Category: Food & Drinks

I am a big chocolate spread fan and the most common brands I get are Nutella, Crumpy and Hazella but mostly I just get the large Nutella jar. I tried the Galaxy chocolate spread but I just found it tooo sweet. So the other week I was at Sultan Center in Salmiya and I found a new brand of chocolate spread, the famous Neuhaus from Belgium. I was like gourmet chocolate spread? I have to try it! So, I went and purchased a jar of Neuhaus Chocolate Spread with Nuts and went back home to try it.

Was it any good? No question about it, the Neuhaus chocolate spread was the most flavored chocolate spread I have ever tried. Its thick and smells nutty plus the presentation of it is very minimal and elegant. Its really delicious. I never doubted the fact that it would taste really good, the only question is… is it worth it?

The 750-grams Nutella jar costs 915fils. The 200-grams Neuhaus jar costs KD2,780. That means the Neuhaus chocolate spread costs more then 11 times the price of Nutella, but is it 11 times better?

Simply no, it isn’t.

I can’t even imagine what Nutella times 11 would taste like but I am pretty sure it must be close to orgasmic and although the Neuhaus spread is really fucking good its no where near orgasmic. So would I recommend it? Yes I would, at-least to try it once. But I wouldn’t recommend it as a replacement to Nutella, its just not feasible, what you get is something better then Nutella but not something that deserves to be eleven times as expensive. This is why for the final rating it gets a 3.5 out of 5.

Yesterday after work I decided I would pass by Bader Al Badoor for a quick bite to eat. Once I got their though I changed my mind and decided I would try the other shawerma place opposite to it. A friend of mine told me they had better shawermas so I figured I would give it a shot and see.

After trying Al-Ghader and Badar Al Badoor’s shawerma, Burgan was a disappointment. First the place seems to be the least clean out of the three. The interior was very small and even though it wasn’t that packed I still found it difficult to get to the cashier who was tucked away in a corner behind a Pepsi fridge. The employees also didn’t seem the cleanest or the most organized compared to Al-Ghader and Bader Al Badoor. There was a brief argument for example that broke out with the shawerma guy and one of the employees, the employee originally told the shawerma guy 2 shawermas but then gave him a paper saying 6 shawermas because the customer had requested more. The shawerma guy didn’t read the paper and just went and did 2 shawermas. So they were arguing for like 5 minutes on whose fault it was while the customer was outside waiting in his car for his order.

After a brief wait I picked up my shawermas and a can of coke and headed to the car to eat. Its not hard to make a good shawerma, as long as its not greasy, you use good bread and you make sure the garlic doesnt taste like mayonnaise then you have yourself a good shawerma. But, from a good shawerma to a great shawerma it takes a lot more then that and this is where Burgan fails to deliver. While Badar Al Badoor and Al-Ghader both had neutral tasting chicken in their shawerma’s, Burgan trys to be different by giving the chicken some flavor. If you actually look closely at the chicken shawerma skewer you will notice the chicken has what looks like red spice on it. This is what gives Burgan’s chicken this extra touch of flavor but with me at-least this addition of theirs backfired because I didn’t like it. Its not so bad that I wouldn’t eat it, I don’t think I have ever come across a shawerma that I wouldn’t eat but it does make me prefer Badar Al Badoor which is just across the street from them.

Burgan’s quantity of chicken is good, they are not stingy, their Pepsi was also freezing cold but the chicken just tasted strange and the garlic wasn’t strong enough to cover the taste. The shawerma costs 250fils which is standard for a place like this. The final score is a 3 out of 5.

Need directions? Follow Badar Al Badoor’s [Link]

Dunkin Donuts is addictive and it should be banned!

I was going to write a post about how I am currently addicted to the reality tv show Hells Kitchen but I just fucked up big time. I have watched a season and a half worth of shows since Thursday night and I am currently half way through season 2. Problem is I wanted to find an image for this post so I went to the official Hells Kitchen website and when I got there right on the main page they had the picture of the winner of season 2! Now I know who is going to win and it just sucks. I am pissed.

Nathans is opening at Souk Sharq adjacent to McDonalds. I think they already have a branch in Kuwait but its located in some obscure area. They have really good hotdogs so I can’t wait till they open up.

I passed by Dunkin Donuts earlier tonight. I wasn’t planning to since I imagined the place to be extremely packed as it was the opening night but as I was on my way to Sultan Center I decided to pass by and check it out. As I was walking towards Dunkin I was expecting to find a long queue outside the place of people wanting to get in. Surprisingly there was no queue, in fact, there was no queue inside even. I guess not many people care about it here in Kuwait which isn’t a good sign considering Dunkin Donuts opened up in the most jinxed place on that street. Tons of places ranging from restaurants to a music shop opened and closed in that location numerous times giving it the jinxed title.

First the good news, the donuts taste great, they taste exactly like Dunkin Donuts anywhere else. Thats the only thing positive I could think of, so lets get started with the negatives. I go to Dunkin Donuts not for their donuts but for their amazing sandwiches, my favorite being the egg, cheese and ham in croissant heated up in the microwave. They don’t have it here! Its probably not a big deal for like 99% of their customers but I was really disappointed, its the only thing I used to have there. Other then that the Pepsi comes in cans which sucks, not only that but its the small 250ml cans even! They also had a DJ for some odd reason and he was playing Arabic music! Finally probably the worst thing is that they are not open 24 hours! They open from 7AM to 1AM meaning no passing by at 2:48AM for late night munchies.

So for first impression it wasn’t very positive but they did just open today so I am sure they are still working on stuff like buying a regular coke machine. Price for a donut is 350fils. For 1KD you get 2 donuts and a coffee. I am definitely going back there again and I hope in the future they do start making the egg cheese and ham sandwich.

Just tried the new slider at Burger Boutique called Midnight and wow it was just amazing. Its my favorite slider they have at the moment.

Note: A slider is a small bite size burger

Q80-Chill Girl just posted that Dunkin Donuts will be opening this Tuesday the 29th of August at noon time. She was even lucky enough to attend the pre-opening. For more information and pictures click [Here]

note: Picture above by Moey, more of his pictures available [Here]

On Thursday night k.thekuwaiti and Nibaq picked me up to go have dinner at Al-Ghader in Salwa. Many people were recommending I try Al-Ghader shawerma so I really was looking forward to it.

The place isn’t easy to locate but I will give it a shot. You know the street in Salwa where you have the Salwa co-op, police station and gas station? Well if all of those are on your right hand side and you are driving towards the Fahaheel Expressway, take the last right on this street just before the traffic light. Then, drive straight and take your 6th right. Then drive in a bit until you find Al-Ghader on your right hand side. Here it is on Google Maps.

The shawerma tasted very similar to Badar Al Badoor’s. It had the same taste which I liked except that Al-Ghader was much more stingier. The portion of chicken in the shawerma was half the amount of Badar Al Badoor’s. That kinda sucked since the taste of the bread was over powering the chicken. On a positive note though, Al-Ghader’s garlic tasted slightly better than Badar Al badoor’s but it wasn’t enough of a flavor difference to make the sandwich better. By default they put garlic, pickles and tomato in the shawerma but I had mine just with just garlic. The price of the shawerma is also 250fils. The place was very packed but it wasn’t all on the shawerma, they have a nice variety of food at the place and people were spread evenly across them.

Al-Ghader has good shawerma and if you are located near it then its worth the drive to have it. But, if you have a choice between Al-Ghader and Badar Al Badoor then I would recommend the later since you are basically getting the same shawerma just more of it for the same price. This is why the final score for Al-Ghader’s shawerma is 3.5 out of 5.

update: Since writing this review I’ve frequented Al-Ghader numerous of times and if I was to write the review today I would give it a 4 out of 5.

I went to Fusion last night in Galleria 2000 with Z District. The place is pretty cool and the food is really good but the highlight of night had to be the Ice Tea. It was just the best Ice Tea I had ever had. Its really really good and very fruity and refreshing. Its kinda surprising that a Japanese place has the best Ice Tea I have had in Kuwait.

This past weekend I had chicken shawerma twice from Badar Al Badoor. Some people had told me the place had the best shawerma in Kuwait so I had to try it out and I wasn’t disappointed.

I passed by Thursday night around 8ish and the place was packed. I parked my car and went down and ordered 3 shawermas and a coke. By default they put garlic, tomato and chicken in the shawerma and I decided to try it like that. They use samoon bread (the hotdog bread) which is my favorite when it comes to shawermas. After 5 minutes of waiting I got my shawerma and went back to my car to eat. My first impression was a mixed one. The shawerma was good but something was off and I concluded it was the tomatoes, they just made the sandwich a bit too moist and ao I decided I would try it again the next night without them.

Friday night also around 8ish I went back to Badar Al Badoor. The place was even more packed then the previous night but I went ahead and ordered 2 shawermas without tomatoes. 5 minutes later I was back in my car eating my shawermas and realizing that the tomatoes definitely were the problem. The shawermas tasted much better without them and I could taste the garlic even better.

So how did they rate? Well I wouldn’t call them the best shawermas in Kuwait, so far my best experience has been with Sajj House. Badar Al Badoor shawermas are very normal which is a very good thing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, the bread, the garlic, the chicken, it all tastes good but just lacks the tiny bit of extra oomph to make the shawerma extra special. From all the hole in the wall shawerma places I have tried Badar Al Badoor is the best so far, its just lacking a signature flavor. The shawermas cost 250 fils which is standard with shawerma places in this class so overall the final score is a 4 out of 5. Now I need to try the shawerma place in Salwa which many people were recommending.

Badar Al Badoor directions [Link]

update: Since I posted this review a few months ago I have been back to Badar Al Badoor numerous of times and I have to say the shawermas have gotten much better. If I was to review Badar Al Badoor today I would give it a 4.5 or even a 5. Its currently my favorite shawerma place.

I passed by Badar Al Badoor yesterday. They supposingly make the best shawerma in Kuwait but when I passed by they still hadn’t started making shawermas so I couldn’t try them out. Will try to pass by tonight.

To get to Badar Al Badoor you take the Gulf Road as if going from the Kuwait Towers toward Salmiya. Once you pass Fuddruckers on your left and Safir Hotel on your right you take a right following the Commercial Bank of Kuwait signage. Once you take the right (Safir Hotel is now still on your right hand like this) you take your first right again and you will spot Badar Al Badoor in front of you.

update: here is it on google maps [Link]

Tonight I met up with the owners of Burger Boutique. For some reason I always imagined them to be old but they turned out to be young and one of them was even with me in high school. They are very cool guys and they are extremly passionate in what they do. Tonight they relaunched the Burger Boutique website so check it out. [Link]

Just got an SMS from the Choowy Goowy owner, he will be sending cookies to the meetup tonight. That way whoever hasn’t tried the cookies yet will have a chance to tonight.

Two Red Bull chicks are in the office now giving out Red Bull cans and talking about some offer or something. I would rather have two Hardees chicks giving out Roast Beef N Cheddars and talking about their offers instead.