I noticed the following full page ad on the back cover of Muscat Daily newspaper last week and was immediately intrigued. Live Teppanyaki in Muscat, Oman!?
This seemed like a great new restaurant to try out so last week I reserved a table for me and my little lady for last night.
360° is located in Ghala. We were a little surprised as “fine dining” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you mention “Ghala”. It’s a nice location and not too far of a drive from just about any area within Muscat. It’s located in Al-Nahda Towers which is behind (on the right side) of the MAN trucks Oman centre, directly across the Sultan Qaboos street from Peugeot. Just look for the building pictured above with the blue neon lighting on top! Don’t make the mistake of entering the residential tower as we did. The correct entrance is to the left of Vacha’s Hypermart on the groundfloor as you face the building.
At the elevator there was a gentleman named Mohammed who made sure we had a reservation. (Make sure you make a reservation as they are only serving a limited number each evening as they just had their grand opening on Nov. 15th and are a bit understaffed at the moment.) There was some confusion as to whether I was “Dr. Ambi” (sounds like “Andy”, right?) or Mr. Ground (Ground, Brown…I guess they sound similar on the phone, haha!). Once the elevator opened at the penthouse, this was the sight as we entered:
We were greeted warmly by our waiter for the evening, Richard (pictured above), who gave us a full tour of the restaurant before we ordered. The restaurant is really quite a sight and I don’t think its true ambiance with its romantic lighting (soft jazz music playing in the background!) is captured fully in these limited photos I’m quickly posting here.
This “Coffee Shop” is a separate area if you want to enjoy chatting with a friend and a great view. They also had a “Sisha (arabic waterpipe) Area” on the other side of the penthouse with probably the best views of them all. (2.5 OR to smoke sisha) The sisha area already seems to be quite popular with quite a number of regulars who know the staff by name.
This is the Teppanyaki station where we decided to dine. Teppanyaki is a very entertaining form of Japanese cooking. It comes from the words “Teppan” which means “iron grill” and “Yaki” which means “grilled, broiled or pan-fried.”
To start things off, we ordered Crispy California Maki (8 pieces) and Dragon Roll (8 pieces). Both dishes were recommended to us by the chef and we’re glad we went with his suggestions! Delicious!
The Teppanyaki chef (or one of them), Allan Zarandin, is a talented and entertaining man! The food was incredible and he was a lot of fun as he cooked up our food. FYI, Chef Zarandin is from Anti-Polo in the Philippines and he has at least 11 years of overseas service as a Japanese-style cook. We ordered “Fisherman’s Choice” (10 OR) and they wisely told us it would be more than enough for the 2 of us as we had already enjoyed 2 dishes. Here is a short video showing just a sample of him in action:
Because we ordered one of the main items on the Teppanyaki menu, it came with miso soup, a salad and dessert. The salad was great!
Here is what the”Fisherman’s Choice” platter looked like once Chef Zarandin was done putting on a quick show as he cooked. Remember that this is just my plate and my wife had almost the exact same thing served to her at a total cost of only 10 rials!
Here’s another video of Teppanyaki cooking:
Dessert was fabulous!
(Deep fried Icecream)
As you can probably gather by now, we had an incredible evening out at 360. We really appreciated the service from Richard our waiter, the assistance from Mohammed, one of the managers (extremely tall guy who should be on the NBA!) and of course the great food and added entertainment provided by Teppanyaki Chef Allan Zarandin. Here is a video of Chef Allan from his very own youtube channel which is pretty cool:This is a restaurant we highly recommend and we are already looking forward to returning in January when my sister-in-law is in town! (Tel: 24590398) Azaiba/Ghala, Al Nahda Towers 2, www.360DegreesOman.com
Have any of you been to 360? If so, how was your experience?
Andy in Oman 