Mongolian Barbecue at The Golden Oryx, Ruwi

 We had heard from several people that the Mongolian Barbecue at The Golden Oryx was very good so we decided to give it a try before leaving the Sultanate.  I’m glad we did. Good and cheap food!      This post requires very little explanation as the menu (broken up and presented in this blogpost for you) describes the entire concept, history and ingredients.      The Mongolian Barbeque is located upstairs in the restaurant in this rather small room.   The soup is very good!   The food is frozen but still good quality for the very low price.      Before   And After        I really enjoyed our 2 experiences at the Mongolian Barbecue this past week.  The taste reminded me of Go Grill at MGM.         

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 

Safari Rooftop Grillhouse, Grand Hyatt Muscat

 

  I’ll post comments later tonight. I thought I should post these pics of our incredible evening at Safari Rooftop Grillhouse as soon as possible as this restaurant is scheduled to close for the summer on May 1st.  If you haven’t been to this restaurant, I highly recommend going before it gets too hot!

La Mer’s Fabulous Friday Lunch Buffet!

b+f (“Burger & Fries”) Diner, Bareeq al Shatti

b+f diner doesn’t look like much when passing by it through Bareeq al Shatti Mall in the daytime.  It looks much cooler at night with the lights on, I think, making it seem to be “the place to be”.

b+f seems pretty popular with younger folk (yes, I’m getting quite old!) and with Omanis of all ages.  We’ve been there several times and enjoy their food as well as the reasonable prices.  What we don’t like of course is the incredibly long wait we are always subjected to, first to be seated and then to receive our food.  That being said, here are a few things we’ve enjoyed from the menu:

Soup of the day on our latest visit was Corn Chowder.  2 of us enjoyed this soup a lot but then again I was very hungry from the 40-minute wait for our food, haha! (1.95 RO)  In hindsight, maybe our food took so long because my wife asked the waiter to bring all the food at the same time…

This is one of 2 “mini burgers” known as “Sliders”.  Mine was the “Under the Sea” Fish Burger (1.9 OR) which was quite tasty.  I wonder when they started this “slider” option.  Was it copied off Gourmet Burger?  I wonder that because even Chilli’s has this option now and before GB I never saw this option. Anyway, you can also choose the standard burger size as well.  I was surprised to learn that fries don’t come with the burgers there! (Maybe they should change it to “b or f diner” instead of “b + f diner”, haha!)  The B+F Fries are only 0.975 rials (so I shouldn’t complain) and they’re delicious!

The 2 ladies at our table both had the Rack of Lamb (5.9 OR/each) which they enjoyed immensely.  The wife said it was a tad bit spicy.  Now that I think about it, the soup had a bit of a kick to it as well.  Maybe that’s why so many Indians and Omanis seem to enjoy b+f.  Just a thought.

To give you an idea of the prices, there were 4 of us and our bill came to 25.148 rials for 2 soups, 1 fries, 1 phily RT beef burger, 2 rack of lamb, 1 under the sea burger, 3 mineral water and 1 Dr. Pepper.  No bad at all!  Here are a few other dishes I’ve had on other visits:

Just in case you thought b+f only served burgers and fries!  🙂  This steak was SO good!

If you haven’t been to b+f’s yet, I highly recommend the place especially if you happen to be in the Bareeq al Shatti neighborhood.  Check out their facebook page.  They have a few pics, including 16 pages of their menu! There is so much to choose from that I always have a problem trying to decide what to order when I’m there!  Telephone: 24698836 (Oh, and tax is only 5 % at b+f)