Just found out Alshaya are bringing IHOP to Kuwait. IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes and is an American breakfast chain. I don’t think they’re open anywhere outside of North America.
In non-food related news, Harvey Nichols will be opening their first store in Kuwait in Avenues Phase III. Originally Harvey Nichols said they were opening the store in the summer of 2011 but not sure if that’s still the case since I thought Phase III still needed more time then that to be completed.
This news hasn’t been confirmed yet but according to a reader and a contact at Alshaya, there are currently rumors circulating that Caribou Coffee (Alsayer) no longer have the rights to The Cheesecake Factory and that Alshaya are now looking to open the actual Cheesecake Factory restaurant (not just cheesecakes) and are shopping around for a location on the Gulf Road. Although its currently just a rumor it would make sense since Alshaya have been on a roll acquiring all these American chains recently (Bath & Body Works, Victorias Secret, Pottery Barn, PF Chang, Shake Shack etc..).
Speaking of Caribou Coffee, I got this in the email today which is related to [This] previous post:
Happy Thursday Kuwait! Free coffee, donuts & goodies for the first 1000 BlackBerry users today at Caribou Coffee. You can take advantage from 10am – 4pm at CBK and Al Raya AND between 4pm – 10pm at Avenues, 360, Salhiya and Al Kout. You’ll also have a chance to win a new BlackBerry, but make sure you get in early.
A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn’t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.
We ordered beef negimayaki for starters followed by an Orange Blossom maki and a Hibachi Chicken. The negimaki arrived looking good and was probably the best thing we had there even though I prefer Maki’s negimaki which has a richer teriyaki sauce. The Orange Blossom was very ordinary, wouldn’t order it again. Now the Hibachi chicken which is basically grilled chicken, that was the worst. The chicken was very chewy (I could swear it was undercooked if not raw) and tasted terrible. Even after I had the chef add some more teriyaki sauce in hopes of improving the taste it didn’t work. I tried to dip it into the sauces that came with the chicken but it was hard to figure out if they were actually making things worse or not. Nat only ate one piece of chicken and left the rest while I needed my protein since I’m on a strict diet and forced myself to eat my whole plate (I can do that) but the after taste was really bad. Even the rice and the veggies that came with it tasted bad AND were under cooked. Once we left I considered picking up a frozen yogurt from Pinkberry even though I hate frozen yogurts but I just needed something to get rid of the aftertaste. A few moments later we ended up at Chocolate Bar ordering the gooey chocolate cake (bye bye diet).
I shot the two videos above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above . Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldn’t. Their sashimi and maki’s are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.
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Update: Comments have been closed.
Update2: If you read the comments below you will see that the Benihana GM Mike Servo threatened to sue me. Well, Benihana have actually gone ahead with the lawsuit, I got served my papers and my court date is in March. I have been receiving a lot of support from people via twitter, email and blogs. For now my lawyer has advised me not to discuss the case or talk about Benihana, but as soon as he gives me the go ahead I will be sharing all the details.
Update3: I’ve been given the go ahead by my lawyer to talk about the case, here is the court order and more details regarding the lawsuit [Link]
Update4: The amount of support I have been receiving is phenomenal, here is a link to the full media coverage the subject has received so far [Link]
The picture above is one of the new burgers Casper & Gambini’s have introduced while the one below is the burger I had previously tried as part of my Burger Challenge. Huge difference in presentation and taste. If I was to review the new burger I had it would probably get a 3 which is a big difference over the 1.5 score I had previously given them.
The American Japanese chain Benihana opened up yesterday for business and I passed by today and took a quick peek. The place is much larger than I expected since although it has a small shop front it actually expands quite a lot to the back and sides. I didn’t eat there but took a look at their menu and the prices seemed pretty good if not cheap in some cases at first glance. They had 6 pieces of crab maki for example for KD1.500, 6 pieces of California for KD2.500 and their most expensive special maki was like KD5. Their teppanyaki dishes ranged in price as well with some of their more expensive lobster dishes hitting around KD16. I’ll probably pass by sometime this week and try them out. I usually enjoy sitting at the sushi bar and their sushi bar looked pretty good and big.
Benihana is located in phase II of the Avenues, in the area behind the escalator next to Dean & Deluca. They officially launch on the 20th but are open for business right now.
Note: Picture above is from last week before they opened. They’re the shop in the corner with the red sign.
I was at Dean & Deluca when I spotted the sign above and I could make out the word seedless underneath the sticker. I love seedless watermelons and always have them whenever I am in the States but never knew why we never got them in Kuwait. So I asked an employee there if they had any seedless watermelon and he told me they ran out but are getting some again in a couple of weeks. Finally seedless watermelons in Kuwait!
Baskin Robbins have a buy one get one free offer just for today. You buy a single scoop and you get another single scoop free, buy a double and get another double free etc..
Oishi Nippon at Marina Crescent is opening today. Nat’s currently designing their menu and from what I saw they will have Japanese fruits, desserts and coffee and tea.
An interesting fact, I found out that in Japan fruits are sometimes given as gifts. I thought that was an interesting and healthy concept which I might pick up on since Oishi Nippon will be selling the Japanese fruits I had previous posted about. They even package them up as gifts for you.
Update: Nat just told me they opened up yesterday.
Update2: Sorry I mixed up in my post above. Turns out the place is called Kei Cafe and not Oishi Nippon. Oishi Nippon is the name of the fruit company.
The idea of dinner in the sky isn’t new. Just this summer they had one set up in Lebanon and people paid $200 each to get a seat at the table and be lifted up into the air to eat. Well Philadelphia Cheese setup something similar at Marina Crescent. It was an advertising stunt in which you could try and enjoy their products while sitting around a table filled with strangers up in the air. The best part? You get to experience eating up in the sky for free. Each experience lasts around 10-15 minutes and all you had to do was just wait in line for a spot. Pretty cool.
I just found out that Shake Shack is opening in Dubai in March while Kuwait still doesn’t have a launch date! This absolutely sucks. It’s the worst food related news I’ve heard this year even surpassing the mechanically separated chicken post.
Last month I posted about how Americana is bringing Red Lobster to Kuwait. Well I just found out the first location is scheduled to open up in April 2011. No word on when Oliver Garden will be opening up yet.
I am going to be in Lebanon for the next few days. I got here around 1pm and first thing I did after dropping my bags home was to head up to Faraya and have lunch at a place called Jalset El Erzal.
The weather was really great and the food was amazing. The strangest thing though is the fact the sun set at 4:30pm here. It’s 5:20 now as I write this post and it’s pitch black out side. Very weird…
Taco Bell is opening up their first branch in Kuwait next Thursday at The Avenues. It’s about time! The list of places still left to open keeps shrinking… Wendy’s, A&W, Five Guys, Jack in the Box, White Castle, Arby’s, Cheese Cake Factory and In-N-Out.
A new company is bringing Quiznos back to Kuwait and this time they’re planning on opening up 15 branches. I heard this time its going to be the proper deal. [Link]
Thanks desertgirl and Husayn
Update: The company that’s bringing back Quiznos just emailed me to tell me that they will be opening their first branch in December/January in Salmiya Salem Mubarek Street opposite Olympia Mall. The new owners of Quiznos are the same owners of Buffalo’s Cafe.
