When in a mood to relish Chinese cuisine, what are your options in Muscat? I have tried Golden Oryx, Wok of Life, Chinese Garden and China Town. I am done with over-hyped Golden Oryx. They seem to be using some funny tasting oil now. One thing, no one can beat their ambience. Wok of Life food is okey-dokey, but pricing is a bit steep for kind of food they dish out. The remaining two are Chinese Garden and China Town. These serve Indianese food (Indian+Chinese). Chinese Garden is more of a Malayali-run Indian restaurant and less of Chinese. Food is cheap. China Town has a fancy for oil – I can’t get over their oil-dripping drums of heaven, yikes!

Looking for more options, upon recommendation from another foodie, we landed up at Silk Route, the Chinese-Thai restaurant, located at Al Noor Plaza in Madinat Qaboos. The interiors of the hotel are very oriental, seating very comfortable and ambience perfect.

We started off with chicken clear soup with vegetables. I am not great fan of soups, but this one stumped me. It was perfectly done. For starters, we had chicken satay (Thai dish) and drums of heaven. Both tasted good, and portion decent. Peanut sauce to go with satay was awesome.

For main course, we ordered mixed fried rice, vegetable noodles, chicken in schezwan sauce and stir fried vegetables. No complaints here too, everything tasted good. Fried rice was superb.

We rounded off with plain lychees. For 2 soups, 2 starters, 4 main course dishes and 2 desserts, our bill came up to RO 28. Not bad at all. Prices are reasonable. Impressed, I have decided to extensively try out Thai cuisine next time.

Stir fried vegetables

Vegetable noodles.

Mixed fried rice.

Chicken in schezwan sauce.