government taxes. In total we had 2 non-vegetarian selections, 1 bottle of water, and 2 juices. Our bill came to RO 16.010.

I really enjoyed my experience at the Great Kabab Factory, their food was excellent and the service was great!

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.