Friday 19 / April / 2024
For any foodie it is natural to get enthusiastic at the thought of going to a place where the ambience and the flavours blend perfectly well. For me it was the same too as I set off to attend the exclusive seafood brunch at Bait Al Bahr in Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort.
That day being cloudy in particular, with an overcast weather, we leisurely meandered towards the venue, soaking up in the breathtaking view of the resort. Once at the restaurant, we had our table at the outdoors facing the beach overlooking the vast expanse of the blue sea. Alongside was the lazy river with gentle ripples where we could see the residents enjoying their relaxed Saturday retreat.
As the smell of fresh grills permeated in the air, I couldn’t resist from walking around the food counters to take a sneak peek at the spread which was predominantly seafood with plenty of other interesting choices.
Sipping a chilled glass of passion fruit mocktail, I was busy contemplating on what to start our gastronomical journey with when with the soup of the day was served on our table. Mildly spiced with oodles of baby octopus and other seafood, this soup laid a flavourful trail on our palates.
No sooner had we slurped on the last spoon of the soup we feasted on poached lobster, scallops on half shells, tiger jumbo prawns, welk clams, black mussels, poached blue crabs, crayfish, and Alaskan King crabs. The brunch boasted of some real exotic seafood that you wouldn’t find easily in our local supermarkets. We also sampled an array of fresh oysters and we revelled in their wonders for long.
Complementing the sea food delicacies was the Salad Bar. From Nicoise salad, salad with scallops, pistachio and lemon dressing, seafood salad with cauliflower, poached leeks with tiger prawns and pepper coulis, and Salalah shrimps cocktail the list was endless.
The main course counter had the royal cut salmon station and smoked fish table included Atlantic salmon, Asian salmon, Norwegian salmon confit with red pepper couli, and smoked tuna and they were succulent and flavourful. We went to the sushi and sashimi bar and sampled Hamachi, Kajiki, Tako, octopus, tuna and cuttle fish.
The humongous tuna station, with a 60kg of one ingle massive tuna fish, was a feast for the eyes. The fish looked fresh, straight out of the sea, and was served with seaweed, wasabi sauce, and pickled ginger.
The seafood paella station had saffron rice simmered with lobster, langoustines, mussels, prawns, and clams. We did not linger there long and went straight to enjoy the thrill of the grill. Assorted fish from the simple hamour, sharry, koffer and king fish steaks to blackened salmon, squid, grilled Omani lobsters, Korean spice dusted prawns and Omani yellow tuna steaks take your pick and hand it over to the chef who would grill it to perfection.
We took a brief break from fishy affair and went to the meat carving station, where a huge chunk of a tender and succulent beef rib along with green pepper sauce was there.
The dessert counter had apple and rhubarb crumble, served hot. They were crepes and pancakes counter where freshly made pancakes were served with your favourite toppings. Tarts, lime mousse, rice pudding, cardamom panna cotta, blackberry, chocolate mud cake, passion cheesecake, cherry ginger cream brulee, were the other delights, gave a refreshing end to a hearty meal.
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Brunch at Bait Al Bahr every Saturday from 12:30-4pm
PRICE : OMR 25++;
OMR43 ++ with beverages.
+968 2477 6565
