Samba Buffet at Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa

Samba is an international buffet restaurant located at Shangri-La, in Al Waha which is the hotel to the farthest right of its premises.  For anyone familiar with Shangri-La, you know that it’s the building you reach by driving through the narrow tunnel which has a traffic light on each end.  It may seem like quite a long drive to go out for a buffet, but it is well worth it!

You can sit inside if you choose (which might be a good option as the temperature soars…) or…

You could sit in the fabulous outdoor area, right next to the pool and across from Assira Bar.  It was 38 degrees Celsius on the night we sat outdoors and it was not overly hot at all with lovely breezes from the ocean.  Just to make sure we were feeling overly pampered, the staff would bring cold towels around every now and then.  Sweet!

Aahh!! The Shangri-La!

This was one of our favorite buffets so far in Muscat!  I’m quite suprised by the mediocre review Timeout Muscat gave Samba…I think they need to return to give this place another try as some of those reviews are quite ancient and simply repeated, season after season .

There were so many mouth-watering salads that seemed expertly fashioned just for my taste-buds.  In my judgment, this is what makes for a fantastic buffet; when they leave you with so many different options such as the “already mixed salads”.

Plenty of other appetizers to choose from on the left hand side of the buffet

We LOVED the fresh bread here!

Friendly Omani chef from Sumail

The Moroccan pasta lady will serve you up whatever type of pasta your heart desires.  She even insisted that we sit down and she brought out the dishes once they were ready.  Here’s the incredible dish she prepared for me:

MMM! Barbecued meat!  Of course if you’re going to have barbecued chicken, lamb and beef, you’re going to want to have (at least) one of these:

This large Heineken draft (RO 4.5) was so refreshing!  It must have been in some magic glass because it remained icy cold throughout the meal!

The buffet is SO good here that like that lovely lady in the pic above, you’ll be going back for more and more.  Most likely you’ll lose count of which plate you’re on!  🙂

Of course coffee (RO 1.8) and other beverages are not included in the price of the buffet.  All the shakes, smoothies and mocktails are 2.4 rials and of course they are a licensed restaurant with quite a list of alcoholic beverages available.  The buffet itself is 18 Omani rials (+ service charge & tax).  If you use one of the “buy one, get one buffet free coupons” from Entertainer Oman, you’ll save yourself 18 rials! (like we did! 🙂 )  So for one buffet, drinks and taxes and all, our bill came to 35.34 rials.  A bit pricey maybe but well worth it!

What a buffet & what an evening out! 

FYI, they have “special buffets” twice a week at Samba.  Every Sunday evening, culinary team brings you a sumptuous seafood spread.  Enjoy a live barbecue grill with whole fish, including Mullet, Mackerel, Salalah Prawns and Tuna Loin.  (All buffets are available from 6:30pm to 11pm.)  Every Monday evening, they have authentic Asian cuisine: popular dishes from China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam including beef rendang, teppanyaki, tom yam koong, rice paper spring rolls and grilled satay.

For reservations, call (+968) 2477 6666 Fax: 2477 6677

Project Serve 2011: PCO Youth Ministry

How sad to know that leprosy is still a major problem in India.  How nice to know that the youth of our church are doing something about it.  They are raising their own funds through different means such as cake sales and such to raise funds to get 6 of them to Nagercoil, India as well as providing the financial assistance to renovate the men’s ward of CSI Leprosy Hospital.  Renovation work will include painting, masonry,gardening, etc.  This renovation will help uplift the broken spirits of the patients in the hospital.  They will also do hospital visits and talk to cancer patients and visit some local schools and help the local YFC chapter with their ministry.

One of their projects to raise funds included making this CD.  The CD is not for sale but people were/are welcome to give donations.

The inside cover explains the goal:

The CD has 7 Christian songs on it.  It’s nice that they included the lyrics to all the songs:

I am so proud to have youth in our church who are stepping out in faith and trying to make a difference in this world.  The main vocalist is a godly young Sudanese man, Ehab, and I can’t believe how talented he is!  I uploaded what is a new song to me called “Restore My Heart” (track #7 on the CD) onto youtube to show you what I’m talking about.  You can listen to Ehab sing these deep, haunting lyrics by clicking on the video below.

Not only does Ehab sing this song, he composed it himself.  Talk about gifted!  If you’d like more information about the trip or would like to make direct monetary contributions, please email Jess at jess.pco@gmail.com.  I pray that their trip is a great success!