It’s been ages –– almost four-years –– since I dropped in at a restaurant specialising in Kerala food. In a mood to feast on some fluffy parottas (a South Indian bread), we decided to try out the new Kerala restaurant in town – Ananthapuri. It is located a couple of buildings before Khimji’s Mart in Darsait, but the main entrance is from the backside, the road behind Khimji’s.

In keeping with its Trivandrum aka Thiruvananthapuram roots, the restaurant is nicely done with multi-hued artifacts giving a feel of traditional Kerala. We ordered chicken 65, king fish curry (I forgot the name), parottas and chicken biriyani. The chicken 65 was good except for dripping oil, while the soft and fluffy parottas went very well with the fish curry. I was so impressed that I ordered an extra parotta for myself. The chicken biriyani was not so great, and usual stuff. Again, the biriyani was soaking in oil (BTW, I hate oily/greasy food).

I love the biriyani cooked in the northern part of Kerala in Kannur (though Kozhikode biryani is more famous). It is full of aroma and tastes yum. For deserts, we didn’t have any space left, but decided to go for a sulaimani (black tea). The damages for the meal was very less – RO 6 only. The staff are friendly and service efficient. They don’t give finger bowl after meals, and you have to walk all the way to the wash basin (I was not too happy with it). I checked the menu and the prices are very, very reasonable. I assume a good meal for two should not exceed RO 10 by any standards. I guess, unless they promise me that they will go easy on oil, I will not visit them anytime soon.

(Above photo is for indicative purpose only. Checkout more food pics of Ananthapuri here)

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.

If you recall, I had reviewed Wok of Life restaurant in May this year. On November 20, a person by name Richi posted the following comment on that particular blog post.

Richi said:

We were there for lunch 2 days back, yes it was a little late 2.30pm, hence, We headed for the buffet, were surprised that in a few seconds the staff started cleaning up, yes, we were late, but then we did not know that the restaurant does not entertain late guests, if we had known we would not take the trouble. Mr. Nelson please take note.

On December 9, Nelson responded to the comment, saying:

Dear Richi, let me thank u for bringing to our notice the incident. We apologise for falling short of customer service standard expected by you, we feel that the said incident is unpardonable, we have taken stock of the situation and I apologise on behalf of the entire staff at the wok of life and assure you the best of our services. Hope to see you soon, feel free to call me on 96469646 for any assistance – Nelson (Wok of life)

A little bit of Googling reveals that Mr. Nelson is Wok of Life’s partner/director. It also turns out he has a Wok of Life page in Facebook. Nice to know a customer feedback in the online world is taken seriously by a restaurateur – and that too in Oman.

PRECARIOUSLY PERCHED: Workers manually cleaning the fibre-glass tiles at Qurum City Centre.

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Checked out the newly opened ‘The Cream and Fudge Factory’ at Bareeq Al Shatti complex. My daughter wanted a strawberry scoop, and it came without the crispy waffle bowl initially, though we asked for one. Looks like the staff are going through ‘launch hiccups’. After sample tasting a couple of flavours, my wife said Muscat’s good old Baskin Robbins was way ahead.

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BreadTalk has a lot of yummy-looking stuff, and unfortunately we were not in a mood to indulge ourselves. The whole place was jam packed, and looked like Muscateers have taken a liking for this new eatery in town. We picked up raspberry bread and a cake (I forgot the name). Both were good.

With so much hype surrounding it, a visit to Turkish House Restaurant was definitely on cards for sometime now. Located near Muscat Pharmacy in Al Khuwair, the restaurant can seat upto 75 people. The feel is simple and Turkish, very unlike other Turkish joints which have gaudy paraphernalia all over the place.

Being a weekend, we managed to get a table right next to the entrance. The staff is friendly and polite, though some of them are not too conversant in English, which creates a bit of confusion for newcomers like me while taking orders. I was surprised to see a couple of Indian waiters in their rolls as well. Makes me wonder why Indian restaurants don’t have people from the Arab world serving the guests. Imagine Lebanese babes serving masala dosas? Phew, the sales would shoot up instantly.

Coming to Turkish House, we ordered Cheese Fatayer, Grilled King Fish and Chicken Kebab. I found the fatayer very delectable although I was having it for the first time. My daughter took a liking for it for its ‘pizza look’. Grilled fish was a huge slice, and nicely done. Chicken kebabs were good too, much better than the ones at Camilia. Since I was very hungry, I polished off a major portion of the Turkish bread and hummus in the beginning, and I had to struggle to finish the fish and chicken towards the end.

I glanced through the menu, and most of the items are in the range of RO 3 to RO 6. The pricing is very decent, food is very tasty. Since I am a fish person, I have all the more reasons to try the likes of hammour and prawn next time. Turkish House Restaurant has an impressive list for sea food lovers. May be next time, I will try the fried variety of fish.

Cheese Fatayer.

Turkish bread.

The Pavilion restaurant is located in MBD (near Jumbo Electronics), and it serves the choicest of Indian and Chinese dishes. Pavilion, which has a chain of restaurants in Dubai, diversified into Muscat earlier this year. The restaurant’s interior has a reflection of southern India, with intricate wooden carvings and bronze statues. The colourful lighting inside is done mostly to suit the Chinese-theme on its menu, in all probability.

Since we visited the restaurant on a weekend, most of the prime tables were booked. The rush was partly due to Ramadan-related ‘renovations’ being carried out by restaurants like Woodlands and Khyber in CBD. We were made to sit close to the main entrance, which was not too comfortable a place to sit on your first visit.

For starters, we had tandoori chicken and south-Indian fried prawns. The chicken was very delectable, and grilled to perfection. The prawns were densely coated with masala, and very spicy. My daughter was very disappointed. She likes the golden fried prawns at Golden Oryx, and expected something on those lines at Pavilion. Finally, she did manage to tuck in a few without the masala coating.

For main course, we ordered fish curry (hammour fish) and steamed rice. Fish curry was pungent and nicely done, and it had the Hyderabadi-touch to it. Lately, I have started a liking for hammour. Happy with tandoori chicken, we ordered more round, and it took an effort to polish if off (we were very full then). Daughter wanted a dessert, and so came in the luscious piping-hot gulab jamun.

We didn’t try any of the Chinese items. Most of the dishes are priced between RO1.8 and RO4.5. The portions are not huge, and may be a good eater can gobble up a plate of tandoori chicken, alone!

For three starters, two main course items, and a dessert, our bill came up to RO11.5. Not bad at all. The service was good and ambience very pleasing. Pavilion is in the same league as Woodlands in terms of pricing, and they don’t serve liquor unlike the latter.

Fish curry made in mud pot.

Banana leaf

Friday is the day when Mrs. gets into ‘cooking-mode’ and tries out a few of our traditional dishes. Yesterday, she cooked Mangalore-style fish curry using the traditional mud pot (it has to be noted that this mud pot made it to Muscat from India despite stiff resistance from my side). The curry tasted divine, and it went very well with rice. The mud pot enhances the flavour of food, especially fish-based dishes. Some recipes which folks prepare back home using traditional vessels/cutlery are to die for.

To complement fish curry, I picked up a few banana leaves from the supermarket, and we had our lunch sitting on the floor, the traditional way. My daughter was excited by the whole experience.

PS: We dined at Pavillion, the Indian-Chinese restaurant in MBD, over weekend. Watch this space for review and pix soon.

Upon invitation, yesterday we visited Shangri-la’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa to check out the Sablah area during Ramadan nights. Live counters have been set up, and the ala carte menu features an array of hot and cold refreshments.

Some of the Arabic dishes on offer include hummus, moutabel, tabouleh, vine leaves, fatouch and babaganoush. The hot mezzeh includes kabbeh, fatayer (cheese, spinach and meat).

The grill section features shish taouk, kubidha and beef kebab along with a wide selection of desserts like umm ali, baklava, kunafa and sliced fruits.

The colourful Sablah area.

Omani musicians in action.

I loved falefel the most; they were crispy and crunchy.

My favourite shish taouk. I just loved it, and tucked in quite a few. The dip was superb too.

Chicken shawarma was very tasty though I would have preferred the shawarma rolled. Old habits die hard you see!

Thanks to generous helpings of shish taouk and shawarma, I had no space left for yummy-looking sweets. Settled for some dates instead.