Category: Food & Drinks

Some guys in Kuwait figured out how to get free candy from a vending machine. In short, shake the hell out of the machine. Pretty silly but funny video.

[YouTube]

Has anyone tried the recently opened Burger Bar in Kuwait City? I haven’t been to it yet but I heard they had a soft opening and the place is located next to Holiday Inn downtown.

I have heard a lot about In-N-Out Burger from my friends, everyone who’s tried it tells me that they have the best burgers in the world. I just found this article on Laughing Squid which talks about why it has such a cult following. There is even a picture of their 100 patty, 19,490 calorie burger. We really need more burger places in Kuwait, Wendy’s and A&W should seriously reopen. [Link]

I just found this site while browsing and since I am going to be in Dublin for a few days in August for the NIN concert this site is going to be really useful. Everything looks delicious. [Link]

The Slider Station blog posted a picture of their Chocolate Pudding dessert and now I am craving it. [Link]

I went to Biella at Marina crescent today for lunch when to my surprise I found it had closed. According to a Krispy Kreme employee, Biella closed down and will open up again in two months time under new management. I didn’t think there were any problems with the place while it was open. I was frequenting it on a weekly basis and its one of my favorite restaurants in Kuwait, their seafood dishes are extremely good and they aren’t stingy with their portions at all. Anyone know what went wrong?

I prefer passing by an actual supermarket to buy my groceries but this could be an attractive solution for people who don’t have the time to physically go and shop.

There are two local online grocery stores that I know of, taw9eel.com and foodkuwait.com. Foodkuwait.com requires you to sign up and login before you can do your shopping which is really stupid. Taw9eel.com on the other hand allows you to browse their products before you decide to sign up or order.

Not going to spend to much time on this review since there isn’t much to talk about. I had lunch at the newly opened Noodle Factory in the Avenues and I really didn’t like it. Me and my friend ordered the following:

Cantonese Duck Roll (KD1.950)
Peking Fish Ravioli (KD2.250)
Malaysian Char Kuey Chow with Beef (KD2.900)
Kung Pao Chili Prawns (KD3.950)
Vegetable Rice (KD0.900)
Indonesian Nasi Goreng (KD2.500)
2 Pepsi (KD1.500)
7up (KD0.750)
—————
Total: KD16.700

Everything we had was bland and tasteless and there really wasn’t anything we ordered that I actually liked. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I was planning on having a milkshake from D*lush when we were done.

Would I go back? No I won’t. Do I think it will be successful? No I don’t. Final score 2 out of 5. Two points because the location is good, waitress was friendly and the place is nicely designed.

Slider Station is a new restaurant that opened up around a month ago. Its a local creation by the same guys behind Burger Boutique. I passed by yesterday night with Nat and a friend for dinner and I left the place extremely impressed and I will tell you from now that I gave the place a full 5 out of 5 rating without the slightest hesitation.

Since the place is pretty small you need to call ahead to reserve a spot. We called on Friday to reserve 3 places at the bar for Sunday night. I had seen the actual location before it was built, I saw sketches on how it would end up looking like and I even so pictures of the interior taken by various other bloggers after Slider Station was launched but even though, when I got to the place I was astonished. Pictures really don’t do the place any justice. I think its currently one of the nicely designed places in Kuwait, everything about it from the walls, to the chairs to the food conveyor belt, everything was paid attention to.

The food conveyor belt, thats the reason we asked for the bar seats. One of the coolest things at Slider Station is the large u-shaped bar taking up the majority of the space on the ground floor. Its surrounded by very comfortable seating and the bar has a built in conveyor belt. Each group at the bar is assigned a number and they serve your food by rolling it out on the conveyor belt. For example our number was 1 so all the dishes that came out on the conveyor belt with the number 1 in front of it was ours. Its a nice gimmick that is both practical and fun. The music that was being played was really cool and their choice of plates, cutlery and glasses were just spot on.

I could talk more and more about the actual look of the place but it would all mean nothing if the food wasn’t any good. The most popular burgers at Burger Boutique are the sliders. Sliders are mini burgers simply put and what Slider Station did was take them to a different level. I don’t know exactly how many different sliders they have but I think they were over 15 variations ranging from beef, to chicken to fish. Unlike in Burger Boutique where sliders come in groups of 4, at Slider Station, each slider order is just a single slider. This makes things A LOT more fun since you could mix and match sliders as you wish. I personally ordered the Roast Beef slider, the Wagyu slider with mature english cheese, the Caribbean crab slider which is a crab burger with a delicious mango sauce, and finally a Hammour slider. For appetizer we had two types of fries, the regular and the extra thin and crispy one. We also had buffalo wings and duck quesadillas. Everything was just really good, the presentation, the flavor, the buns, it was just perfect. There wasn’t anything I could find wrong with the place but I hadn’t ordered the dessert yet so before I could give it a final score I had to try their chocolate pudding. As you could already guess, I must have liked the dessert or else I wouldn’t have given the place a full five out of five. Yes, the chocolate pudding rocked!

So, good food, good atmosphere, good variety and good prices. I don’t know of any other restaurant in Kuwait that deserves a better rating. Final score five out of five. To get reservations call 2465047. They are open from 7PM to 11PM. You can also check out their blog by going to www.sliderstation.com

Pictures taken from SliderStation.com

note: I forgot to mention, they are located on the Gulf Road between Seef Palace and the House of Parliament.

Yesterday while at the Avenues with Nataly and a friend we decided to pass by D*lush and pick up a milkshake. D*lush is an American beverage joint which recently opened their first branch at the Avenues and hopefully will open up more branches soon.

I ordered the Sassy B which is a strawberry and banana shake, my friend ordered the Cookies + Cream which is an oreo cookie shake and finally Nat ordered the Lemon Lush which is a frozen lemonade.

My favorite milkshake is the strawberry shake at Johnny Rockets and so far the D*lush shakes are ask good if not better. Firstly they have a much larger collection then Johnny Rockets which makes sense since D*lush is dedicated to drinks while Johnny is a burger joint. The shakes themselves also taste extremely good, the Cookies + Cream which I tried from my friend is probably going to be my favorite milkshake from now on. Even my Sassy B was really good and I am glad they were actually sampling it out at the store in small shot glasses because otherwise I might have stuck to ordering the regular strawberry shake. I found Nat’s lemonade very sour but she was really happy with it.

The only negatives I could think of are the price of the drinks and the lack of sizes. The shakes are priced at KD1.750 or KD1.850 depending on what you order. Thats more expensive then the largest sized chocolate cream frappucino at Starbucks. They should offer a smaller sized cup priced at under KD1.400. On the other hand Nat’s frozen lemonade was for KD1.100 which isn’t bad at all considering the size.

Final score is a 4 out of 5. The shakes are awesome, they have a good variety so it should take you a while to get bored and the service was very friendly and fast. The negatives are basically the lack of drink size options and the price which is kinda related to the size problem.

www.dlush.com

Someone emailed me telling me that the ministry shut down the Jahra branch of the Farah restaurant because it turned out they were catching street cats and using their meat for their shawerma. Today this news is in the papers and here is a link to an article from Al Rai Al Aam newspaper. [Link]

I think thats kinda sick but I am still curious to know if they were trying to pass it on as chicken or beef? I am also wondering what I would have rated it if I had tried it…

Thanks Afterstorm

IMPORTANT: Just a note, the article doesn’t mention Farah, the person who sent me the article said it was Farah.

KFC wasn’t the only one to recently introduce a new fish sandwich to their menu, Burger King also added the new Hammour Royale. Since I tried KFC’s Fish Zinger the other day, I decided it would only be fair if I also gave Burger King’s conception a shot.

Psychologically I am more comfortable having fish at Burger King then at KFC because BK just feels (and probably is) cleaner. Well I tried the Hammour Royale and I definitely prefer it over the Fish Zinger. Firstly it tastes like fish which is a good first step. Secondly it looks pretty good, maybe not as good as the product shots in their adverts but really no burger or sandwich ever looks like their glamor shots. My biggest problem with the Hammour Royale was that it was a bit dry. If I was to have it again I would order it with cheese and extra sauce because the way I had it today it really lacked some flavor.

The price of the Hammour Royale is 900fils and I believe its an extra 50fils if you want cheese with it. The price of the combo is KD1.350. This makes the Hammour Royale 100 fils cheaper then the Fish Zinger sandwich and 150fils cheaper then the Fish Zinger combo. Overall not a bad effort by Burger King, I would still rather have McDonald’s Fillet-O-Fish but this is not a bad alternative. I would definitely have it again. Final score is a 4 out of 5.

I just found out some disappointing news. After all these years of drinking Like Cola thinking I was supporting a local product, I just found out that Like was actually introduced by 7up. Oh well at least we still have Shani to be proud of.

Yesterday some people suggested that the reason behind KFC’s recent addition to the Fish Zinger sandwich is so that they can offer a non-chicken alternative on their menu in case of another bird flu scare. I suggested that if that was the case KFC should have advertised their Colonel Burger. Well turns out there is a story behind that burger. Tat, a reader of the blog commented with the following information:

Business predictions are that bird flu will reappear every summer. Last summer, Egypt’s KFC sales fell almost by half and the Gulf KFC’s by 20 – 25%. Therefore KFC international has come up with non-chicken products to offer alternatives.

The Colonel Burger has been around for a long time. It was a product, started many years back, by Americana locally, to beat a competitor called Jack in the Box; a burger chain concept that dared include fried chicken in their menu. Since the burger is not a KFC product its not advertised too much.

KFC in the gulf will move over to transfat free oil in a few months.

Yes I know I already posted at least two different opening dates for Carrefour before but they just kept pushing back the opening dates. Now according to a user (Rocker) in the forum the new launch date is this Tuesday.

update: Here is a picture of their full page teaser ad from the Arab Times. [Pic]