Category: Food & Drinks

I assumed everyone already knew about this place since they’ve been open for a while now but recently I realized that wasn’t the case. There is a little bagel shop in Kuwait City next to Solo Pizza called While I’m Baked. If you head there in the morning before they sell out, you can get some of the best bagel sandwiches in Kuwait. I always order either their Turkey Avo Boi or the Kramer, and now while I’m typing this out I’m craving a sandwich so I’ll probably pick one up on my way into work this morning.

If you want to check them out, here is their location on Google Maps and they’re on Instagram @whileimbaked

Tim Hortons, the popular Canadian coffee chain is reopening in Kuwait today at 5PM. According to their Instagram post, the first 50 customers will be getting free drinks every week for a year. They’re opening 5 locations today which include:

• Awtad Tower
• Argan Al-Bidaa
• Argan Square
• Blajat Corniche
• Dining DT The Dining Complex

I don’t know where the last two locations are, but if you do, let me know in the comments so I can link them.

GQ recently published a list of what they think are the 6 best restaurants in Kuwait. The 6 that made the cut are White Robata, Tatami, Dar Hamad, OVO, Roka and Cure.

Roka isn’t open yet and won’t be until the end of the year but the rest you most likely all know about. To check out the GQ article, click here.

I used to be a huge Subway fan back when I was in university in Lebanon and then again once I moved back here and started work. Then around 10 years ago I stopped eating there until just a few weeks ago.

Back in April, I posted about how the Subway brand changed ownership in Kuwait and moved to Kout Food Group. They ended up opening their first location in Salmiya next to AUK and it’s probably the nicest Subway I’ve ever been to anywhere.

Firstly there is a drive-thru, but more importantly, the branch is super clean. It’s tiny but everything inside looks really appetizing and the store smells of freshly baked bread. I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and since then have been back a bunch of times. So if like me you wrote off Subyway years ago, its worth giving another shot now. Here is their location on Google Maps.

SodaStream is a very popular company that makes home carbonation appliances. It’s a small kitchen appliance that allows you to create sparking water by forcing carbon dioxide into regular water making it fizzy. You can also add different flavors to create your very own mix. The only problem is that SodaStream is an Israeli company so we can’t get their machines or CO2 canisters in Kuwait.

But, there is now a local brand that just launched called Gulf Soda that sells a machine that does the same thing. They’re selling the soda machine for 50KD without the gas cylinder and come in three colors. The CO2 gas cylinders cost 15KD each and 5KD to refill. So you’re going to pay an initial cost of 65KD to start making your own home carbonated drinks.

If you want to check out their products, their website is gulfsoda.com and their Instagram is @gulfsoda

Dry Drink is an online store that sells non-alcoholic drinks. It’s a UAE-based company but they do deliver in Kuwait by the next day so they must have a local warehouse. I have zero interest in non-alcoholic drinks and I don’t understand why people drink them (there are better-tasting drinks if you don’t want alcohol).

But, if you’re one of those people who enjoy the taste of non-alcoholic gin (🤢) or other drinks, Dry Drink seems to have a good variety of options, most of which I haven’t come across before.

They offer free delivery if you order 30KD or more worth of drinks and they offer taster bundles which is a good way to try a variety of different drinks on a budget. If you want to check it out, here is the link.

Back in November, I posted about Pret A Manger being brought to Kuwait by One PM Franchising which is owned by Hamad Al Sayer. They had told me they would be opening their first location this year and a few days ago they finally revealed the location.

Pret is planning to open their first store in Al Hamra Tower this October if everything goes to plan. Opening in Al Hamra Tower is actually a great idea due to the number of employees working in the building. Back when I was working for the government my office was in Al Hamra Tower. During lunch, I’d go down to the mall and it would be packed with employees and most would be at PICK which always had a long queue. So Pret should do really well there.

Their Al Hamra location is going to be the first to open but they still have a second one planned for this year and now I’m curious to where that one will be. To stay posted on Pret A Manger’s news, follow them on Instagram @pretkw.official

After 40 years, the popular shawarma/kebab place Badar Al Badoor is moving locations because they’re demolishing their current building. The new location is still in the area, just down the street but it obviously won’t have the history of the current location which has become sort of iconic. According to an employee, they’ll be moving in around 10 days, right after Eid, so pass by while you still can.

Here is the location (pictured above) of the new Badar Al Badoor on Google Maps.

Bakers’ Point is a new supermarket that focuses on everything baking-related. They describe themselves as “the first all-inclusive baking destination” and they might be just that. I passed by over the weekend and the place is pretty nice and fairly big for what is essentially just a baking supplies store.

The supermarket is divided into three essential parts. The first area is filled with all the different ingredients you might need (they have a huge variety of flour btw), the second section is frozen and refrigerated items, and the last section is baking tools and accessories.

It’s a pretty nice idea and a lot of the items come in wholesale packaging which is great if you’re a pro-hobbyist. They oddly don’t have a website but they are open daily from 7AM to 10PM. If you want to check them out they’re on Instagram @bakerspoint.kw and here is their location on Google Maps.

Tim Hortons, the popular Canadian coffee chain is making a comeback in Kuwait after closing down all its locations a few years ago. They’re now coming back to the market with at least two new locations, one in Bida’a next to Melenzane and a second in Kuwait City next to Muthana Complex.

The UAE company Apparel Group is the master franchisee of the Tim Hortons brand in the Middle East. They also have a number of other brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Aldo, Jamie’s Italian, Cold Stone Creamery, and Rituals.

Thanks Basel

My favorite Bahraini grills spot is still Ghadeer al Bahrain in Salmiya, even though after the pandemic they had to increase their prices by around 100 fils. But last night, I decided to try another Bahraini grills spot in the city called Tekka Lumee. This past winter whenever I drove by Tekka Lumee in the evening it would be super packed with people, they actually had to expand their outdoor seating and double the size because of their popularity. I was with a friend in the city last night and we were originally planning to walk over to Little Ruby’s for dinner when we decided to give Tekka Lumee a shot.

Tekka Lumee is a small place across the street from the newly opened Assima Mall. Unlike Ghadeer al Bahrain which has been around for 30+ years, Tekka Lumee is a new concept that opened up over a year ago. Their menu has a pretty good variety of items and you can check it out online here. We ended up getting hummus to start with and Tekka Lumee grills, Tekka Yogurt, Kebab Special and Special Tawooq for the mains.

A couple of minutes after placing the order the food started coming out. First the freshly baked Irani bread with the hummus, and then all the grills. If you’re hungry and don’t want to wait too long for your food then this is the place to come to. I quickly started digging into the food and right away knew what I liked and what I wouldn’t order again. Both the Tekka Lumee and Tekka Yogurt were great, especially the Tekka Lumee which had great flavor. The Tawooq was the third-best item, I usually wouldn’t order chicken at a Bahraini grills place but was curious to try it here but wouldn’t have it again. The most disappointing item though was the kebab, it was fairly dry, a bit bland, and was the only thing that we didn’t finish on the table. It sucks because I usually like ordering kebab with my tikka but wouldn’t do so again here.

Even though Ghadeer al Bahrain is a low-end hole-in-the-wall restaurant, I do feel like I have to compare it with Tekka Lumee only because they both basically sell the same food. Pricewise Tekka Lumee is surprisingly pretty good, their grills are around KD2.500 a plate and contain 5 skewers. What is important to point out is their skewers are longer than that of Ghadeer and contain more meat, so you could say close to double the size of Ghadeer’s. This means price-wise it’s fairly competitive to Ghadeer Al Bahrain even though it’s a much nicer (cough cleaner cough) place with a better dining experience. Tastewise the tikkas at Tekka Lumee were great but the kebab as I mentioned was a disappointment. The kebab at Ghadeer is much better but I’d still go back to Tekka Lumee for the other items (and for the bread which was crazy good). The total for two people including 3 drinks came out to around 13KD. If you want to check the place out, their Instagram account is @tekka.lumee, and here is their location on Google Maps.

Four years ago while in Los Angeles, I stayed at my cousin’s place in an area called Sun Valley. It’s just a random area, nothing special about it but one day I found out about a small pizza place in his neighborhood called 786 Degrees. I ended up trying it out and loving it, not only because the pizza was so great but also because of the excellent customer service. I ended up leaving the Yelp review below:

Since I last visited the place they’ve won a number of awards and even opened a second location. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I get a totally random message from the chef and owner on Instagram telling me he’s coming to Kuwait for a pop-up event.

I ended up finding out the chef (Ali Haider) actually grew up in Kuwait and lived here until he graduated high school and then moved to the States for university. Over the years he stayed in touch by following various Instagram accounts and eventually met the owner of a local Italian restaurant called Grano and now he’s going to be having a pop-up over two days. Like how random is that? The chef from a tiny little pizza place I tried 4 years ago in Sun Valley is coming to Kuwait for a pop-up?

I’m hoping he’ll be using his own dough recipe and tomato sauce since I’ve had the pizza at Grano before and it wasn’t that special. The pop-up is on May 20 and 21 and I’m trying to find out what the plan is exactly since Grano is pretty tiny so can’t fit that many people. Once I get anymore details I’ll update this post but for now you can check out the Instagram account of @786degrees and the Instagram of Grano @grano.restaurant.

It’s been a while since I last posted a restaurant review, but there really hasn’t been any that interested me until now. Midar is a new Kuwaiti restaurant opened by the team behind some of our favorite places like Burger Boutique, White Robata and Slider Station. I passed by Friday for lunch and left wanting to go back.

Midar opened during Eid a couple of weeks ago in The Gardens area of Avenues phase 4. I had seen pictures of the space ahead of time and it looked really pretty but in person, it looks even better. The restaurant was smaller than I imagined it being but I liked it more this way since it felt cozy. I had a reservation that I had made a couple of weeks earlier so I was seated as soon as I arrived. We were given a choice of either sitting inside or in their outdoor space, I chose inside and that’s what I would recommend. The outdoor space is pretty generic and so you’d miss out on the beautiful interior.

Once seated it took a pretty long time to be attended to by a waiter. Service was actually the only issue I had with the place, not because the service was bad or the waiters were not any good, they were just not attentive. Their menu like most places today was digital and you can check it out by going to midar-me.com/menu. Midar is a Kuwaiti seafood concept so all their dishes are seafood related and you won’t find any chicken or beef on their menu. I ended up ordering Jahra St. Hummus to start with and then a Grilled Medium-sized Seabass and Fresh Shrimp Mumawash for our mains, followed by the Sticky Date Cake for dessert. Oh and we also ordered their super spicy Special Mabooch on the side.

The food all looked great, the portions were fairly big, and everything we had ended up being delicious. The fish was brought next to our table and then cut open and plated, it reminded me of the one I have at Shemam except this one was obviously elevated and better. The Mumawash when mixed with the special mabooch and the sauce they bring with it on the side was my favorite thing (and really spicy). Finally the dessert, I mean it’s such a basic thing, a sticky date cake, but it was easily the best one I’ve ever had, it actually caught me off guard since I’m not really a sticky date cake guy. Once the meal was done we had a choice of complimentary regular or lumi tea which is a nice touch.

The final bill, including a mocktail, soft drink and water came out to around 35KD which is pretty reasonable for a place like this. Really the only odd thing was the service. The waiters just never seemed to be around even though the place isn’t that big. But, they also just opened and the whole restaurant industry is suffering with a lack of staff so it’s understandable and I’m sure they’ll work out the kinks quickly (their concepts tend to have the best service in the industry). I’d definitely go back and I actually have a to-do list of things I want to try next time.

Since Midar just opened they’re going to be really busy during prime hours, so even though they do accept walk-ins, you’ll have a better chance of getting a table if you reserve through their website midar-me.com

Not sure what feels weirder, the fact that Slider Station has been open for 15 years, or the fact that I’ve been blogging for so long that I have a review of Slider Station when it first opened. Time does fly!

Back in 2007 the food scene was a lot different in Kuwait, there were definitely not as many burger places or cool restaurants as there are now. It’s not easy for a restaurant to stay consistently good or relevant for so long, and the fact that Slider Station has managed to accomplish that is incredible.

The same company that owns Slider Station just opened up a new restaurant last week in Avenues called Midar that serves authentic Kuwaiti seafood. I booked a table for this weekend and can’t wait to try the place out.

The first Johnny Rockets in Kuwait that’s located in Salmiya has closed down. According to Johnny Rockets, they are renovating the store which makes sense since it really hadn’t changed at all since they first opened in the mid-90s. I’d know because I was in high school back then and the Johnny Rockets opening was a big thing (nothing else really existed other than Fuddruckers).

I like that it hadn’t been renovated because it still held all my high school memories like the table where I sat on my very first date or the table where me and my friends used to chill at. On the bright side at least they’re reopening again.