If you’re all about that Arab Cuisine, you are going to be thrilled with us after this blogpost!
Ahwak by Abd El Wahab is an Authentic Lebanese Restaurant which is famous for serving incredibly delicious, traditional Lebanese delicacies. They are operating in Oman (LUCKY US!) in City Centre Muscat.
We had the pleasure of having a fine feast in their spacious outdoor seating area, which was pleasant enough on its own, considering we got lucky with good weather.
THE AMBIENCE
Ahwak is the first restaurant of its kind to take the place that it has in City Centre Muscat. They have the largest seating area in the mall, with an Outdoor Terrace alone the size of a diner. Yes, you heard that right. An Outdoor Terrace restaurant in City Centre Muscat that allows Sheesha.
Need we say more?
The place is done up fairly well, with vibrant colours and their signature bird seen everywhere. The indoors itself is divided into terrace like portions, with the front usually being the busiest.
Indoor plants give the place a calm vibe and a giant glass window of the kitchen gives the customers a clean view of the chefs at work.
We were told by the staff that this is their casual dining restaurant, which is pretty decent if you ask us, and another branch of the Chain back home operates as Fine Dining.
WATCH OUR VIDEO FOR A VISUAL SPIN OF AHWAK
We’re certain you are itching to scroll down to the FOOD, so let’s hop to it!
OUR FOOD
Lovers of the Lebanese Cuisine at heart, we were joyed to scan through the menus which were presented very quickly to our outdoor table.
Our friendly waiter assisted in explaining the dishes to us, as some were too traditional for us to comprehend. He then gave us his suggestion of the Taouk Platter which we ordered without blinking.
COMPLEMENTARY STARTERS
We were presented with complementary warm Arabic bread with a side of labneh as soon as we finished placing our order. The lebneh was delicious and helped curb our anticipation of the food to come.
SALAD
The Lebneniyah was a Lebanese cheese salad with grilled halloumi, sumac, thyme and pesto sauce.
Anything with halloumi calls our name, so this had to be ordered.
All the greens were uber fresh and juicy, which gave us an instant good vibe of the rest of the meal. The halloumi was deliciously grilled and served on mini skewers. The presentation was beautiful, with an array of colours and the pesto efficiently poured over it was just…mmm!
HOT MEZZE
Arayes is a pita bread sandwich stuffed with Minced Lamb Meat cooked with spices along with onions and other additions.
This one in particular had parsley in it, which is a personal favourite and made the sandwich all that more exciting. It was beautifully served on a wooden platter with cherry tomatoes and a serving of yogurt with cucumber, which was a delicious dip.
AHWAK SPECIALITIES
When a restaurant states its specialties, it’s really not fair to give them a chance. Lovers of the regular hummus, we took a little leap of faith and trusted our server’s assurance with the Hummus Ahwak.
We were pleasantly surprised! The Hummus Ahwak is hummus topped with sautéed meatballs, onion, tomatoes and pine nuts. It lacked a little olive oil, but when poured with a decent helping, this was amazing! It was a burst of flavour with the warm Arabic Bread and to this point, we were already too full for our main.
MAIN COURSE
If you knew the amount of Mixed Grills we have lived on in our past 20-some years, you would know exactly how much this next statement is worth.
This Taouk Platter is one of the BEST CHICKEN TAOUK WE HAVE EVER TASTED.
This grilled marinated chicken breast was the JUICIEST chicken ever. We’re not exaggerating. So flavourful, so soft.
Served with grilled potatoes and garlic sauce, this platter was without a doubt the star of the evening. It could have been presented a little better, especially since the rest of the dishes were. But the taste was so good, we easily looked past it.
DRINKS
We got the Peach Iced tea and a regular hot Red Tea.
The Iced Tea was decent and very peachy. Wasn’t store bought. However, the same cannot be said for the Red Tea. Getting some hot water, a cup and a single regular teabag for 1.600 OMR was really not worth it, sorry to say. We would have at least appreciated water boiled with cardamom, some mint leaves and a wedge of lemon, perhaps? Something.
DESSERTS
We really had no place for dessert, but the kind Restaurant Manager sent us a dessert of his choice, which we were very surprised to see.
We were served with something which looked like a blob of white cotton candy topped off with strawberries and sprinkled with pistachios.
Despite our delighted confusion, the first spoon into the blob landed on gooey vanilla ice cream!
The Ghazal Beirut is a traditional Lebanese dessert with Cotton Candy covering vanilla ice cream.
This has to be the most unique dessert we have tried. Needless to say, it was PERFECT. The ice cream was something else.
OUR THOUGHTS
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and our evening was made better at Ahwak. Great ambience, mouth-watering food, good service.
9/10 to Lebanon!
AHWAK OFFERS:
HAPPY HOUR: BUY 1 SHEESHA, GET 1 FREE
3pm – 7pm
Sunday – Wednesday
LADIES NIGHT: FREE SHEESHA
Every Saturday
6pm Onwards
BUSINESS LUNCH WITH SHEESHA @5.5 OMR*
Between 12pm – 3pm
*excluding tax
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