The Pizza Company now open at MGM

Last night the latest restaurant to open at the Muscat Grand Mall, The Pizza Company, opened. It looks like it's competing against Pizza Express. Prices for a pizza range between RO 2.500 for a small and RO 6.900 for an "extreme pizza" that's extra large.

Did anyone try them yet?!

le fin.

Puranmal's 2nd anniversary

Puranmal, a vegetarian Indian restaurant down in Ruwi are celebrating their 2nd anniversary this weekend by offering a pretty sweet (pun intended!) deal on their lunch and dinner buffets:

Between Wednesday & Friday, 10th-12th April, their unlimited lunch & dinner buffet costs only RO2.500 Net for Adults & RO1.500 for Kids below 10 years

Lucky Draw, spot prizes and many gifts to be won!

Free Character Balloons and Face Painting for their cute little customers between 7pm and 9pm and Henna for the Ladies!

For more information here is the Facebook event page.

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Burns day at Mackenzies tomorrow

Local deli, Mackenzies are celebrating Burns day with a special menu, and also they have Haggis prepared for those that want to take them home. Personally I'm not a fan of haggis, but the sweaty jocks seem to love em.

For those that don't know, Burns day is technically on Friday, 25th January, but they are doing the special menu tomorrow :)

le fin.

Friday Brunch at The Chedi

This Friday, and every one from now on, from 12:30 until 4:30pm sees the launch of The Chedi's brunch at The Restaurant.

RO 24 ++ including non-alcoholic drinks
RO 32 ++ including prosecco, wine and non-alcoholic drinks
RO 46 ++ including Louise Roederer Champagne, wine and non-alcoholic drinks

It's always fun to go to Planet Chedi, it's like another world there :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

le fin.

Friday brunch at mOre

As I'm sure you all know, mOre opened earlier this month at the Opera Galleria. What people may not know is that they are offering a pretty good Brunch on Fridays between 11 and 4pm.

The brunch consists of:

Freshly squeezed orange juice
A fruit platter
Freshly baked goods
Soup of the day
English breakfast (no pork)
Selection of salads
Hot main courses
Home made deserts
Tea/Coffee/Soft drinks

All of that costs RO 9.5 for adults and RO 4.75 for kids under 12.

Thats pretty good I'd say!

le fin.

MacKenzie's Tasting Evening

On Sunday the 2nd of December (thats tomorrow) Macks (which is a nickname which appears to start to be sticking) are hosting a tasting session with free mulled wine and mince pies so people can check out what delightful tasty treats they have in stock for Christmas.

Also, Mackenzies will be offering fully catered Christmas hampers - ie they will roast the turkey/ham for you and all you have to do is pick it up :)

More on that tomorrow I'm sure.

le fin.

Opera Galleria opens today [store listing]

Just a quick note to say that the immensely popular cafe chain from Dubai, mOre, opens today at the new Opera Galleria mall, which also "soft" opens today, with the main opening scheduled in early 2013, nearly a year later than originally planned.

For mOre information, you can check out their facebook page or their website.

For the Opera Galleria mall, there are over 50 stores planned, however only 25 are open today, however there is currently no complete list, and the press release copied and pasted by all of the newspapers doesn't seem to list these 25 stores. However, I've built a list, from a few different sources, and think that is more or less up to date, but I'm sure there will be a few new announcements in the coming months, but I still don't know which of these will be open today, except, of course, mOre.

1. mOre café
2. Nawal Art
3. Richoux café
4. Gallery Arjan
5. Mouawad Jewelery
6. Fauchon café
7. Bank Muscat
8. Raymond Weil
9. Patek Philippe
10. Bulgari   
11. Qurum Jewelers
12. Eye Candy
13. Jean D’Arcel
14. Lalique
15. ROH Ticket office
16. Royal Oman Cuisine restaurant
17. The Omani Artisan House
18. Maathir Jewelry
19. Dar Optics
20. Majid Trading
21. Alessandro
22. WH Smith
23. Tamrah
24. Le Palais de Chocolate
25. The Indus Restaurant
26. Henry Jaques
27. Lladro
28. Ajmal
29. Raydan Boutique
30. Al Husn perfumes
31. Bait Muzana Gallery
32. Asmaa al Kharusi Collection
33. Panerai
34. Nawal al Hooti

The mall is open from 10am till 10pm, with food and beverage outlets open from 8am until midnight.

le fin.

Safari roof top grill house

Recently I went for dinner at the Safari roof top grill house at the Hyatt here in town for the first time this "winter" as they have lowered their pricing and I wanted to check it out.

It's pretty much the same as before, but the 3 different prices are now including all taxes: RO 25, 30 or 35 for various different main course options, before it used to be these prices, plus the taxes - so thats a nice saving on the old pricing schedule.

Of course all of these options include a salad bar and soup option to start, the main course, and a selection of amazing deserts. And then there is of course unlimited selected beverages (includes wine and beer as well). In the past I've had many hazy nights on the roof top and have broken a personal best record for the number of bottles of Tiger consumed in an evening a few times there!

The salad bar was really good, but it didn't contain the usual suspects (tomatoes / cucumbers etc), and I personally didn't mind. The salad mix that I made for myself was really good, and to be honest I considered going back for more but knew I'd have to save room for the rest of the meal! The soup option was cream of mushroom on the night that I went, and as I'm not a fan of that I didn't try it so I can't really comment on that!

The Tenderloin

The T Bone

I opted for a Mulwara T bone (from the RO 30 menu) and Mrs Sythe went for the Angus Beef Tenderloin from the RO 35 menu. Both were amazing! The roasted vegetables were really nice too, but I found that the mashed potatoes were not the best, but I am pretty picky about my spuds.... :/

After the main course we had a break before going for desert. Now the desert menu consists of 6 different options and I wanted them all, they all looked so delicious! After much discussion, we finally picked these two: Sticky toffee pudding and the classic lemon tart with raspberry coulis...

They didn't last long at all! And when we were done, and I had decided that licking the plate was not really an option, I decided to make a palm tree with the garnish and my toothpick packaging :)

The lemon thing was so delicious, I want more of it!

All in all we had a great time, and with the mashed potatoes aside, everything was perfect. It's definitely worth considering if you want to celebrate someones birthday or just have a get together with friends, or even a nice quite meal in the week with a few drinks.

To make a reservation you can email muscat.dining@hyatt.com or call 2464 1234.

le fin.

Saturday evening entertainment

The fabulous new deal at the Mumtaz Mahal, Saturday Night Madness, continues this Saturday, along with some extra contributions from the Left bank underneath it.

For RO 15 + the taxes, you can have all you can eat (from a selected menu) curry along with beer, wine or house spirits, it's, as far as I know, the cheapest "all inclusive" alcohol included deal in the country. And the curries are lurvely.

And if Curry is not your particular cup of tea, you can always pop your head in downstairs at the Left Bank, where they appear to be competing directly with Mumtaz with this particular offer:

3 free drinks for the ladies, discounts on selected cocktails and 15% off main course meals. I'm not really too sure why Left Bank are deciding to compete with Mumtaz on a Saturday night, but we as customers end up the winners!

le fin.

Oktoberfest starts tonight

It's back again for it's 3rd year running, the Oktoberfest party thrown by the Grand Hyatt starts tonight at the Safari Rooftop and runs until November 9th. There is a genuine Bavarian band that has been flown in especially for the event, along with all the usual Bavarian goodies, such as Paulaner and, er, Pork. Oh and of course I can't forget the giant pretzels too!

Tickets cost RO 29 plus taxes and gauging by the fun I had last time, I highly recomend it!

There is a facebook event page with all the information but all you really need to do is make a reservation by emailing muscat.dining@hyatt.com.

le fin.

Update on Passage to India

Everyone has their opinions on the various curry houses around town, typically my favourite three are Mumtaz Mahal, Passage to India and the Grill House in MQ. I've recently been to Woodlands a few times and I really quite like it there too, but it's in Ruwi, and I'm allergic to Ruwi, it makes me break out in swear words at the drivers.

Recently, I found myself at Hatat House on another matter, and noticed that the front door to the Passage to India was open. I was intrigued to see the status of Mrs Sythe's favourite ruby murray shop in town and so poked my head in.

As you can see from the pictures I have shared above, it appears that after their little fire the Management have decided a total gut and re-vamp is in order. Which to be fair is probably a good thing, although I never really minded too much when there before, but that might have been due to the deadly combo of cheap Heineken and dim lighting!

I chatted with a guy who looked like he was the boss and he said they plan to be open in October, but judging by the progress of works above, I think before the end of the year is a better bet. I hope so, I miss the Aloo Methi Tiki and the Chettinand Chetnandu!

Passage to India has a facebook page here.

More soon, last few hours to get your name in the hat to win free tickets to Edward Maya!

le fin.

Mumtaz Mahal

Last night I went for a ruby murray with Mrs Sythe at the newly renovated Mumtaz Mahal. Now, it's been quite a few years since our last visit to the iconic curry house on the hill. I'm not really sure why we stopped going, I think because it was always full and you needed a reservation, you couldn't just turn up and have dinner.

The new renovations are both outside and inside, and include a canopy structure for the terrace outside, and the removal of the water feature on the inside, opening up the room. The old window slats have been replaced with new wooden blinds as well. The stage is still there but has been moved back a little and a lot of new art has been hung around the room, especially on the "art wall".

The staff all have new outfits, and the table-cloths are gone, with new tables and place mats and cutlery now making an appearance. Seating outside on the terrace (not quite ready yet - probably mid September) will be 10 tables, or up to 40 people, while inside there are tables of varying sizes to seat up to 130 people. Another new addition is the private banquet hall, which is a room which can be split into 2, each side seating 8 people comfortably, or 16 in it's extended format.

Now the pricing, I have to say, I was really surprised at. I had this opinion in my head that it was really expensive, but honestly it's the same price range as Traders or Pavo's or many of the other higher-tier restaurants in town. And it is a unique restaurant in this category - it's the only high-end curry house that I can think of in town.

Starters range from RO 2.200 to 3.400
Seafood mains range from RO 6.900 to 18.000 (lobster)
Lamb mains range from RO 5.500 to 9.000
Chicken mains range from RO 5.000 to 5.500
Vegetarian mains range from RO 2.500 to 3.500

There is also a very extensive (and new) wine list, with some wines available by the glass starting at around RO 4.000, and bottles starting around RO 20.000. Beers are available in draught (Tiger, Heineken and one other I can't remember - RO 3.200 a pint) as well as in bottles (many, but yes, Kingfisher is available).

The food on the menu is not, as is typical here in Muscat, almost all North Indian, there's dishes from all corners of India, including quite a few South Indian dishes (which I was happy to see). The food we ordered was all delicious, I highly recommend the Samosa's to start.

All in all, approximately RO 35.000 including taxes and service charge, 2 starters, 2 mains and a side dish, a shared desert, a couple of beers and a bottle of water for a nice dinner with live music and excellent waiting staff is a price I'm happy to pay again. Yes I could pop down to the local biriyani house and have a tasty curry, but it's not all about taste (although it's important, and there was no problem with the food we had at Mumtaz Mahal), it's about the ambience, the views and the service that make a trip out for a meal special.

You can call Mumtaz Mahal on 2460 5907 for more information and to make a reservation.

le fin.

Mackenzies deli reopens tomorrow

Some of you may be interested to learn that Mackenzies Deli will be reopening tomorrow morning from 7am. It's hours will be 7:00 until 20:00 every day. After the hugely popular launch just before Ramadan, the management decided to add more space to the cafe and have now finished their additional seating areas.

I am reliably informed that they are fully stocked with all of their carried products, including the pork products, as well as additional staff to serve as well. The tills appear to have been brought online and now there will be no further delays with payment related to the hand-written receipts.

Personally I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow, I can never seem to get enough of their egg mayonnaise sandwiches!

Mackenzies Deli has a website here, and a facebook group here.

le fin.

Granny's Pie at the MGM

So recently I checked out Spud, and mentioned I'd have a little review of Granny's Pie as well. So
here it is...

Granny's Pie is a new outlet at the Muscat Grand Mall, but they also have their first outlet down in Qurum at the new Ice Rink which opened a few months ago.

It seems that they have learned from opening their first branch, and their MGM offering is well setup and supplied, with the exception that their soda fountain machine does not appear to work. However this is being covered by cans being offered in it's place for the time being.

Granny's Pie has a daily menu which is posted and does change every day. The day I tried it out there was a selection of dishes available, but went for the meatballs & mashed potato meal... which was served with some sort of tomato based sauce, and what I suspect was sauerkraut. I also ordered a Winter Salad, and a bottle of water to go along with it. It was far too much food and I didn't finish the meatballs and mashed potato dish, but it was really delicious, and was all ready inside of 2 minutes from me ordering. The price came to RO 4.800 for everything, but if I didn't order the salad, it would have come to RO 3.200.

In addition to the daily menu, there are of course the name-sake available as well, pies. I have tried a chicken & potato Kurnik (pictured below on top left of picture) on another occasion and it was really really tasty. It cost me RO 1.700 and was quite filling.

All in all I'd say it is a good addition to the fast growing food-court at the Muscat Grand Mall, and I'd consider eating there again. I certainly enjoyed the taste of the food over your usual deep fried fast food offerings usually found in food courts.

le fin.

Spud at the Muscat Grand Mall

Recently I checked out the newly opened restaurant in the food court at the Muscat Grand Mall, Spud. Knowing quite a few Irish people I immediately thought of them and thought I'd go and check it out, the Irish do enjoy their spuds afterall. It is located up the stairs past the unopened KFC, and the already open Grannies Pie (will review them another time) near to the newly opened Cinema.

From what I can gather, Spud is a chain that has started up in Bahrain with 3 locations there (per their website) and this new branch in Oman appears to be an attempt to push into Oman. It proudly proclaimed to be the countries first Potato-only restaurant, so we'll pretend that the deep-fried potato place in the basement food court of Al Masa mall that finally closed down last year never really existed. But, this may be the first baked potato spot for the Sultanate.

When I went there with a friend to check it out for lunch, it was quite busy, maybe 20 customers either eating or waiting for their food. There was a limited menu, presumably because they had just opened and were still getting to grips with everything.

I opted for a chicken & mushroom baked potato with some cheese thrown in, and a bottle of water (fountain drinks were available) and the bill came to RO 2.500 including the taxes. The real problem with the place is that it took 23 minutes from ordering and paying, to actually receiving the spuds. Personally I think they should be aiming to get those bad boys out a bit quicker because for people going for a lunch break, that's a really long time to be waiting for an already baked spud to be mashed up and given some toppings.

The logo and signage for Spud exclaim that their Spud's are Fresh, Healthy & Tasty. Well I'll say they were certainly fresh and tasty, I think anything with that much cheese on it can't be that healthy! I can report that it was indeed very tasty, I enjoyed mine a lot. You are given a white plastic spoon with which to eat the tasty treat with, but the spoons are not very strong and tend to crack when you try and eat the potato skin, so be warned!

le fin.

Mackenzies Cafe & Deli

I originally blogged about this in June 2011 and it seems that the place is nearing completion and thus opening. Gordon Mackenzie (the guy behind Alive Events) is expanding his increasingly popular internet-ordering imported foods website, MackenziesDeli.com and is opening a cafe in MQ, underneath the Al Noor hall, just behind the Subway, next to the baby daycare place.

 

I took a sneak peak inside the store and snapped a few pictures - initial impressions (apart from it not yet being complete) is that it is actually going to be a pretty big spot, and it's got fancy Scottish themed wall paper. I'm sure the Caledonian society of Oman types will be pleased to see the Scottish Thistle featured in the Cafe.

There's no set opening date just yet - Oman being Oman and the licenses & permits process being a rather drawn out affair, but definitely before Ramadan! The store will also have a Pork room, as well as a Butchers & Cheese counter to boot - looks like Al Fair's stranglehold on Pork products may finally come to an end (with the exception of the frozen pork shop that I blogged about in 2009). Of course, you can still place an order on their website and have it delivered to your house anywhere in the Muscat area - cash on delivery. I highly recommend their fancy bangers!

Moving on, last night I learned that the Passage to India restaurant by Hatat House had a fire about a week ago which gutted it, and now the restaurant is closed for renovation. No word yet how bad the fire was, or how it happened, or even when they plan to reopen. Shame really, it was my favorite spot for a ruby murray in town - relatively cheap food (when comparing to Mumtaz Mahal or a "Shatti" restaurant") and licensed to boot.

The thing I liked most about it was the fact that it was out of the way and quiet. I hope they re-open soon, and if you have any info on what actually happened - do share!

More soon.

le fin.

Valentines Day

Well, just in case you forgot, tomorrow is Valentines Day.

Did you get a V-day card yet? Remembered to get the flowers? Planned for dinner?

Well, here's my brief list of suggestions for you to consider:

Flowers: I have recently been referred to The Flower Shop in the Sabco centre (next to that awful pet store). The staff are knowledgeable, and they have a climate controlled room to keep the flowers as fresh as possible for as long as possible. You can call them on 2456 0043 to place an order. There's lots of other flower shops in town, but I've not used them, so I'm only going to recommend these people today!

Now, seeing as the flowers issue is dealt with, I'm going to assume you can handle the card on your own, but if you happened to go to Sabco centre for flowers, there is a decent card shop there too, just sayin' ;)

As for dinner, here's a selection of things going on around the city, and a little further afield too.

Starting with the Grand Hyatt:





















You can get a set menu 5 course meal for RO 39 ++ at Tuscany, or RO 25 ++ at Marjan, along with free sparkling wine for women between 10 and midnight at the Safari bar. Also, the Mokha Cafe are also serving a special Oyster bar & various other treats for RO 29 ++. For those trying to avoid Cupid's bow, you can go for an Anti-Valentines dinner up at the Safari Rooftop grill - unlimited selected drinks for RO 35 ++

 The Radisson Blu have a few events on too:

For RO 14 ++ you can have a buffet dinner in the Olivio's restaurant, or the a la carte menu in the Al Tajin Steakhouse. Also, outside in the Lazy Lizard, the movie "Once" at 8pm as well.

The Park Inn are offering "a free bottle of drink" with every dinner at the RBG restaurant. I'm not sure if that is a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer!

Nuts & Bolts, down at the Al Falaj hotel in Ruwi are also doing a special Valentines day (and weekend) event:

 A little further afield, in the Millennium Resort at Mussanah, there is a pretty attractive weekend getaway offer worth mentioning: When choosing the Valentines dinner package (RO 17 ++ for food and soft drinks or RO 28 ++ for Wine too) you can book a room with breakfast and taxes for RO 50.000. The offer is valid over the weekend, from 14th to 18th of February and I really can't recommend going up and checking out this hotel enough. It's very new, the technology in the rooms is amazing, and the pool is now open - it's a great spot to just go and do nothing for a day or two, I was there recently and found it to be a lot better than I expected - I'll write about it next week!

Here's a candid snap of the pool too:

Moving a little further up the coast to Sohar, at the Africa Coffeehouse and Restaurant there is a special Valentines menu with live music on offer too. So if you live in Sohar, it might be worth checking out!

And finally, the InterCon are hosting James Blunt this Wednesday night (15th) from 7pm. Expect James Blunt to start his performance around 9pm. Tickets are still available for purchase for RO 25 or RO 50 for fan pit access. You can buy them from the Bose store in Qurum.

More soon.

le fin.

123 Orion winners, and whats on this weekend

Well, its Wednesday, which means it's the weekend, unless you work for Bechtel on the significantly delayed Muscat International Airport project, where apparently they dont give a toss about the Labour Laws and make their labourers work 11 hours a day 7 days a week. Nice.

So, first up, the winner of the 2 tickets to 123 Orion's charity gig at the Royal Flight club tomorrow night:

Congratulations to Formose Pereira - an email has been sent to you with details on how to claim your tickets!

Tickets can still be purchased for RO 6, and proceeds go to supporting the Sindbad mobile library, for more information, call Tess on 9952 5486 or Liz on 9231 6733.

Tonight, there is a Craic Attack comedy event at the Crowne Plaza - Tickets are still available at Crowne Plaza Muscat and OUA retail outlet in MQ at OMR12. Doors open at 8pm (show 9pm).

Contact +968 95555699 for more information.

Alternatively, ladies dont forget you can get a totally free drink at the Safari bar and the John Barry bar at the Hyatt any evening of the week - still a great spot to kick the night off, especially with the 40% off happy hour that runs until 10pm. I'd be remiss if I didnt also plug the fantastic Authentic Indonesian experience at the Marjan restaurant as well - bookings can be made by calling +968 2464 1234.

Over at Nuts & Bolts in the Al Falaj hotel, there is Ladies night every Wednesday night, with some RO 2 cocktails all night.

First 20 ladies get a shooter Free, Free Vodka until midnight
Cranberry, orange, sprite, lime

RO 2 ++ ladies special all night

WOO WOO -GRASSHOPPER - SILK STOCKINGS - FLAVOURED MARGARITAS & DIAQURY

Single Ladies Free

Couples RO 5/-

Single Men RO 10/-

For details contact 9 400 600 9

The people at Zouk are hosting local DJ Dub Bass with A Night with Dub Sesssions, starting at 10pm.

Not sure on ticket pricing but I imagine it's the usual: RO 20 on the door with a little card with RO 20 credit on it that you can redeem at the bar.

As for Thursday, the only thing worth writing about is MRFC twatting Al Ain at 7:30pm :)

And on Friday - again at the Royal Flight (school this time though, same place mind) is the car boot sale to raise funds for the childrens playground equipment. It's on between 9 and 11amm and the entrance fee is RO 1 per car. If you happend to want to sell stuff, it is RO 5 per car - sell as much as your car can carry - but registration for sellers ends today.

For more details you can call Brona on 9938 1093.

Have a good weekend everyone.

le fin.