I would like to start a new series that I will add to occasionally that will highlight local restaurants, restaurant chains, or homemade food that we consume here in Oman. Stephen and I are foodies. We may or may not have left Florida extremely early one morning so we could be at a specific barbecue restaurant by lunch. We may or may not dream of a Psych food themed trip to Santa Barbara, California some day. We may or may not have a growing list of food to eat when we're home this summer.
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| An Arabic lamp hanging in the garden. |
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| This tree is so cool! And it provides nice shade. As you can see, there are also large fans that can be used for extra cooling. |
This is all a bit off topic. What I really want to discuss today is
Kargeen. Kargeen is one of the few restaurants over here with a proper website
with menu. Most are only on Facebook or Instagram if anything at all. Kargeen is an old Omani word for little wooden cottage, apparently. It is a unique restaurant right in our neighborhood, MQ. They serve traditional Omani and Arabic food as well as delicious pizza, pastas, and desserts. Believe it or no, they actually have some of the best pizza in Oman. My boys either order pizza when we go or a chocolate and banana crepe. Yes, sometimes we let them order just a dessert crepe. It's a rare and special occasion when we go to Kargeen. It's not like they're having dessert for dinner every day or even week or even month.
Kargeen has beautiful outdoor garden areas for eating. They also have indoor eating areas. I personally prefer the indoor areas at this point. The outdoor areas are nice, but I did have an issue with the street cats once. They would not leave me alone and kept swatting at my plate and my back. When I freaked out and jumped up yelling at the cat, the waiter hurried over to chase the cat away with a spray bottle. I probably should have let him know it was an issue earlier. Asking for help is well outside my comfort zone. It's an issue. It's also not the topic here... The second time we ate outside, I saw no cats at all. But I also prefer to be inside because I'm not a huge fan of overwhelming scents. My mom has a hyper active sense of smell. And while mine isn't as strong, it still seems to be stronger than others. Outside you have incense burning by the entrance, incense carried around occasionally, and shisha pipe smokers. It can all be overwhelming for me at times.
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| I'm including this picture so you can see the tables in the outdoor eating area. They are glass top with various displays inside such as clothes, serving instruments, jewelry, etc. |
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| The seats outside are mostly benches, which allows for snuggling next to Dad or Mom. Also, J is eating their pizza. |
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| E is enjoying the pizza, too. |
Back to the food... they make some great Omani and Arabic food. Stephen and I tend to order lamb meals, though they also have chicken. Their shuwa is great. Shuwa is a typical Omani meat where the meat is cooked underground wrapped in banana leaves. It falls off the bone! We have also ordered their biryani, a more traditionally Indian food. These are our two main go-tos, though we have also ordered the salad with grilled lamb, the mandi laham, the mathbi laham, and the kabsa laham. I would love to order the shawarma, but we are always eating too early for that. All the meat is fall of the bone tender with the exception of the grilled lamb salad. And the presentation is lovely on giant woven trays with tons of rice, meat, broth, salsa, and a couple of dates for dessert.
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| Oh yum! This was a chicken meal. You can see the chicken, rice, broth, and a date. |
This was the same restaurant we visited on
Christmas. We took my in-laws here, and will be taking my parents here soon. Chances are good that if you visit, we will take you to Kargeen.
