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A couple of days back ago I got back from a 10-day trip to London. Other than a day stopover in 2018 on my way from LA, it was my first time back in London since 2015. I flew Kuwait Airways which btw, is so much better than flying British Airways. Firstly the timings of the flights make a lot more sense (no late night flight so no need to sleep on the plane) but also the overall experience is better because of the Kuwait Airways airport and the less busy flight. Because I was staying for 10 days I needed a reasonably priced hotel that wasn’t a shoebox, was somewhat trendy looking and located in a great area. After doing a ton of research I decided to stay at the Kingsland Locke in Dalston.

I hadn’t heard of Dalston nor had I been to it up until this trip. It’s an area in East London, part of the Hackney borough. If you’ve been to Shoreditch before then it’s around a 30-minute walk up from there. Dalston turned out to be the best place I could imagine staying. I had the award-winning bakery The Dusty Knuckle like a 5-minute walk from my hotel so that sorted out my breakfast and coffee routine every morning. Instead of losing weight on this trip because of all the walking, I think I put on weight because of all the pastries I was having every morning. I was also within walking distance from the bar 🔶🟥🔵 which became my go-to spot for a nightcap and to chill at the end of the day.

I was also surrounded by loads of grocery stores including M&S and Amazon Fresh (post on that coming soon). There was also a Pret-A-Manger, a community garden and an amazing Indian restaurant called Attawa all a few minute’s walk.

The area is connected to the rest of London via Overground and there were two different stations next to the hotel, one that was a 2-minute walk and another a 5-minute walk. Both stations were on different lines so it made getting anywhere rather simple and quick. Shoreditch and Peckham were both reachable without swapping any trains while areas like Oxford Circus or Notting Hill would require swapping to the Underground line which was just 2-stops away.

The hotel itself was pretty cool. It gave off a slight hipster vibe but it was subtle. The interior was nicely designed, and the staff were friendly. The hotel works like a short stay apartment which it what helps keep the costs down. It’s like a tiny studio apartment so you get a fully functioning kitchen in the room and a laundry area in the basement if you need it. There isn’t a daily cleaning service, depending on how long you’re staying you might get a complimentary clean included or you can request it for an extra cost. If you want new towels, shampoos, toilet paper etc, you can just request those at the front desk.

I stayed in their City Studio room which was fairly small but larger than the room I stayed in last year at The Hoxton in Paris (which also cost twice as much). The bed and pillows were super comfy, and the whole room gave a very cozy vibe. Even though this hotel was one of the affordable ones I found, it still cost KD60 a night, so it’s attainable but wouldn’t call it cheap. You can obviously find cheaper rooms but don’t think you can find one that has as cool a personality and vibe that was located in a good area. I’d totally stay there again if I go back.

If you’re traveling to London this Eid and haven’t booked a place to stay in yet then check this place out. Here is a link to the hotel website Link

Over the holidays I stayed in two different hotels in two different cities and I had really good experiences with both of them. If you’re planning to go to Amsterdam or Paris I would recommend you check these two out:

Le Citizen Hotel – Paris
I took the train from Amsterdam to Paris and the hotel was around a 15 minute walk from the Gare du Nord station. At first I thought the hotel was going to be far away from everything but it turned out to be close to the Metro and walking distance to many popular places (by walking distance I mean 30 to 60 minute walks). The hotel overlooks a canal and so doesn’t have any buildings blocking the views from the window. I stayed in the Zen room which was really spacious and super trendy with a colorful lounge like area, a large bathroom and a beautiful bed. I didn’t wanted to leave the room. The wifi at the hotel is fast and free and the staff were very friendly. The next time I go back to Paris I’m definitely staying at this hotel again. [Link]

Albus Hotel – Amsterdam
Although my room at the Albus wasn’t as great looking as Le Citizen it was still modern and trendy. What I really loved about the hotel though was the location. The hotel is a 30 minute walk from Amsterdam Centraal or a 10 minute tram ride. You’re also close to a lot of popular hotspots in Amsterdam and no matter where I went, all the roads somehow led back to the hotel. In case of late night munchies there is a McDonalds and a Chipsy King 2 minutes away from the hotel. The hotel staff were friendly and the internet is free but… only at the slow 256K speed. If you want faster internet you need to pay for it. I’d most likely stay at this hotel again on my next trip, great location and not very pricey. [Link]

Before I book a hotel at a travel destination I usually use TripAdvisor to find out what hotels are popular in that city and I read up on peoples reviews. It’s helped me make a lot of right decisions and I think I can make even better decisions with the help of another website I just found about called Oyster. One of the great things about Oyster is their photos which they take of the hotel, the room and the hotels surroundings. For example I was checking out pictures for the hotel I am going to be staying at in New York (Nu Hotel) next month and Oyster has around 500 photos of the hotel divided up into sections. The picture above for example is just one of the many pictures of the room I will be staying in. They have pictures of everything in that room from the cable box to the toilet paper roll. It’s a very cool site and can prove very helpful the next time you want to travel. [Link]

AMU, a blogger from Kuwait found out about easyHotel from my blog post awhile back and decided to give it a shot. He just got to London and this is what he had to say:

..the hotel is beyond my expectation for its price. It extremely clean and 2 minutes walk from the station. I have a double bed single room with a window. Nice and friendly staff and they have all the information available if you would like to do some site seeing.

I wonder if there is anyone else also from Kuwait going to be staying there with us. I get to London on Tuesday and will also be staying at the same easyHotel in Paddingtone so I will be posting my own review too. For now you can check out his review [Here]

While prepping for this post I realized that I hadn’t written a hotel review since 2015. I think that’s because I don’t travel as much as I used to and when I do, they’re usually quick weekend trips over to Dubai. I usually stay at the Vida Downtown Hotel in Dubai but this past weekend the room prices were more expensive than usual at KD67 a night which is more than what I wanted to pay. Hotel rooms are still one thing I’m not comfortable with paying a lot for, I only tend to sleep there and not really hang out in the room so can’t see myself paying so much money for it. So while looking for alternative places to stay I stumbled upon the Rove Downtown Hotel. The reviews online were all pretty great, the hotel was a 5-minute walk from Dubai Mall, a 10-minute walk to my best friend’s apartment, the rooms looked nice and clean, and most importantly, it was only around KD35 a night. So I booked and hoped for the best.

When I first arrived to the hotel check-in was pretty quick even though they were a bit busy. While checking in I noticed what looked like an entrance to a cinema on the far end of the lobby so I asked the receptionist if that was an actual cinema and he was like yes it was. Turns out the hotel had a small Reel Cinema movie theater that played current movies and was free for hotel guests. I was already impressed. After getting the room key I headed towards the elevators when I spotted a Zoom brand convenience store connected to the lobby. I decided to check it out and they had a ton of munchies as well as things you might need like deodorant and toothpaste. So far it seemed like the perfect hotel and I started hoping the rooms would be good because I knew it had the potential to be my new favorite hotel in Dubai.

As soon as I walked into the room I was relieved. The room looked like what I had seen in the photos, it was clean, modern, cozy and not that small. When booking a room they had only two options really to choose from, either a room overlooking Burj Khalifa, or not. I didn’t care about the view so I booked a regular room and so my view was of some random towers further down the road and it wasn’t that bad. My overall first impression was really great at that point.

Over the next two days, I really couldn’t find anything negative about the hotel. Even if I’m trying to be super picky the worst thing I could come up with is the lack of decent TV channels or the lack of Apple TV. At Vida, I could connect to my Netflix account on the room’s TV and also stream YouTube videos from my phone to it. But that’s really the only negative thing I have to say about Rove. Dubai Mall was really easy to get to with the closest entrance being the new Fashion Avenue extension and if you want to Uber somewhere, the cabs are all super close and never take more than a couple of minutes to get to the hotel.

If you’re looking for a great budget hotel to stay in the next time you’re in Dubai then I really recommend you check out Rove. I was so impressed it made me go back to writing hotel reviews again. Here is a link to their website.

Around two weeks back I was in Lebanon for the weekend and stayed at a hotel called The Smallville. When I’m in Lebanon I usually stay at one of the beautiful guesthouses like Beyt, but because I was booking last minute I couldn’t find any availability which is why I ended up booking at Smallville. The hotel is fairly new having been open for around a year now and going by the pictures online it looked like a trendy place to stay. More importantly though it was fairly affordable compared to some of the other options I was looking at.

After spending two nights there I can easily say it’s now one of my favorite places to stay when I go down to Lebanon and it’s incredible value for money.

The hotel itself is located in a quiet neighborhood but its still very close to Achrafieh, Gemeyze and Downtown. The room was fairly large and I had the regular “Premium King” room yet it came with a small kitchen, a seating area and a balcony with a view. The staff where really friendly throughout the stay even when I stumbled into the hotel lobby at 6AM from a night out and started mumbling to them about my checkout time (which they replied telling me I could checkout whenever I woke up no issues). It feels like a hotel made for fun party goers and I like that because you feel comfortable even when you do silly things.

My room cost me $118 a night and I booked last minute so you could probably get it cheaper if you book earlier. When I was checking out the manager gave me his card and told me to contact him the next time I want to book since he could offer me an even better deal. I’ve already recommended the hotel to some friends who ended up loving it as well so if you’re looking for a trendy and affordable place to stay in while visiting Lebanon, then I’d highly recommend The Smallville. Here is a link to their [Website]

Last week I ended up going to Bahrain for the GulfRun event but also because I was taking refresher riding lessons with Harley Davidson. Harley have a few of riding events every year that take place in different countries where they invite the press on road trips to check out their bikes. I’ve had to pass on the last two rides since I hadn’t ridden a bike in years (Vespa not included). So they decided to give me refresher lessons and since they have a training center in Bahrain I decided to do it there during GulfRun weekend. I ended up being put up at The Domain Hotel and since I was fairly impressed with the hotel I figured I’d write about.

The hotel is located around 12 minutes from the airport and in a skyscraper, one of the tallest in the area. The hotel reception area is located on the 16th floor and honestly didn’t look so great. The ceiling was low, the furniture a bit tacky and overall it just didn’t look impressive. Once I checked in though I headed up to my floor which was the 30th and thats when things started looking a lot better.

Since the hotel wasn’t very busy I got upgraded to “The Corporate” room which was a corner suite. The room was spacious with a living area, a guest bathroom and an insane view. The main bathroom was also humongous with it’s own large window near the shower which is pretty convenient for exhibitionist.

My favorite part about the room was the fact I could control various aspects of it using a tablet including the lights, the air conditioning and the curtains. I liked waking up in the morning and clicking a button on the tablet to have all the curtains in the room open up automatically.

During my previous trips to Bahrain I stayed at the Ritz Carlton which I loved. Although I prefer the room at The Domain (the Ritz rooms feel outdated), the rest of the hotel can’t really compete in anything else… except the price. While rooms at the Ritz start at around KD120 a night, at The Domain the prices start at around KD40 which is a big difference. So if you’re looking for an affordable place to stay while in Bahrain The Domain might be a good option. [Link]

As I mentioned in my previous post, over the weekend Red Bull sent me to Dubai to watch their Car Park Drift finale. Since the event was being held at the Meydan Racetrack, Red Bull ended up putting me up at The Meydan Hotel.

I had their standard room which over looked the racetrack and it was pretty large in size compared to most standard rooms I’ve stayed in. The whole hotel is pretty ginormous so makes sense that the rooms would be as well. When you first walk into the room you have a long winding corridor which contains the closets followed by the bathroom and then the rest of the room.

The room had some nice features like touch controls for the lighting and the AC, an iPhone dock connected to a sound system and my favorite feature, a closet that opens from two sides. I don’t know why I’ve never come across this before but it’s super practical, basically you can access the closet from the main room corridor or from the bathroom since there are doors on both sides of the closet. This means if you come out of the shower you can just open the closet and pick your outfit without having to walk out into the main room. The bathroom also had a large bathtub with a tv and a large window overlooking the room. It was a beautiful and tasteful room.

But, there are some downsides with the main one being the fact the hotel is located in the middle of nowhere. It’s somewhere between Dubai Mall and Mall of Emirates but located inwards and surrounded by nothing. It makes it really unpractical say to go shopping and then come back and drop stuff at the hotel. Another issue I faced was the lack of taxis again because the hotel was located in the middle of nowhere. You can have the hotel order a cab but it would take around 20 minutes to get one so the only option if you’re in a rush is to take the hotel limo which costs a considerable amount more. To be fair the hotel does offer shuttle services to and from Dubai Mall and Mall of Emirates but only at certain times.

The hotel is pretty cool, very modern and if you’re a party person then you’ll probably like the fact the club White is located on the rooftop of the hotel. But as I said, it’s not close to anything and thats the compromise you’ll have to make since the rooms are pretty affordable starting at around KD50 a night. Here is a link to their [Website]

Last year when I went to Paris I ended up staying at the trendy Le Citizen Hotel which I loved. This year though when I went back during the holidays I ended up staying at another trendy hotel called Hidden Hotel.

Hidden Hotel is a boutique hotel located near the Arc de Triomphe and a few streets away from Champs-Élysées. Being close to the Champs-Élysées really wasn’t the selling point for me but what did interest me was the fact that the George V metro line that was located at the end of Champs-Élysées was just a 10 to 15 minute walk from the hotel. The street the hotel was located on was very quiet and the same applied to all the streets from the hotel to Champs-Élysées. Not that there weren’t any cafes or restaurants all along the way, it just seems majority of the tourists do not wander out of Champs-Élysées into the adjacent side streets for some reason.

The hotel had a very earthy feel to it. All the materials used inside the hotel and the rooms were made of natural wood or stone giving it a very organic all natural feel. They had four different sized rooms to choose from, the Intuition, Emotion, Sensation and Exception. The Intuition was the smallest room they had while the Exception was their super large one. I ended up staying in the Sensation.

When you first walk into the room it splits up into two main sections, on the right hand side you had the sleeping area with a fairly large flat screen TV, a desk and a small seating area while on the left hand side you had the closet area and bathroom. Both sides of the room are practically the same size and both sides of the room had large windows which brought in a lot of natural daylight. My room was located on the top floor of the hotel and overlooked a lot of other rooftops. I would sleep with the blinds open and loved waking up in the morning and watching it rain outside while I cozied up in bed.

I found the bathroom very spacious and it was probably my favorite part of the room. The toilet itself was in a small separate room but the sink and shower area were open to the rest of the space. There was complimentary breakfast included along with two separate breakfast areas to dine in. The hotel is spread out into two building next to each other. I think one building contains the large Exception rooms while the other building contained the other rooms. The building I was staying in had cold cuts, cheese and fruits kind of breakfast while the building next door had the more traditional omelets, crepes and pastries breakfast. I could have breakfast in whichever building I wanted and having the choice was good. The customer service at the reception was friendly and very one on one. It’s mainly why I prefer staying at small boutique hotels compared to larger ones.

My only gripe with my stay was with the bed. Although the room had a large king sized bed it was in fact two beds stuck to each other. I hate that since I always end up uncomfortably in the middle. Other than that there really isn’t anything I didn’t like. The room had a safe, hair dryer and lots of power sockets. The internet was fast, the TV had English channels and practically every night when I came back to the room I found goodies waiting for me like chocolates, cookies and even jam. If you do end up staying at the hotel make sure you pass by Café Latéral one night. It’s a typical French style cafe near the hotel filled with mostly locals and a great atmosphere. For more information on the hotel you can check out their website[Here]

Note: The first image in this post is taken from Hidden Hotel

On my trip to Dubai I decided to stay at EasyHotel. I had a good experience with them on my last trip to London so was interested to see how the hotel was in Dubai. What attracted me to the hotel was the fact rooms start at just KD7.5 a day (99dhms). Yes KD7.5 a day! I thought that was ridiculously cheap and specially for a hotel in Dubai. I looked for reviews online but couldn’t find anything and the only pictures I found were the PR shots. I was a bit worried to book a room but figured what the hell its only for 3 days so worse comes to worse it would be over quickly.

The hotel is located in the Jabel Ali free zone which is around 40 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from Dubai Mall. I rented a car from the airport and headed with my GPS towards Easy Hotel. Even though the software on my GPS is the 2010 map it seems since the map got released the roads in Dubai changed because the GPS made me take the wrong exit and I spent 40 minutes trying to get back to the main Sheikh Zayed road. Once you find the hotel though its pretty easy to get there.

My first impression with the hotel was positive. The building was very clean and simple on the outside with ample parking underneath. The reception was also very clean with a few vending machines on one side and some computers connected to the internet on the other. I should mention this in case you didn’t know already but Easy Hotel is a no frills hotel in the same way how Jazeera and Fly Dubai are budget airlines. The rooms are cheap but that’s because you get just the basics and you pay for extra stuff. The Easy Hotel I previously tried in London was also extremely tiny (see review here) but if all you care about is a place to sleep at night then you really won’t mind it all.

The rooms at Easy Hotel Dubai are pretty big compared to the London branch. There was ample space around the bed , a flat screen tv (with just 4 channels), a small open closet with shelves and hangers. There was even a little desk next to the window and a small safe to put your items in. The bathroom wasn’t that bad as well, the sink was kinda small but the shower area was pretty big.

As I mentioned with Easy Hotel you pay for extras. For example the fact I wanted a room with a window.. thats an extra cost. If you don’t care about a window then you pay less for the room. TV remote? You pay for that as well (although we were given one for free), extra towels? you pay, Internet? you pay, you want your room cleaned? you pay, water? you pay, room service? its a vending machine in the lobby. Surprisingly I didn’t have to pay to park my car at the hotel!

But with all that I loved staying there and in the end my room with extras came out to just KD10 a night which is still incredibly cheap and this is DUBAI!!. The hotel was super clean, the Internet was fast and the staff were very friendly. From now on that’s the hotel I will be staying in when I fly there.

Things to keep in mind though, you need to rent a car since the hotel is 30 minutes away from places like Dubai Mall. There are no cabs outside or near the hotel so you would have to order one and I don’t know how long that would take. There is a metro nearby but not walking distance. There is also nothing around the hotel, nothing you can walk to. But, because the hotel is so cheap you can splurge on a rental, my Toyota Yaris from Budget cost me just KD15 a day with all the insurance, gas and crossing 4 electronic toll systems a day. Would I recommend EasyHotel? Yes I would.

Last year when I traveled to London and Paris I found the hotels to be very expensive. They ate away a large chunk of the vacation money along with the plane tickets. This year with the cheap British Airways tickets there was a good chance the hotel budget would even exceed the cost of the plane tickets so I started searching for a solution. I needed an affordable hotel that had the following:

– Internet Access
– Location close to Oxford Street
– Location close to underground
– Cleanliness
– Security
– Modern looking

I found a ton of cheap hotels in London but none fit all my criteria and majority had gotten negative reviews on TripAdvisor.com. By chance I found out about a new easyHotel branch that had opened up in Paddington late last year and most if not all the reviews online were positive.

easyHotel is a no frills super budget hotel. To keep its prices down the rooms contain only two very essential things.. a bed and a bathroom. Thats it. No closet, side table, shelves, carpet, phone, mini bar, or anything else non essential. There is a flat screen TV but you have to pay for the remote control and thats the only amenity. According to the reviews online the hotel was very clean and in an excellent location so I decided to give it a shot. Four nights cost me only KD79 which is around KD20 a night. Compared to KD60 a night I paid for a normal room in an average 3 star hotel last year, this was a steal.

I took the regular subway from the airport to the hotel. It was around a 45 minute journey. I had an Oyster card which I recharged to use for a whole week (zone 1 & 2) so I paid only 1.5 pounds to take me from Heathrow to Paddington station which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. If you don’t have an Oyster card the cost is around 4 pounds for a ticket.

When I arrived to the hotel I was given a choice of either a room on the 3rd floor or one in the basement. Since I wanted a bit of sun light I opted for the 3rd floor room. This meant I had to carry two bags (mine and Nat’s) up 3 flights of stairs since the hotel doesn’t have a lift. The bags were light on arrival so that wasn’t a problem but after all the shopping the bags more than doubled in weight so carrying them back down was exhausting and I nearly busted my knee. Once we got to the room I was actually impressed. Yes, the room is very tiny but it was spotless and bright. There was barely enough room to fit two bags side by side on the floor at the foot of the bed but even without any bags two people can’t move around the room very freely.

I liked the room and I really liked the hotel. I don’t think I can stay in the room for more than five days and with all the shopping we practically filled up all the floor space with bags but it was actually fun. We would get to the room late, watch a bit of TV, sleep, wake up early, leave the room and not come back until it was very late again. So really the room was serving its purpose. They had a special offer and gave us the TV remote control for free, there was also cheap wifi at 20pounds for a weeks use, AC/Heating was available surprisingly and best of all the hotel is a 2 minute walk from Paddington station and around 6 buses from Oxford Street stop right in front of the hotel. The hotel staff were also very friendly and helpful. Last day we were planning to take the Heathrow Express to the airport (16 pounds for a one way ticket) when the hotel employee advised us to take the Heathrow Connect (approx 6 pounds for a one way ticket). Turns out the Heathrow Connect is around 15 minutes slower but less than half the price so even more savings!

The final score I would give the hotel is a 4 out of 5. Its a very very excellent value hotel, just be prepared not to expect much from it in terms of size and amenities. I highly recommend it and will definitely be staying there again myself.

I’ve got a thing for hotel burgers. I guess its because burgers are the safest thing on the menu to have when traveling because no matter what country you’re in and you order a burger you know exactly what to expect. Now I don’t want to review all the hotel burgers in Kuwait so I decided to go with the one hotel which has never disappointed with their food, Sheraton. Some people say they’ve got the best shawerma and I wanted to see if they had the best burger.

They only have one burger on the menu and I ordered it medium well. When the burger arrived I think around 15 minutes later I was surprised to see that instead of one larger burger the dish was made up of two medium sized ones. They’re too big to be sliders but too small to be a regular burger, strange size but I didn’t care. The burger had cheese, tomato, chopped up lettuce and what looked to my like mayonnaise, I added ketchup myself and took my first bite. The beef tasted really fantastic and was cooked perfectly even though it was pretty thick. The only problem was everything else. The bread started falling apart half way through because it was getting really soggy and that made it very messy to eat. In the second burger I decided to remove the tomato in hopes of solving that problem but still, half way through the bread started getting soggy and falling apart again. I concluded it must be from the mayonnaise but I didn’t have a third burger to try my theory. The cheese although there and melted beautifully was nearly non existent taste wise. I think the cheese slices they use are too thin resulting in it melting better but not having enough presence to actually make a difference.

I think the Sheraton burger is the best hotel burger I’ve ever had. But outside the hotel circle the burger doesn’t shine. I’ve had better burgers since I’ve started this challenge and I’m expecting to have some more good ones. I’m going to have to give a 3 out of 5, a very respectable score.

Sheraton Hotel is located in Kuwait City.
The cost of the burger was KD5.600

Back in February I asked for recommendations on Indian restaurants and I now have probably 50 places try out. The first place I decided to go to was Anjappar in Farwaniya (they have a Fahaheel branch as well). I used google maps to help me find the location although google knows it as Anjappar Hotel for some reason.

The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor of the building right across from Metro Complex. The interior wasn’t anything fancy and a friendly waiter seated us right after we walked in. We ended up ordering a bunch of things including:

Mutton Sukka Masala KD2.100
Butter Chicken Masala KD1.750
Anjappar Chicken B/L Masala KD1.600
Steamed Basmati KD0.750
Butter Naan KD0.250
Chicken Kheema Appam KD0.650
Masala Dosai KD0.500
Mango Lassi KD1.000

The food overall was good, I hadn’t had the Chicken Kheema Appam before and loved it. We ordered three main dishes recommended by the waiter and was the Butter Chicken even though the chicken was a bit dry. My biggest issue with the place was actually with the service, and not the waiters who were very friendly but the kitchen who were just too slow. Our rice came out more than 5 minutes after the main courses and then the Mango Lassi and Butter Naan arrived 5 minutes after that. The table next to us were complaining as well since they were there before us but hadn’t received any of their dishes.

The prices were very reasonable and you can actually check out their whole menu online [Here] for a better idea. I’d probably only go back there if I wanted to show someone Farwaniya but other than that I don’t think it’s worth the trip unless you’ve never been there before and want to try something new. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

I’m going to start my review by saying I don’t have any pretty food pictures to go with this post. I didn’t have my camera with me because I wasn’t planning to write a review and even though I had my phone I couldn’t use it to take pictures during dinner. Since everyone is usually anti-socially glued to their phones during lunch or dinner, me and my friends have this thing we do where we pile our phones facedown on top of each other on one side of the table and no one is allowed to check their phone until the bill comes. If you touch your phone before the bill arrives then you get to pay the whole bill yourself. Not something you want to do, especially when you’re at a pricy restaurant like The Peacock.

I don’t want to talk about the food anyway which was delicious (as expected). Most of you already know Peacock from before they closed down and their menu is basically 99% the same as it was before. For those of you who’ve never been to Peacock then it’s basically one of the best Chinese restaurants in Kuwait and also probably one of the best restaurants in Kuwait overall. It’s definitely in my top 3.

Now the reason I changed my mind and decided to review the place was because of the service. Hands down I think Peacock have the best dining service in Kuwait. It’s just ridiculous the amount of waiters that appear out of no where to service you. No one is hovering and you don’t notice them but when you need a waiter they’re there before you even call them. A friend arrived late to dinner and when he sat down at the table I just watched as four different waiters surrounded him to take care of him as he was being seated. One had hot towels, the other filled his glass with sparkling water, a third poured jasmine tea and the fourth handed him the menu. It’s like being pampered at a spa.

Another great thing is how well the waiters know the menu. One of my friends is allergic to wheat so she asked a waiter about various dishes and he knew the exact ingredients. He was able to tell her if one dish contained corn starch or if another used wheat or not. They know their stuff. Also, all the items on the menu are numbered and the waiter knew what each number corresponded to which dish on the menu. And the menu his huge with like 80 or so dishes yet I somehow can barely memorize my phone number.

The only negative really is that with the reopening they’ve also increased the prices of their dishes. That was to be expected because of inflation and so the prawns dishes for example are around KD9 now. Other than that we had an amazing dinner and I’m so glad they haven’t changed much about the place.

The Peacock is located at the newly renovated Radisson Blu Hotel. If you’re interested in passing by you need to reserve by calling them on 25673000.

Interior shot taken from the Radisson Blu [Facebook Page]

I was in Beirut over the weekend and on this trip I ended up staying at the Four Seasons Hotel in Downtown Beirut. The hotel is located in what I think is one of the nicest looking towers in Beirut, right in front of the very popular Zaituna Bay and so I was really looking forward to staying there.

Right from the moment I stepped out of my rental I knew I was going to be enjoying my stay at the hotel. The customer service at the hotel was just better then any other I had previously stayed in before and I’ve stayed at many. The feeling I kept getting is that every single employee wanted to help make your stay better, and by every single employee I don’t mean just the reception staff or managers, I mean everyone from the valet guys, to the housekeepers to the waiters. I think its the words they use but you just get this feeling that you can ask them for whatever you want and they’d love to do it and that made me super comfortable in asking them for stuff which I tend not to do.

Other than the excellent service my room was also very comfortable. I had overpacked on this trip but there was more than enough closest space and drawers to accomodate all my stuff. The room wasn’t that big but the bathroom was with a large sink area, tub, shower room, toilet room and a makeup table. The room had a balcony that was big enough to fit a table and two chairs and finally there was free wifi in the room and the whole hotel. My favorite part of the hotel though would have to be the roof. During the day the roof is a cool place to swim and tan but at night it’s an open air lounge overlooking the Mediterranean sea and Beirut.

I do have two minor complaints though. The first issue the hotel really can’t do much about but the view from my room could have been better if there wasn’t a large sand lot right outside. I live in Kuwait so I would rather not see sand lots when I travel. Even though the hotel is right in front of Zaituna Bay, my room was more on the side and I could only see the marina if I was on the balcony looking left which was disappointing. The other issue I had was with their breakfast. It’s not a breakfast buffet and one of the things I look forward to the most in hotels is their breakfast buffets. At the Four Seasons they have a dried fruit, fresh fruit and cereal buffet but if you want any hot dishes you have to order them. The advantage obviously is your breakfast is made for you and so is fresh, but the disadvantage is it takes time to make and you also can’t just fill up your plate with whatever looks good like you would do at a regular buffet.

In the end though I had a really good time at the hotel. I generally don’t tend to spend much time at hotels but on this trip I was having all my friends come over so we could just chill out on the roof. The incredibly friendly service and the lounge on the roof made me really love my stay. I’d most likely stay there again once I’m done reviewing other hotels in Beirut.

Here is the link to their [Website]