The Great Kabab Factory has opened an outlet in Al Khuwair (Opposite to Radisson SAS hotel), and has on offer a range of delectable kababs, biriyani, Indian bread and desserts. The veg platter costs RO 6.9 and non-veg platter RO 7.9.Mirchi, an Indian specialty restaurant, has opened at Ramee Guestline Hotel, Qurum (near Crown Plaza Hotel).
I am currently working on a review of the restaurant at the chedi, but for today, I will share one major grievance with you. Bottled water.
Our recent visits the The restaurant in the Chedi Muscat, started off on the wrong foot with something as simple as water. They used to serve locally bottled Arwa or Tanuf, in big or small bottles, for a 200% mark up over the cost anywhere else. Fair enough, this is the Chedi.
Now, they sell 750 ml glass bottles of still water, imported from Scotland, for a whopping 2.8 rials, which is slightly more than Seven US dollars. It's just water. It's not particularly great water, but it's fancy, pretentious, expensive water that required many tonnes of fossil fuels to extract, bottle, and ship it here.
Additionally, they won't sell any other type of water, nothing local, nothing cheap, and our requests for a pitcher of tap water were initially refused. They have a good scheme here, knowing full well that tourists are terrified of drinking tap water, and so will pay the extortionate rates for bottled water.
The attitude from the staff was that the Chedi is too good to serve water from plastic bottles, or to offer filtered tap water. Thus, I was rather surprised to see that the complementary water inside the suite for which we had paid RO 350 per night ( 900 USD!!!) was Arwa, in plastic bottles. So it's ok to serve water in plastic bottles in a 350 rial suite, but not in the restaurant...because in the restaurant, you can charge the guests an arm and a leg for it. It's a rip off, pure and simple, not to mention an absolute waste of resources.
If the Chedi wanted to get serious about being an environmentally conscious hotel, they would serve filtered tap water, for 100bz a glass, with the money collected going to the Environmental society of Oman, or some other charity. They could offer the guests the option of buying the premium water, and quite a few would go for it, for the snob factor.
Kids, when you go to the Chedi, do me a favor and complain long and loud about the bottled water issue. Demand tap water. I think if they get enough complaints, they might be willing to change the policy when their contract expires with the Scottish company next year. Maybe.
This is also Cross Posted over at my blog, Other Oman
Flavours, the 24 hour "multi cuisine" restaurant, has opened a second branch in the CBD area. Flavours' new location is right next to Supa Save, on the corner opposing HSBC and the Ruwi post office. This location most recently had a Thai restaurant which went out of business in less than one year and prior to that had a restaurant called The Arabic Oven.
While the CBD is Muscat's financial district, home to the head offices of most of Oman's big banks as well as the Central Bank of Oman, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Oman Chamber of Commerce, and the Muscat Securities Market, it is not exactly a hotspot for restaurants and cafes. In fact most restaurants here go out of business. Even fast food. The last attempt to open a fast food franchise here was Subway which closed down 4 years ago. This is pure shawerma and rolled Arabic bread sandwich territory. And once the bankers and business people go home in the evening the area becomes depressingly quiet and deserted at night.
I haven't eaten at Flavours so I can't pass judgement. Read Amjad's review on the Omani Cuisine blog.
By the way are you aware that Muscat Municipality has recently renamed CBD to Hay Al Souqe?
