Melenzane Shati Al Qurum — Restaurant in Muscat

Probably one of the weirdest restaurant experiences I have had in Oman, having lived here for nigh on 30 years.

I didn't eat anything here, simply because after conversing with the wait staff for our order, me and my family simply decided it wasn't worth it and just up and left - that's the crux of this entire experience.

Basically, we wanted to customize one of the main courses - a shrimp pasta with an interesting looking sauce. We wanted them to substitute the shrimp with vegetables instead. Now, having made pasta at home, and understanding that this is probably a no-brainer in terms of possibility of execution I didn't expect much in the way of resistance from the server (real gentleman by the way. /s).

The man tells us that we cannot substitute the more expensive ingredient - shrimp, for the vastly cheaper ingredient - vegetables, without paying extra for said substitution. Never in my life have I ever encountered this logic - a switch from vegetables to meat which incurs a cost is perfectly reasonable, but from meat to vegetables is quite absurd.

Nevertheless, wanting to give them benefit of the doubt, we proceeded and we were told that they would charge us around 700bz to 1.000 OMR extra.

Per vegetable.

At this point, were I mask-less, the surrounding diners would have seen one of those thousand yard stares they talk about in war movies, except I'd also have my mouth hanging open. What this guy was telling us effectively was, to substitute shrimp with vegetables from a pasta which was around 6.000 OMR on the menu to begin with, he would charge us a minimum of 2.100 OMR extra because we wanted a few mushrooms, bell peppers and a couple florets of broccoli - which he was emphatic to tell us would be 1.000 OMR. Cool.

Having had our fill of the ridiculous for the evening, we promptly got up and went to Farzi Cafe just across the road where the food was excellent, the staff was 1000x more accommodating - in the sense that they actually thought about what we were asking for before rattling off what they would charge us for it.

I guess I'll have to be forever curious about what the food actually...

This restaurant serves wonderful Italian fusion  cuisine. The ambiance of the establishment is  upbeat and service is outstanding. You can go  here without concern of having a bad experience. The menu is concise yet packed with exotic flavour. The price is genuine. We chose the 9.5 omr set menu that they are currently offering. You can choose from a range of set menus that include one salad or appetiser, a main course, an a dessert, as well as a soft drink.First, they gave  complimentary garlic bread with a dipping sauce.From the appetizer menu, we chose Dolcezza,  which consists of scucclent yet crispy shrimp coated in a sweet and spicy sauce and served on the bed of rocca leaves. We had Pollo Parmigiana as our main course,  chicken was tender and nicely cooked, served with side pasta and pink sauce.  We ended our lunch on the sweet note with scrumptious perfectly prepared Tiramisu....

We had the most amazing dinner at Melenzane last night! We ordered the risotto, a pasta dish, and a pizza to share, and every single thing was incredible.

The risotto was so creamy and flavorful – you can tell it's made with high-quality ingredients. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and the pizza... wow! The crust was thin and had that perfect wood-fired crunch. We basically cleaned every plate!

But the real highlight of our evening was our waiter, Jibin. He is an absolute superstar! He was so friendly and welcoming from the moment we sat down. His recommendations were perfect, and he has a great sense of humor that made us feel right at home. He checked on us just the right amount and his service was flawless. He truly deserves recognition for making our experience so personal and enjoyable.

Thank you, Jibin, for your outstanding service! We can't wait to come back again soon. Highly, highly...