The Chocolate Room Muscat-Revisited

Any good restaurant is definitely about more than the food. It has to have a total package, of which the front house service, the customer care and the efficiency of response to feedback rate very high on my list.In that context, some of you may recall my blog post on my first visit to The Chocolate Room Muscat a couple of months ago. While I had loved almost everything about the place, this is what I had to say about the coffee on that day.  

"The presentation looked great and must add, the tart tasted good too. However, call me fussy, but the coffee was another story. It wasn't anything like the Latte I'd been expecting. Of course, this wasn't my regular brand but to me the coffee tasted overly  sweet( in my book, sugar is never mixed in the cup before bringing to the customer). It also tasted nothing like coffee.

So when Vic came around to ask me if everything was OK, I promptly pointed that out. That was when I learnt that it was actually a Belgian chocolate concoction and that all their coffees have an element of that flavour. Must admit, I wish I'd known that earlier......."

Shortly after the blog post came up , I was pleasantly surprised to receive an e mail from  Jergen Enriquez, The Operations Manager at the Chocolate Room. 

"Thanks for visiting our cafe & trying out our menu! It was a pleasure to serve you and we look forward to do so again in the near future! :)

We are also thankful that you spared some time to give us your honest feedback which is very valuable for us.

It is great to know that you loved our ambience, food & service - we assure you that the standards will be maintained  at all times.

We noted your comments on your blog. We will assure that our staff will educate our guest when it comes to our products in our menu before taking the final order. 

I would like to know if it is possible to meet you or contact you so I can discuss our whole products and our specialty coffees available in our cafe

Chocolaty Regards

I thought that it was an extremely positive response to my comment and I found myself looking forward to my next visit to The Chocolate Room. As it happened that took quite a  while but let me say it was well worth the wait!

Last evening I found myself back there with a group of friends to  cclebrate the birthdays of three of the ladies and this time Jergen  was there to take us through the story of coffee in general as well as the Chocolate Room coffees in particular.

Jergen talks to us about Coffee

If I  told you all that we learnt about coffee from Jergen, I think I would need a couple of pages, so I will come straight to the point and show  you what we ordered. 

Cappuccinos and  latte -good old fashioned coffee which tasted even better than it looked

It was just past 6 pm and we decided to order a range of  coffees, crepes and open sandwiches followed by a chocolate  dessert and at the end of it were delighted with our choice. With the smiling Jojo to serve us and obligingly click photographs we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly for a couple of hours at the Chocolate Room. 

Would we go back there again? The answer - a unanimous Yes! 

You see we haven't even gone through a thirtieth of the wide ranging Chocolate Room Menu...

All of us- Clicked by Jojo

Open sandwiches- Great anytime treats

A triple chocolate dessert- Fabulous!

Learning more about French Pastry and Bread-My visit to Caramel French Bakery and Pastry, Muscat

What does it really take to perfect a flawless chocolate éclair? A delicious baguette?To pipe dozens of macarons? To bake an amazing 'melt in the mouth' Opera cake? Questions like this have come to my mind frequently, and in order to find answers to all these and many more, I spent a delightful morning at the Caramel French Bakery in Muscat yesterday.

The first thing that hit me as I entered the bakery in Al Ghubra, was the delicious aroma that floated all around. It was a combination of bread, pastry, chocolate and cheese all rolled into one. Must confess, if I hadn't eaten breakfast before setting off, it would probably have had me salivating! 

Caramel Bakery-Packed with the best quality eclairs, pastries, cronuts, tarts, breads and so much more

I was greeted by the very polite French manager Mr. Pacombe who gave me a short brief about the place and introduced me to Eloise Traboulsi, the owner of Caramel. Caramel opened its first boutique and kiosk in Muscat in January 2010.  The initiative of Eloise Traboulsi, a French citizen living in the Gulf for the past 7 years, was the driving force and today Caramel combines her passion for pastry and bakery into a very successful business model for aspiring youngsters.

I was informed that in order to make such exquisite creations possible and produce the very best of traditional French bakery and pastry products, Eloise has introduced top of the range equipment and the finest ingredients coupled with the long experience of Caramel’s professional team.One look as I entered the Bakery and Pastry sections and I knew that it was truly a labour of love combined with the highest standards of professionalism reflected in the cutting edge technology of the machines and equipment being used by them. 

Eloise Traboulsi -the founder 

With their  motto,' Your satisfaction is our challenge' Caramel takes pride in sharing the fact that they cater to many Corporate and Private companies around.They have a standard menu for customers ready reference or their product range can be catered based on personal preferences as well.

Tempting treats and breads 

It was only 10 am and the shop was already packed with goodies.
In addition to  breads, and regular pastries I found cronuts, a new addition.
The Cronut is a unique creation by Chef Dominique Ansel that many have 
described to be a croissant -doughnut hybrid.After its launch in May 2013, 
cronut pastry fans were created all over the world, making it the 
most virally talked about dessert item in history.

A wide range of cronuts

I was introduced to the team working at the bakery and just ten minutes 
later, I understood exactly why Caramel is such a success.
Simply put, they have the most dedicated team of professionals
and the bakery works 24 hours a day. Add to it
smiling faces and effortless ease at their job and
there you have it!

  

Breads which taste even better than they look-The Bakery works 24 hours a day

Spinach Quiches just before baking

Pastry Chef Sebastian Gomes working on a Birthday Cake 

 

 All Smiles- while Chef Makram works on the day's plan 

Thank You Mr Pacombe- I really enjoyed the visit!

You really could be in Paris

I really could have spent a lot of time there 

but since I had other things planned, I had to leave.

I was really and truly happy, having learnt a great deal 

as well  tasting some French delights.

  

And if any of you are wondering how you can 

make your way to Caramel 

I've added the location map just below for your convenience. 

Would love to know what you thought...

The Location Map- Caramel