Mandarin Oriental's Muscat property is leaning hard into the season, rolling out a programme that hops from Sardinia to Spain to the mountains of Oman without leaving the hotel. If you're in the Omani capital between now and October, there are four reasons to swing by.
The headline act is at Essenza, where Chef Davide Borin has launched Essenza in Viaggio: Sardinia, a four-course set menu inspired by the island's coastline. It opens with Mosaico di Mare — a seafood plate with confit tomatoes, bottarga and lemon potato — before Fregola Sarda with saffron, crab bisque and red mullet. Slow-cooked lamb shoulder with fennel purée follows, and Semifreddo alle Mandorle with fig compote and Omani honey closes things out. The menu runs exclusively through September, served daily from 6:30pm to 11pm at OMR 25++ per person, with wine pairing at OMR 18++. October brings the next chapter: a truffle-focused menu drawn from Alba in Piedmont.
Weekends shift the mood. From Friday to Sunday, 4pm to midnight, Essenza Bar serves a Spanish tapas selection — Galician-style octopus with paprika, cured beef croquettes, Spanish omelette with caramelised onion, garlic prawns, and Crema Catalana to finish. It's a relaxed, shareable way to end the week rather than a formal tasting.
Over at Sawa Lounge, a collaboration with Casa Cura has produced four matcha drinks: a Ceremonial Matcha, a Signature Hot Matcha, a Thai-inspired iced version with condensed milk, and Saffron Bloom, which tops matcha and milk with saffron-infused cold foam. The lounge opens daily from 9am to 10pm.
The wellness side is the most distinctly Omani element. The Spa's Rose Quartz Ritual is a two-hour treatment built around Damask Rose from Jabal Al Akhdar and nodding to the Arabian tradition of desert sand bathing. It starts with a singing-bowl grounding ceremony, moves to a treatment on a warm bed of rose quartz crystals designed to boost circulation, and ends with a botanical facial. It's priced at OMR 160. Bookings go through the hotel on +968 2103 8888.
For travellers, this is a good excuse to pair a city stay in Muscat with some genuinely regional eating — Italian food with an Omani honey finish feels like the hotel's whole philosophy in one dessert. The September Sardinia menu has a hard end date, so timing matters if that's the draw; the tapas, matcha and spa ritual carry on beyond it.