Dinner(s) at The Restaurant, The Chedi

  The Restaurant at The Chedi is a great choice if you’re looking for one of the best fine dining experiences in Muscat, Oman.  I had the pleasure of enjoying the food there on 2 different occasions in the past few weeks.  Here are some pics of the menu and the food that we ordered while there.      The Lobster Salad was a big hit with everyone at our table. A highly recommended appetizer!           You can never go wrong with sushi rolls!         I seemed to be the only one who wasn’t over the moon over the PF Foie Gras.  3/4 loved it!        Other appetizers at the Chedi         On a blog related “business dinner” a few weeks back I had this soup. Sorry I can’t remember what the name was because the waiter recommended it to me and it was indeed a fantastic choice!       Of course they don’t serve alcohol over Ramadan, but when the month is over, you might want to check out their wine menu if you find yourself there.  We went with a bottle of “Wrongo Dongo” (love the name!) which was a 20 OR bottle of red wine. Nice selection by our friend!      This was my choice on our most recent visit to The Chedi: Grilled Tiger Prawns.  This was a truly enjoyable meal!         My wife loved her Grilled Jumbo Prawns. (Almost as much as she loved my Tiger Prawns… 😉 )  The risotto it came with was so good!       No complaints from our friend about her Pigeon 2 Ways.       Our other friend seemed to enjoy his Yellow Chicken Curry quite a bit.      One of the best lamb dishes I have ever had in my life. Such succulent meat that it seemed to melt in my mouth! The jasmine rice addition worked well with this dish.      One of the many hard-working chefs at the Chedi.  There are something like 5 different cooking stations in the Restaurant.        Mmm-lemon tart!  There are incredible number of desserts to choose from at the Chedi and it might be hard to choose just one as they all look SO good.       Macaroons at the Chedi-A definite must have for any one with a sweet tooth.

I had two incredible evenings sharing dinner with friends at the Chedi recently and highly recommend dining there.  The prices may seem a bit high for some but you can be sure that what you are getting is of the highest quality.  For reservations, call:   (968) 24 52 44 00 or if you have any general questions about the menu, you can email them at: chedimuscat@ghmhotels.com

Full Moon Beach Buffet at the Shangri-La

It was real honor to be invited by Rasha Al Mandari and the gang at Shangri-La’s Barr al Jissah Resort & Spa for their very 1st “Full Moon Beach Buffet” which was a smashing success!  The appetizers were so good! I wasn’t able to get all the food choices in these pics as otherwise it would have been a 40 pic blogpost!   The chefs are ready to cook you up whatever you desire.  Ingrid Hotanijaya (Communications Executive) and Chef Lila Shrestha King Fish. I couldn’t believe the size of these fish! 2 more of our favorite folks at the Shangri-La: Eihab Attia (Communications Manager) and Rasha al Madani (Restaurants Marketing Manager). The live band was fantastic! Here is a clip of them playing, “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?“:Almost every guest who attended the full moon buffet opted for the full course deal which included unlimited beverages including: house red&white wines, Mojito cocktails (awesome!) and a couple of choices of beer as well. Just a quick pic of one of my plates! The food was phenomenal!Always leave space for dessert! 🙂Ingrid and Eihab pictured with Khalid Orabi, the editor of Al Isbou’a, Oman’s free Arabic weekly.  It’s the Arabic version of the popular “The week” English publication. It was an amazing evening socializing with such fascinating people!We had a table right next to Dahlia Al Riyami and her husband, Mohammed.  Dahlia runs the wonderful blog “Aish Elaqtta” (one of my favorites!) which is Arabic for “What’s Happening?“.  Here’s another clip of the live band. In this clip, you can hear them performing, “Red Red Wine“, “I Saw Her Standing There“, “I Feel Good“, a Spanish tune called “Besame Mucho” and “Moondance” (so appropriate for “Full Moon buffet”!). I was not surprised to learn that the talented singer is in fact a Filipina! 😉It’s always nice to meet up with this super social couple! Susan is the owner of Totem clothing. I just blogged about their new shop opening at MGM.  She has also started a new food blog, called “HeyFatsu“.  Her husband, Maurizio, runs the ever popular Muscat-Collective-Intelligence blog and is a social media expert and organizer.     These guys had the right idea; they selected the Arabic style seating on cushions near the beach! Scott Armstrong is on the far left. He is the new Chief Executive Editor of the Times of Oman and we wish him all the best with his new post.      Got a pic of this friendly European couple enjoying a romantic evening on the beach. They were staying at the Bander Hotel. (Just in case you get the wrong idea that it was only bloggers and members of the media at this buffet! 🙂 ) There were plenty of guests who enjoyed the full buffet + all you can drink.  If you plan on attending the next Full Moon Beach Buffet, I would highly recommend making a reservation at (+968)2477-6666.  I think Shangri-La plans on having another Full Moon Beach Buffet in April.  I’m guessing that the evenings will be too hot and humid from May to September.  Details: 35OR++ including wine,beers, soft drinks, signature cocktails and non alcoholic beverage. Food only: 20++, Beverage 15++

“A Taste of Thailand” at Asia Restaurant, Shangri-La Until March 9th

As I posted before, Shangri-La is a having a Taste of Thailand promotion until March 9th.  As a local blogger, the wife and I were invited to the first night’s media invitation along with several other bloggers and newspaper/magazine outlets to sample the food for ourselves! Bend my rubber arm! As if we need an excuse to visit Asia! 😉The evening started with social drinks and entertainment in the form of dancing in the courtyard of the Omani Heritage Village before dinner started. Fabulous way to start off the evening!Here’s a much better pic from the Shangri-La Barr al Jisseh facebook album of this event.If you’re interested, you can click here to see my original restaurant review of Asia. Or here for their Indonesian promotion they had in November.Would you believe they served us an 8-course meal?! Wow!  Here are the dishes we were served one by one: This appetizer is called Miang Kham: fragrant betel leaves filled with thai herbs, chili, lime and dried shrimps.  Make sure you have plenty of water nearby if you try this as it’s spicey!This soup was SO good! Tom Yam Gung – hot and sour soup with prawns flavoured with lemongrass and thai herbs. If you get to Asia during this promotion, be sure to try this soup!One of the guest chefs hard at work in the kitchenThe salad was quite good.  Yam Ma Muang Pla Foo – Crispy shredded catfish with green mangoes and cashewnut salad.This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening.  Kaeng Massaman Nuea – Slow-braised beef short rib in rich peanut curry.  It went so well with the steamed Jasmine rice (Khao Suai).The other dish that was one of my favorites was whole lobster in dry red curry (Chu Chi Kung Mangkorn).  By this time, I was getting pretty stuffed!  Not enough to stop, mind you! 😉The guest chefs pictured here who flew in from Shangri-La Hotel in Chiang whipped up this dish specifically for this photo. Here’s a closer look at the dish:It’s always a treat to meet up with Ingrid Hotanijaya, the Communications Executive.  Nobody does hospitality like Shangri-La! 🙂Back to the set menu…Steamed seabass with lime and chili sauce (Pla Nueng Ma Nao).  This was quite a delicious dish.  Only one more dish to go…dessert!Khao Niew Ma Muang did not fail to please! Sweet sticky rice with ripe mangoes, sesame seeds and honey.  Great way to end a fantastic evening at Asia! We showed up at about 7pm and didn’t leave until around 10:30pm with all the socializing and fine eating. Wow! I’m glad that Rasha al Mandani insisted on getting a pic of me and the wife under the Asia sign just inside the main entrance. Here we are together with Rasha who always makes everyone feel right at home when visiting Shangri-La:Thanks Rasha, Ingrid and the entire crew at Asia for another unforgettable evening!The chefs take the time for a thumbs up (from Shangri-La’s facebook page), but it’s really them and their cooking that deserve a big thumbs up! Try to get down to Asia before March 9th to try all these great dishes for yourself.  There are also specialty drinks specifically for the Taste of Thailand menu that are definitely worth trying out!

Manhattan Fish Market, 18 November Street, Azaiba

     The Manhattan Fish Market (Tel: 2449-9102) has been open for about 2 weeks now (since Feb 12th).  The pics and videos we’ve seen being shared on facebook were enough to convince us to try this restaurant out for ourselves. It was this video in particular with their new “sea-lections” that really caught our attention:

The Manhattan Fish Market is on 18 November Street in Azaiba.  If you’re driving from the direction of the Wave, it’s on the right hand side of of the road just before the shell station and Al Fair supermarket.    Several tables near the front doorSeems to have more privacy in the back room where we decided to sit.                                                The menu is fantastic.  It contains some of the history of this restaurant chain and plenty of clear, laminated pics of all the dishes.  Manhattan Fish Market also has branches in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. It obviously originated in Manhattan! 🙂We all enjoyed the Fried Country Mushrooms (1.9 OR) for our starter. Here are all the starters available at MFM:2 choices of soup and 3 chowders.  They only make one of the 3 chowders each day so you will only have 1 choice. On the evening we went, it was salmon chowder. For salads, they have garden (1.7) and Caesar (1.9) with the option of add-ons: crispy whitebait (.9), grilled chicken (1.7) and tuna (.9).  They also have coleslaw (1.8), corn salad (1.7) and potato salad (2.2). Sides include Chef’s baguette (.4), garlic herb rice (1), chippy fries (1) and hot veggies(1).The wife and I both had the Salmon Chowder (1.5 OR). Delicious!Our friend, Geoff, enjoyed the Cream of Mushroom Soup (1.2). The pastas look SO good. Will have to try one on a future visit. This is just one of the pages of pastas available.  It is hard to decide what to get from the menu as it all looks so great.Grilled Dory (3.2 OR)My wife had the small flame (4.9 OR). Manhattan Flaming Prawns with grilled dory fillet on a bed of garlic herb rice, chips and veggies. Our Omani friend had the fish and chips (3.2 OR). You can choose Dory or cherry snapper for the fish and chips. Our friend ordered cherry snapper and he didn’t have anything bad to say about this dish!The MANHATTAN FLAMING SEAFOOD PLATTER (11.9 OR) which we were told is the “1 indisputable choice of manhattan seafood market fans”.  After trying it, we could see why.  This was a fantastic platter and highly recommended.  Hand battered fish fillets, oysters, calamari and Manhattan flaming prawns, all on one dish! This dish is large and intended for at least 2 to share. 2 more of the 6 platters available on the menu  Citrus Mint (1.8 OR)  Gummy Bear (1.6) From the menu: “The exciting flavors of Curacao and tropical fruit mix is guaranteed to liven up your senses”. Looked more exciting than it tasted…  4 satisfied customers! 🙂Overall, we had a wonderful dining experience at Manhattan Fish Market! In total, the bill for 4 people came to only 37.39 OR which works out to only about 10 rials/person.  We highly recommend this restaurant and we’re already looking forward to our next visit.  Check out their facebook page and go through the menu items in the picture folder there. We didn’t have room for dessert, but they looked incredible.  Have any of you been there yet? If so, how was your experience?  (Tel: 2449-9102 / 2449-9627) http://www.manhattanfishmarket.com 

“A Taste of Thailand” Promotion at Asia, Shangri-La (Feb 26-Mar 9)

Looking forward to this! If it’s anything like the Indonesian promotion they held a few months back, this is sure to be scrumptious!