Eyescream and Friends is a new ice cream place that opened up at 360 Mall. It’s a franchise from Spain with a simple idea, make the ice cream look like little creatures with the use of two candy eyes. Simple idea but it works. When I first saw pictures of the ice cream I thought it looked super cute so I decided to go and get one for myself.

The presentation is great and you get to choose two different toppings to go along with your ice cream. I went with the chocolate ice cream with pistachio and strawberry sauce on the side. The ice cream itself wasn’t that great but my little ice cream creature looked very cute just like in the photos I had seen. I can imagine kids would really love this place. If you’re interested, they’re located in the 360 Mall food court. Their instagram account isn’t active but the main franchise instagram account is @eyescreamandfriends

Toby’s Estate officially opened a new location in Shuwaikh yesterday which now means, 4 of my 5 favorite coffee shops have opened in Shuwaikh this year. % Arabica, Caffeine, Vol.1 and now Toby’s are all located walking distance from each other in Shuwaikh. The only coffee place left from my favorites list to open there is Richard’s Coffee. Here is the location of the new Toby’s on [Google Maps]

M.E’AT is a new restaurant that opened up this past Thursday on the Seef Strip. It’s a small little place and one I hope will do really well (I think it will for sure) because it’s now one of my new favorite spots. M.E’AT is short for Middle Eastern Eatery and it’s a local creation brought to you by the same people behind Pick. It’s a build your own bowl kind of place and I’m loving it.

M.E’AT is tiny, there aren’t tables inside and just a handful of tables outside. It’s more of a takeaway or eat in your car kind of place and I don’t mind that since I love eating in my car while watching youtube or listening to a podcast. They have a bunch of ready made bowls on their menu but I didn’t even look at those since I went straight to creating my own one. They have over 100 different ingredients for you to choose from so to make the process easy for you, they pass you a sheet with all the items you can choose from and you just tick the ones you want. The sheet is divided into 5 parts:

Base (choose up to 2)
Proteins (add as many proteins as you want, each with a different cost)
Toppings (add up to 9)
Dressing (choose up to 2)
Nuts & Garnish (choose up to 2)

So for example for my first bowl I ended up going for the following:

Base: Baby spinach, 3 colors quinoa
Proteins: Tenderloin beef (2 portions)
Toppings: spring onion, grilled zucchini, fresh mushrooms, avocado, roasted squash
Dressing: Mushroom demi glace
Nuts & Garnish: Flax seeds

I loved how many different items I could choose from and this is gonna be the perfect place for me after my gym which is walking distance since I could have my proteins, my good carbs and my greens all in one bowl. If you’re counting your macros you’re gonna love this place even more since if you turn around the build your bowl sheet, you get the exact macros for all the ingredients they use. So say you add tuna to your bowl, you know you’re getting 89 calories, 0 carbs, 20g of protein and 1g of fat from the portion of tuna they add to your bowl. No other place in Kuwait does this from what I’m aware of, and even if they do I highly doubt they do to this extent (100+ items). Here is a link to the front and back of the build your own bowl sheet so you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about [Front] [Back]

In around a months time they’ll also be launching a mobile application which will allow you to create your own bowl while the app automatically calculates your macros. You’ll then be able to save and name your bowl so you could share it with other people, or speed up your ordering process in the store by just giving the cashier the name of your bowl. That’s really smart.

Price wise I think they’re fairly affordable considering the vast amount of food you’re getting. Expect to pay anywhere between KD3 to to KD4 for a custom bowl with protein. I think it’s really good value for money.

The only negative thing about the place is their name. I think M.E’AT sounds like its a steakhouse which it isn’t and I also don’t think it’s short for Middle Eastern Eatery since even on their wall (pictured on top) the initials for that would be M.E’EAT. This doesn’t distract from the good food, but it’s something that has been coming up a lot when I tell people about the place since I have to keep explaining that even though it’s called M.E’AT, they don’t really mean meat.

Other than that though I’m a big fan of the place and hope they open up more locations around Kuwait. If you’re interested in trying them out they’re located right next to Elevation Burger on the Seef Strip. Here is their location on [Google Maps] and you can check out their instagram account @meatkwt

Bowl’d opened up a couple of weeks ago and although I had heard mixed reviews, I decided to pass by and try one of their açaí bowls myself. The shop is located in the newly opened Argan Square next to Symphony Mall in Salmiya. It’s a tiny store with just a single bench for seating so it’s more of a takeaway place. They’ve got a few different bowls on the menu and the one I tried wasn’t that bad. I mean the one I had the other day at Be Cafe was better, but this wasn’t bad for a small takeaway shop. They had two sizes of the bowl, the small one was for KD2 while the larger one for KD3.5. So if you’re looking for an açaí bowl place it’s worth checking Bowl’d out. They’re on instagram @getbowld

Somehow my three favorite breakfast spots in Kuwait all ended up next to each other at the cultural center. I used to go there just for Baker & Spice but in the last two weeks Cocoa Room opend up there and then Rococoa introduced a new breakfast menu. Just like that, JACC became an overnight breakfast and brunch hotspot.

Cocoa Room
The new Cocoa Room opened up recently at JACC with an updated breakfast menu and a completely new lunch and dinner offering. I passed by twice during their tastings but haven’t been able to get a table since due to their popularity. This past weekend I dropped by twice at around 10AM but they had already closed the breakfast waiting list because the it got too long. I even got their reservation number last night and tried to book a table for this coming weekend and they’re already fully booked! If you’ve never been they have a large assortment of breakfast items including a huge list of pancakes and egg Benedict’s to choose from along with a huge dessert list. Recently they added an eggplant fetteh dish to their menu (pictured above) which has become my new favorite breakfast item but their turkish eggs and Cocoa Room eggs Benedict are also two of my favorites. If you’re interested in passing by them either do so early, or try and reserve ahead of time by calling 22083195. They only have a few tables available to book by phone, the rest are reserved for walk-ins.

Rococoa
In the past week I’ve gone to Rococoa a total of five times, I went to their breakfast and dinner tasting early on in the week and then back again three times with friends for their breakfast. The last two were because Cocoa Room was fully booked, but also because I really like the new Rococoa breakfast menu. Rococoa launched a new menu last week that include a bunch of interesting items like my favorites, the Scotch Egg Tart (pictured above) and the Cloudy Eggs. Both those dishes are pretty unique and so make breakfast a little more interesting. The service can be super slow at times but the food makes up for it. For reservations you can call them on 55222244.

Baker & Spice
Last but not least is Baker & Spice. Located between Cocoa Room and Rococoa, they’ve got a pretty good breakfast as well. I’m usually there for their Turkish eggs or omelette and since the food is light, it doesn’t feel like a cheat meal and so I never feel guilty afterwards. But like Cocoa Room, Baker & Spice tends to fill up pretty quickly but you could call and reserve ahead of time by calling them on 98002331.

The weather is getting better and better so if you’re looking for a good breakfast or brunch spot to go to, I can’t think of a more convenient place to go to other than JACC. Just try and book a table ahead of time or be prepared to walk around the fountain area while you wait for a table to free up.

A friend of mine moved back to Kuwait last week and we were thinking of a place to go have lunch and she asked me if I had heard of a new plant-based cafe called “Be”. I hadn’t and found it really strange that a friend of mine who didn’t live in Kuwait knew about it and yet I didn’t, so obviously I had to go check the place out. So Friday I passed by the place for lunch and I think I really like the place.

They open at 2PM and we got there a bit earlier so we sat in their garden until they opened. While waiting we noticed they had a small area where they had vegetables and herbs planted, turns out they use them in some of their items. The owners mum was also really sweet and brought us some cold kombucha to try out while we waited for them to open. Once they opened we went in and explored the space. The cafe is located on the ground floor of one of the chalets at the Rimal Resort (next to Mayas). When you first walk in you have the main cafe seating area, and then in the back they have one room which they’ve turned into a little shop with some items for sale and then another larger room which they’ve turned into a cozy seating area.

Their main food menu isn’t that big with just two wraps, a pho dish and a acai bowl. The rest of the menu is made up of smoothies, juices, hot drinks and a bunch of small dessert bites which you could pick out from their fridge. We tried all the food items on the menu and my favorites were easily their tofu wrap and the acai bowl, both of which were delicious. On Saturdays they have more food items as part of their “Soulful Saturdays” menu which usually includes an Indian Thali.

I really liked Be Cafe, the space was really chill and the location is pretty great. Their menu is pretty small for now but it’s not a bad place to just meet up with a friend for some drinks that doesn’t involve coffee. They’re currently open from 2PM to 8PM (closed on Sundays) and you can follow them on instagram @be_kwt. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

The 7950 Sunset block in WeHo is ready for a new tenant in 2018, the Kuwaiti burger chain, Rock House Sliders. With six locations throughout Kuwait, the restaurant is owned by the Kuwaiti-based Marafie Works Group.

Though former Luca On Sunset space has been empty since 2014, Marafie Works Group will commence the build-out in October. Management at 7950 Sunset had trouble finding a tenant to fill the large retail space after Luca’s closed because of irreconcilable landlord differences. Once complete, the newcomer will keep sit next to 9021 Pho and EVO Kitchen on a very busy stretch of Sunset Blvd near Hayworth.

The team at Marafie Works Group adopted American culture into the growing Rock House brand, with images of attractive urbanites enjoying the burgers. The mini burgers start on a potato bun with a choice of fried chicken or beef. The toppings include items like jalapeño and bacon, or truffle mushroom, and diners choose an accompanying sauce such as barbecue, chipotle mayo, buffalo mayo, chipotle barbecue, along with their own mystery sauce. They offer milkshakes, too.

Rock House Sliders’ U.S. entry is a curious choice. It will be even more interesting to see the response to this popular Kuwaiti brand bringing American-styled food to Los Angeles. [Source]

This actually makes a lot of sense to me since I keep telling people that L.A. has similar taste in food to Kuwait. But, they’re opening down the street from The Comedy Store, the same street that has In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A so they’ve got tough competition in the neighborhood. If they can make it there, then they’ll probably do really well opening up anywhere else.

One of our favorite recurring cuisines on the PantryBee site is Mexican. We love your typical Mexican fare, burritos, tacos, etc. and we love to put our own special twist on things. That’s why we’ve joined up with our new fave Shuwaikh hotspot Barba to bring one of our favorite things to a greater number of people; Taco Tuesday! We’ve had fun working with the Barba boys to create two specialty pizzas for the event, including an elote inspired pizza and a chicken enchilada pizza with our secret PantryBee roasted tomato sauce. We’re also bringing back some of our greatest hits including our best selling jerk chicken tacos and Korean kimchi steak tacos. We’re going to be running 6pm to sell out so come by say hi and grab a bite!

Date: Tuesday October 10, 2017
Time: 6PM
Location: Barba [Google Maps]

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

Kane Mochi as you can guess from the name is a mochi ice cream place. They’ve been open for awhile now but since they’re located in what basically is an empty mall, I only found out about it yesterday. Kane is located on the top floor of Dalal Complex in Salmiya, the same mall that has Sky Cinemas. The place is cute and they’ve got 21 flavors of mochi ice cream. I had a chocolate and banana and it was pretty good. Don’t know if I’d go back specifically for it, but if I was a mochi fan I probably would. It costs 750fils per mochi and if you want to find out more, check out their instagram @kanemochi.kw

A couple of weeks back LeNotre reopened their 360 Mall location with a revamped look and a new menu. I had heard they brought in the former chef for Le Petit Maison and LaSerre in Dubai, chef Izu Ani to work on the menu so I was really looking forward to trying it.

I ended up passing by Friday morning and LeNotre along with the rest of the mall was pretty empty. There was just one other table occupied so atmosphere wise, it was a bit too chill for my liking. The menu on the other hand looked really appetizing. We got handed a tablet with photos to flip through and everything just looked visually stunning. Like, I wanted to order everything on the menu because everything looked that good. I’d say all of the dishes were just straightforward breakfast dishes like scrambled eggs, omelets, egg Benedict’s etc.. but with each dish having a small twist to make it a bit special. They’re all light (aka not saucy) breakfast dishes you can eat and not end up in a food coma an hour later.

I ended up ordering the sunny side up on toast mixed with mushrooms, my friend ordered the shashuka and we also shared Turkish eggs and French toast. My sunny side up eggs were delicious and the French toast was just crazy good, I couldn’t stop eating it even though I had originally planned to just have a bite or two. The Turkish eggs on the other hand was pretty disappointing since I didn’t think there was enough labneh in the dish. I actually thought they forgot to put any until my friend pointed to what we concluded was a bit of labneh on the plate.

The location in 360 Mall isn’t very exciting but until the new menu launches at other locations, this is the only branch right now that has the new menu. The Marina Mall location which is currently undergoing a similar revamp is supposedly opening in the next coming weeks as well. The prices were very reasonable with my sunny side up dish costing KD2.850, the Turkish Eggs and Shahuka KD3.500 each and the French toast KD3.750. The presentation of all the dishes was really impressive and I’m definitely going to go back to try the rest of the dishes. If you want to see more pictures or get more information, you can check out their instagram account @lenotrekw