I'm in Muscat for a week. Instead of staying at the hotel I've stayed at before, which is a type of resort on the beach, I have been put up in a much more basic hotel close to the centre of town. My room has a pleasant view of the construction site next door. I console myself with the fact that I could have had a room with a "view" of the interior of the hotel, looking into the rather dark atrium. On its website, the hotel claims to have three restaurants. In reality, there's one restaurant which is located in the atrium, and which appears to be only open for the buffet breakfast (which is not bad, it must be said), and there's another restaurant which appears to be only open for dinner which, it must be said, isn't much to write home about. Where the mystery third restaurant is I don't know. So I've been browsing TripAdvisor to see what the alternatives might be and I've discovered that the number one ranked restaurant in Muscat is within about a kilometre of the hotel - an easy walk.
Given that I've had dinner two nights in a row in the hotel's restaurant, I figure it's time to go for a walk for dinner tonight, and I head out in search of Begum's, the little Indian restaurant ranked number one in Muscat by TripAdvisor. I say "in search of" because here in Muscat, like many places in this region, addresses are challenging. When you ask someone for an address, the answer is invariably in the form of something like: "next to the large Porsche dealership, two blocks after the Mega Mall". Or perhaps "the fourth side street after the intersection with 235th street, then it's the fifth house after you pass the service station". You get the idea. The address of my target restaurant is listed in TripAdvisor as: "Way 3521, Al Khuwair Street, Al Khuwair | Adjacent to Zawawi Mosque, behind Marmul Travel" You get the idea.
I find the place, which is a little Indian restaurant in a side street off a service road next to Sultan Qaboos Street. TripAdvisor rankings are generally pretty good, but it's not uncommon for them to be a bit strange as well. It's certainly not the case that the fanciest and most expensive (and probably very good) restaurant is always highly ranked, since the number of people putting in high ratings for tiny and perhaps rather esoteric restaurants might be so large that other, perhaps more worthy, restaurants are swamped. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so it is with food. One person's gastronomic delight is another's waste of plate space and money.
But Begum's turns out to be pretty much what I was expecting: simple, unpretentious, impressively well priced, casual and serving delicious food. In short: a good choice. In common with any other Indian restaurant I've ever been to, the menu is impressively long, containing a bewildering variety of choice, making a rational selection all but impossible. This is only made worse when you're a single diner, and you can't rely on the "let's order several things and share" method to improve your chances of ordering something you might like. There are quite a few Indians eating in the restaurant, and there's a steady stream of people, mainly Indian, arriving to order and collect take-away food, which I take as a good sign. I'd read that the Biryani was good here, so after a little perusal of the menu (just for appearances) and then some discussion with the friendly waiter, I let him advise me to have the Biryani I had been planning to order all along. I choose the mutton Biryani. Then I'm thinking, "maybe I'll have a naan as well" since I like naan when it's fresh and properly made. So I suggest this to the waiter. "No need Sir, the Biryani will be more than adequate for you" replies the waiter, and the matter is settled. You have to like a place where they suggest you don't order something you don't really need!
The food arrives impressively quickly, nicely served from a copper pot with a little dish of raita and some chutney. I have to admit, even if I am not normally inclined to order "just" a rice dish, that it's very good; there's lots of flavours in there, the mutton is beautifully tender and as the waiter had said, it is more than adequate for me.
As I'm leaving, I reflect on the fact that the price for the entire meal I've just had - which was delicious and well presented - is less than what I've paid for a small glass of mediocre wine in the hotel that I'm staying at. In fact for the price of the meal I had last night in the hotel, I could have paid for dinner for a family of six at Begum's and still had change.
On the walk home I pass McDonald's. There, up on the wall in full neon glory, is their answer to everyone's dilemma of what to have for breakfast: The Halloumi Muffin. I am impressed, but not in a good way.
Given that I've had dinner two nights in a row in the hotel's restaurant, I figure it's time to go for a walk for dinner tonight, and I head out in search of Begum's, the little Indian restaurant ranked number one in Muscat by TripAdvisor. I say "in search of" because here in Muscat, like many places in this region, addresses are challenging. When you ask someone for an address, the answer is invariably in the form of something like: "next to the large Porsche dealership, two blocks after the Mega Mall". Or perhaps "the fourth side street after the intersection with 235th street, then it's the fifth house after you pass the service station". You get the idea. The address of my target restaurant is listed in TripAdvisor as: "Way 3521, Al Khuwair Street, Al Khuwair | Adjacent to Zawawi Mosque, behind Marmul Travel" You get the idea.I find the place, which is a little Indian restaurant in a side street off a service road next to Sultan Qaboos Street. TripAdvisor rankings are generally pretty good, but it's not uncommon for them to be a bit strange as well. It's certainly not the case that the fanciest and most expensive (and probably very good) restaurant is always highly ranked, since the number of people putting in high ratings for tiny and perhaps rather esoteric restaurants might be so large that other, perhaps more worthy, restaurants are swamped. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so it is with food. One person's gastronomic delight is another's waste of plate space and money.
But Begum's turns out to be pretty much what I was expecting: simple, unpretentious, impressively well priced, casual and serving delicious food. In short: a good choice. In common with any other Indian restaurant I've ever been to, the menu is impressively long, containing a bewildering variety of choice, making a rational selection all but impossible. This is only made worse when you're a single diner, and you can't rely on the "let's order several things and share" method to improve your chances of ordering something you might like. There are quite a few Indians eating in the restaurant, and there's a steady stream of people, mainly Indian, arriving to order and collect take-away food, which I take as a good sign. I'd read that the Biryani was good here, so after a little perusal of the menu (just for appearances) and then some discussion with the friendly waiter, I let him advise me to have the Biryani I had been planning to order all along. I choose the mutton Biryani. Then I'm thinking, "maybe I'll have a naan as well" since I like naan when it's fresh and properly made. So I suggest this to the waiter. "No need Sir, the Biryani will be more than adequate for you" replies the waiter, and the matter is settled. You have to like a place where they suggest you don't order something you don't really need!
 |
| Not quite your bacon&egg McMuffin |
The food arrives impressively quickly, nicely served from a copper pot with a little dish of raita and some chutney. I have to admit, even if I am not normally inclined to order "just" a rice dish, that it's very good; there's lots of flavours in there, the mutton is beautifully tender and as the waiter had said, it is more than adequate for me.
As I'm leaving, I reflect on the fact that the price for the entire meal I've just had - which was delicious and well presented - is less than what I've paid for a small glass of mediocre wine in the hotel that I'm staying at. In fact for the price of the meal I had last night in the hotel, I could have paid for dinner for a family of six at Begum's and still had change.
On the walk home I pass McDonald's. There, up on the wall in full neon glory, is their answer to everyone's dilemma of what to have for breakfast: The Halloumi Muffin. I am impressed, but not in a good way.
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