Muscat is seafood heaven. No doubt about that. Even though there are worrying signs of decreasing numbers of fish in the local waters (due to last year's red tide, and large scale fishing), the quality and quantity is still astonishing. The perfect surroundings for a sushi restaurant. Just leave it to the Japanese to make the best out of our tuna, hammour, kingfish, etc.Although there are a couple of places that serve sushi (Japengo being the newest addition), Tokyo Taro is Muscat's only truly specialised Japanese restaurant. Its setting is hardly inspiring, inside the run-down Al Falaj Hotel. The interior is basic, but once you step inside, you feel you are in the right place. It is usually filled with Japanese, which we think is a good sign.
Normally, we stick to sushi and sashimi in Tokyo Taro. The quality is unequalled in Oman. Beautiful cuts of fresh fish. Tuna, our favourite, is only available in season. Another good sign. The only thing we don't understand, is why salmon is a regular feature on the sushi menu. It is one of the few non-local items on show, and there have been a few times we weren't sure of its freshness.
You can also order teppanyaki dishes, but we are never really impressed by those. Tokyo Taro excells in raw fish preparations, and that is enough reason to visit the restaurant regularly. It may be Muscat's only Japanese restaurant, but with quality like this, it is all you need.
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We experienced the worst service ever at Tokyo Taro, and would like to share with everybody.
ReplyDeleteWe had been to Tokyo Taro quite a few times, but tonight so many things went wrong.
First of all, after taking my order of Sashimi Bento box, the waitress came back saying that they run out of sashimi's. Only salmon is available. So she offered to replace my Sashimi Bento with Salmon a la carte (not on the menu), which I accepted. It turned out to be nine very thin slices of salmon sashimi (nothing else) for the price RO 8.0. What a ripoff!
After ten minutes or so, the waitress came back again informing us that the bento box my wife ordered would not have the sashimi that it should normally have, but was replaced with cooked fish. We said that we wanted sashimi, then she said that it was already cooked by the chef and could not be changed. Sashimi and cooked fish are completely different food! They changed our order without getting our consent.
Then the Udon that I ordered came in as plain noodles, not the Japanese Udon.
I complained to the manager (a tall Japanese guy) about the noodle and the sashimi. The manager said sorry to us, and took the noodle away without explanation. After waiting for twenty minutes, we found out that he simply cancelled my noodle order. I was not even offered to order something else as replacement.
So my dinner at Kyoto Taro became a half diner. As we stepped out of Tokyo Taro, we had to go to another restaurant to complete my dinner.
Tokyo Taro does not seem to care whether you want to eat there or not.