Category: Food & Drinks

ATARI is an Asian influenced tapas restaurant that just opened up a couple of days ago across from Al-Seef Palace next to Slider Station. They’re still in their soft launch phase so they’re only open from 5pm to 11pm daily except for Mondays. For more info and some pictures including their menu, visit their Instagram account [Here]

Update: I was just told they’re not officially open yet but they’re taking reservations

Based on the newspaper grab above it looks like there was some sort of In-N-Out tasting event that took place in Dubai. Is this a sign they might finally be opening up shop in the region?

Photo by @sambyi via Moey

Rio is a new Brazilian steakhouse that has been open for around a month and last night I decided to pass by and try it out. Unlike regular restaurants, the way the Rio menu works is slightly different since there is just one fixed price of KD15.5. For that price you get to choose one starter from a list of about eight, you get to choose an unlimited amount of side orders and then it’s all you can eat beef, fish and chicken. It’s similar to a buffet except you never have to get out of your seat.

Rio is located on the ground floor of Jawhara Tower in Kuwait City. It’s the same building that has Ubon and a few other restaurant. But from the restaurants that are currently located there, Rio has to be the biggest, probably double the size of the others. I was actually pretty surprised at how spacious Rio was compared to the other restaurants next door. The interior was also very trendy and nicely lit with large windows on two sides creating a very open and spacious look. You could easily forget the fact that you’re not in Kuwait once you’re inside. Once we sat down the waitress proceeded to explain to us how the menu works and then provided us with two coasters, one side had a red circle the other side a green circle. You put the coasters on the table with the green side up when you want your plate refilled and the red side up when you want to stop.

I was with my brother so we got to order two starters, the Carpaccio and the rocket salad. Between the two dishes I surprisingly favored the rocket salad but that’s probably because the balsamic dressing was so ridiculously good. One thing I found a bit annoying was the fact the starters came out so quickly after we ordered and then before we were completely done with the dishes they wanted to clear the plates so they could bring in the main course. I felt a bit rushed but that’s probably due to the lack of experience since they just opened. We ordered a whole bunch of sides to go with our main course, I ordered healthy sides like mushrooms, broccoli and carrots while my brother ordered potato wedges, onion rings and fried banana. We also had 6 or 8 sauces to choose from and we decided to order all of them so we could try them out.

They serve around 14 different kinds of meats and I would say 12 of them are served on skewers that they bring to your table and slice onto your plate. One after the other a waiter would come with a different skewer for us to try like various kinds of steaks, grilled shrimps, grilled chicken and sausages and even grilled pineapple. As they would fill our plate and walk away another skewer would come which meant we didn’t have enough time to start eating. Then I remembered the colored coasters the waitress told us about so we flipped ours to “red” and the food stopped coming. Since there are so many different kinds of skewers there are bound to be some you won’t favor and in my case I didn’t favor a few but the ones I did end up liking, I liked a lot (the sliced chicken and the chicken sausage being my favorites).

I do have a few gripes about the place and it mostly has to do with the service. The whole experience just felt very rushed. Right as soon as we sat down and the waitress explained to us the concept she wanted to take our order right then on the spot even though we didn’t have time to take a look at the menu. Then as I mentioned, the starters came out very quickly after the order was taken and before the starters were completely finished the plates were being cleared for the main course. Then the way you get bombarded with one grill after the other is also a bit overwhelming. Another issue I had is when we had gone through maybe 8 or 10 grills they started coming back with grills that we had already tried. When I asked the waiter if we were done trying all the grills he said yes. Since we were pretty full we decided to ask for the bill. When the bill arrived a waiter came with chicken sausages which we hadn’t been served before. So we each took one. Then I paid the bill and another skewer came this time with beef sausages, again we hadn’t tried those before. So I asked the waiter why he would tell us we were done trying out all the grills when we hadn’t and I don’t think he understood us. I think it must have been just a language issue but it’s kinda awkward to ask for the bill and pay for it while food is still arriving. I also have an issue with the price. At KD15.5 I would have appreciated if soft drinks were included or at the very least have free refills. If you want dessert that is also an additional cost. I think dessert should be included in the price since when you go to a buffet or order a set menu, generally all the food is included.

Rio is an interesting concept and a great looking place in a good location with a ton of parking spaces all around. It’s also probably the closest thing you’re going to get to an all you can eat steak buffet in Kuwait. As a matter of fact, this is probably the closest thing you’re also going to get to a healthy buffet since the menu is mostly made up of grilled protein. My issues mostly revolve around the service but they should easily be fixable by just slowing things down a notch. If you’re interested in trying Rio here is a [Map] to the location and their phone number is 22260788.

Update: I forgot to add they’re currently in a soft launch stage and so are only open from 7PM to 11PM

I passed by Bang & Olufsen at Symphony Mall tonight and on my way out I noticed a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company hoarding. The American seafood chain is inspired from the movie Forrest Gump and looks like the Symphony Mall location is going to be quite big. No clue on when exactly they’ll be opening.

Around a month ago I picked up the Breville 800 Juicer and since then I have been using it on practically a daily basis. I love it, like really love it.

I was wandering the Xcite aisles in Avenues killing time waiting for a friend when I stopped by the juicers section. I was checking out some of the Philips juicers which I thought looked pretty cool when a salesman came up and started telling me about a deal they had on the Breville juicer. I hadn’t heard of the brand before and was kinda bothered he was showing the Breville to me when I told him I had my eye on the Philips. I decided to check and see what the reviews on Amazon had to say about the Breville juicer and to my surprise there were over 900 reviews giving the juicer an average rating of 4.5 out of 5. I was intrigued.

My friend had come by then and we left the store but I still had the juicer stuck in my mind. Over 900 reviews and a 4.5? How good is this freakin’ juicer? I started researching it a bit on my phone and from what I read it was basically the best home juicer you could by so once I was done with dinner I headed back to the store and picked one up.

The Breville 800 is heavy since the whole unit is made of stainless steel. Everything about it screams heavy duty including the old school button and switch. The one on Amazon is listed as 1000watts but the one I picked up is a whopping 1,500. No idea if the Americans measure watts differently or if the US machines are electronically detuned so they’re more eco friendly but the fact that the 1,000w version got such high ratings made me wonder how much of a rating the exact same machine with 50% more power would get.

Using this juicer like every other juicer is fairly simple, you throw the fruits in from one end and juice flows out from the other. But while some juicers might struggle with some hard fruits I couldn’t find anything that would give the Breville 800 difficulty. I’ve actually been making juice from random vegetables and fruits I have lying around in the fridge from apples and carrots to asparagus and zuccini. I don’t cut or peel anything not even the apples. I just throw everything in and the juicer juices without any issues.

My only complaint about the machine isn’t really a complaint but more of a fantasy request which is someone needs to invent a juicer that will clean itself. Although the Breville is pretty easy to clean and take apart it’s still a chore. Other than that flaw I really really love this juicer. I don’t remember the exact price I paid for the juicer, I think it was originally priced at around 126 and they had a special offer and selling it for KD66. But, I just checked the Xcite website and it’s showing the retail price at KD99 and after discount the price is now KD54. My guess is they dropped the price even further to sell all their stock because the website is now showing the juicer is out of stock. So sucks for anyone who wants one cuz looks like you can’t get one anymore. [Link]

Note: All photos except for the first one on top are stock photos.

Update: Looks like juicer is now back in stock

Update2: Ok it’s back out of stock again…

A new Brazilian restaurant called “Rio” is opening tomorrow in Kuwait City right next to Ubon (in Aljawhara Tower). I haven’t tried it yet but a friend of mine who went to a tasting did and told me the food wasn’t bad and the interior made him feel like he was dining in Manhattan. They’re soft launching the restaurant tomorrow (Monday) and they’ll be opening from 7PM to 11PM.

Thanks Ali
Photo above by @humaidhi

Smash Burger are opening a new location, this time it’s in Salmiya and down the street from AUK. They’re actually opening in the same location where Organica Fish & Chips used to be before they closed it down.

Wendy’s, Arbys, A&W and In-N-Out still MIA. [Link]

When McDonald’s opened an outlet in Kuwait shortly after the end of the Gulf War, the line of cars waiting to eat there was seven miles long.

[Source]

Note: In case you’re wondering, thats a McGangBang in the picture.

Matbakhi Bghorbti is a YouTube channel run by Kuwaiti students currently studying in the States. Their videos are all cooking related and are not meant to be very serious. They have 8 videos so far and you can check them all out [Here]

Speaking of Alshaya, a friend of mine snapped the photo above at Avenues. Alshaya are opening their first Katsuya by S+ARCK in the region right next to Garrett Popcorn in Phase III.

via @nat_q8

Update: Katsuya is now open [Link]

Yesterday I was invited to the Peruvian Food Festival that is currently taking place this week at JW Marriott. I wasn’t planning to go at first but then I told myself I didn’t want to be one of those people who complain about nothing to do in Kuwait when in fact there are things to do and I just wasn’t doing them. The food festival is organized by the Peruvian embassy and they brought in three chefs from Peru as well as some Peruvian dancers. During various stages of the dinner the dancers would perform the traditional Peruvian dances and I thought was pretty entertaining. The food was also really interesting with lots of new flavors I hadn’t experienced before.

If you’re looking for something to do this week then this festival is on until the 15th of March. Having dinner while watching dancers perform is something you generally don’t see taking place in Kuwait so take advantage of this opportunity. The cost is KD15 per person (it’s an open buffet) and is from 7pm to 11pm at La Brasserie in JW Marriott Hotel.

The Wall Street Journal released a chart showing the price of the Starbucks Grande Latte in various cities around the world. The most expensive location to get one turned out to be Oslo where the price of the Grande Latte was around KD2.800. I was curious to see how Kuwait faired so I passed by Starbucks and checked the price. A Grande Latte in Kuwait is KD1.250 and when I converted that to US Dollars using the NBK website, it turned out to be $4.38. That is the same price as a Grande Latte in Dublin. [Article]

Update: I just found out the price of the Grande Latte is actually KD1.500 which translates to $5.25 and puts the price higher up the list. The Starbucks I visited in the morning was located at the NBK head office and I guess that Starbucks has cheaper prices hence the KD1.250 I was quoted. Below is the updated chart.

I’ve never eaten at a Michelin star restaurant so when I found out there was a restaurant with two Michelin stars in Rotterdam, I decided to to try it out. The restaurant is called Parkheuvel and at one point had three Michelin stars before losing two stars and then gaining one back again. I was worried I wouldn’t find a table available since I booked the night before but I did find one and to my surprise the restaurant was actually empty when I was there for lunch.

I decided to go with the fixed 5 course menu option since I wanted to try as many dishes as I could. Below are the dishes I was served with their descriptions written underneath it. Of course when they presented the dishes to me they explained it in a much more elaborate way:

Green pea soup with sausage foam. The soup is inside the crunchy sphere.

Lobster, crab and goose liver.

Lightly simmered scallops with cauliflower and hazelnuts.

Grilled turbot with risotto.

The main course: Lamb with artichoke and potato stuffed with something.

Dessert, golden pearl of white chocolate filled with blood orange and a side of lemon icecream.

When I got the soup I thought it was funny at first but then I appreciated the fact that the soup didn’t look like soup since it made it different than any other soup I’ve had before. I thought the scallops and the grilled turbot dishes were incredible, lots of flavor and like nothing I had tasted before. I actually liked the risotto that came with the turbot more than the turbot itself and I’m not a big risotto fan. Everything else was also good but nothing really stood out like the scallops and the turbot.

The portions as you can see were pretty small making it more a tasting experience than a dining one. The service at the restaurant was the best I had ever experienced with very friendly and extremely knowledgable staff. Price wise the 5 course meal cost 110 euros (around KD40) which I think is very reasonable considering it’s a two Michelin star restaurant. The experience overall was well worth it and has made Michelin star restaurants more approachable and less intimidating to me. I always had the impression you would have to pay an arm and a leg to dine at one and that you would never be able to find a table. Now I know that’s not always the case.

Although this might be hard to believe, Batcha is a dish I’ve been wanting to try for a very long time. I had heard about it from a friend who had heard about it from another friend who most likely also heard it from someone else which would explain why I was told Batcha was actually a soup containing sheep balls, eyes, bones, brains, liver and tongue. That’s (disappointingly) not what Batcha turned out to be.

I was told there was a small restaurant tucked away at the corner of a traffic intersection in Kuwait City that serves only Batcha so I headed there with a friend of mine expecting to try the soup I described earlier. Instead it turned out Batcha was just sheep head and hooves. We decided to order their largest platter which included a sheep tongue, sheep head and four hooves. A short time later we were served two bowls of what looked like hot water mixed with oil. Not very appetizing but turns out it’s the broth that the heads and hooves were boiled in. We also got some fresh Irani bread as well and some greens. While we were trying to figure out what to do with the bowl of broth the waiter came back with our platter. It didn’t look appetizing either, but I wasn’t expecting it to.

The bowl of broth according to the waiter is a soup but I decided to use it as dip instead. I took a piece of Irani bread, put some tongue and sheep head on it and then dipped it into the broth and took my first bite. It tasted as good as it looked, not that great. But I was there for the experience so I tried to eat as much as I could. The hooves, those were the most difficult thing to eat since they looked really gross. It’s mostly skin and when I peeled the skin off and tried to eat it, I bit on something hard which turned out to be the nails of the sheep. Who knew sheep had nails?

I really didn’t eat much neither did my friend and our plate was left mostly full. But, I would still recommend the place. The thing is it’s a strange and exotic dish with the added benefit of not having to travel to some far away country to experience it. So if you’re into trying strange dishes you should pass by and give it a shot. Here is a map to the location [Map]