Category: Food & Drinks

I’ve been looking forward to trying the Eighty 6 Bistro burger for ages but I passed by a few months ago and didn’t have a reservation and got turned away. After that I figured it would be a hassle to pass by and never did until this past weekend. I passed by on Friday for lunch and to my surprise the place was empty. Like literally there was no table occupied. I thought that was strange but didn’t mind it since it meant I didn’t have to wait for a table to free up.

I sat down in one of the booths and started flipping through the menu. I was about to order their classic cheeseburger when I spotted something called the Bistro Burger. I asked the waiter what it was and he explained to me the burger came with lettuce, tomato, cheese, caramelized onions and mushrooms. He also said the patty what thicker than the classic cheeseburger and that was all I needed to hear. I ordered the Bistro Burger without the lettuce and tomato.

When the burger arrived the presentation looked good. It came on a long plate with a small pot filled with a few onion rings on one side, a small cup of fries on the other end and the juicy burger in between the two. I took a bite and noticed something, the caramelized onions were just overpowering the burger. I spent the rest of meal wishing I had ordered the burger with just the cheese. The bun was nice and soft, the onion rings and french fries although have no effect on this review were pretty bland.

Honestly, for a place that was empty during lunch time on a Friday at the most popular mall in Kuwait I was expecting the worst but I am glad that the burger turned out to be good. I decided to give it a 3.5 out of 5 and “might” have given it a 4 if I had ordered it with just the cheese. The cost of the burger is KD4.5 which is actually on the high side but I guess the fact that it comes with a side of onion rings and fries makes up for it. As I’ve mentioned before the price of the burger has no effect on the review or the final score.

Eighty 6 Bistro is located in the Avenues.
The cost of the Bistro Burger was KD4.500
For reservations call 22597961

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

Fatburger is opening up mid July at Spoons in Mahboula. I’ve never tried their burgers but Marzouq has and judging by his pictures and review it should be pretty good. I can’t wait…

I got back from dinner awhile ago from the soon to open B+F Open Flame Kitchen and I think I over ate… like big time. Open Flame Kitchen is the new restaurant from the guy who brought us Burger Boutique and Slider Station. It’s his third restaurant in Kuwait and I believe fifth over all (he has b+f in Saudi and Roadside Diner in Oman).

I am not going to review the food since they’re not even open yet but even though they’re still in the testing stage the food I had was great. What did I get to try tonight? Fried calamari, shrimp tempura, fried mozzarella, two types of salad, a sushi dish, a cheese burger, chicken liver, BBQ ribs, rib eye steak, lobster with shrimps and scallops, french fries, and three types of dessert, chocolate pancakes, fried banana with toffee and the chocolate brownie pudding (the sequel to the chocolate pudding from Slider Station). I don’t know any of the actual names of the dishes so I just listed the stuff based on ingredients. I also might have left stuff out since there was really a lot of food. I basically won’t be stepping on the scale anytime this week.

The interior design and ambiance of OFK is just amazing. I passed by right after the gym, my best friend and favorite food buddy Essa from Choowy Goowy and his wife were there waiting for me. The place was packed and there was music playing and it really didn’t feel like I was in Kuwait. Then Nat and another friend joined us and we started meeting other friends who were having dinner there which we hadn’t seen for ages, it just felt like a very social and cool place specially with the good music and dark interior. There really aren’t that many places like that in Kuwait.

B+F Open Flame Kitchen is located in 360 Mall right under The Meat Co. and right in front of Life with Cacao. They’re not open yet, they’re currently in the training stage. In the beginning of July they start the food tasting/sampling with the soft launch happening sometime mid July.

Seems someone is bringing the concept of fried oreo cookies to Kuwait. I tried it while in New York and although they are extremely unhealthy they tasted pretty good. There is some kind of talent expo being held at Movenpick Free Zone from the 24th to the 26th of June 5 to 11PM and the fried oreos will be available to try at the O Station booth. Not much else info but you can check out their Facebook group [Here]

Since I can have burgers as part of my diet, the burger challenge is back on. My diet says no cheese but once a week I will break it and order my burger with cheese since I am already sacrificing. This weekend I was at Slider Station and I didn’t have the chocolate pudding. Anyone who has had the chocolate pudding there would know how difficult it is to resist but I did it. That was on Saturday, Friday I passed by Nino. I wasn’t planning on trying their burger out but since everything else they had including the grilled stuff had butter in them I decided to go with the burger (salad on the side instead of fries).

I went with the Con Formaggio Burger which is their cheese burger. There is no egg in it even though it looks like it in the picture above, that’s just white and yellow cheese. No one asked me how I wanted my burger done.

I got my burger a short while later and noticed 3 slices of tomatoes under the meat patty which I quickly proceeded to remove since tomatoes sog up the bun. That’s when I also realized they had chopped cabbage lettuce underneath the tomato mixed with mayonnaise dressing. I quickly proceeded to remove those as well since they shouldn’t be in a gourmet burger. I don’t mind them in a cheap Lebanese style burger that also contains french fries over the thin frozen patty, but on a burger like this, it just feels out of place.

I put my ketchup and took my first bite. The bun is pretty good, soft and tasty. The patty on the other hand was dry. The burger was slightly messy to eat since even though I removed the tomato and mayo lettuce right away it wasn’t fast enough since the bottom bun got soggy. I struggled to come up with a score for it but in the end decided on a 3. I was going to go with a 2.5 but the bun was really good. I guess they’re lucky I’m on a low carb diet and crave bread more than burgers right now (I have dreams of the chocolate bread at The Meat Co.). The price of the burger was reasonable costing KD2.950 but even though I don’t think I would have it again.

Nino is located on the Gulf Road and Avenues.
The cost of the Con Formaggio Burger was KD2.950

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

Back in January I posted a “Sneak Peak” of the locally created Italian restaurant MELENZANÈ. Back then they were ready to open but were waiting for the project owners to finalize some paperwork with the ministry. Well that took A LOT longer then they were expecting but everything is now finalized and yesterday they were able to open their doors for guests. For reservations you can contact them on 97299288 or 22263112. To check out my previous post about MELENZANÈ click [Here]

I would be eating all of that right now… [Link]

Yesterday I had a meeting at Caribou Coffee in 360 Mall and while there I spotted a friend of mine from B+F. Since their new Open Flame Kitchen project is located right next to Caribou Coffee I practically held him at gun point and forced him to give me a sneak peek at the place. I had only seen a 3D rendering before of their pizza oven which they had accidentally published on their Facebook group but other than that I hadn’t seen much else.

Well I saw the place yesterday and I managed to snap two pictures which I’ve attached to this post. Keep in mind the place is currently under construction and there is no seating, lighting or anything of the sort in place yet. There are just four large projectors to provide enough light for the construction workers. But, with these pictures you can at least get a glimpse of the interesting forms and shapes that being developed for OFK.

There are two main attraction points you will spot when you first come in. On the right side of the restaurant is their grill area where they will be grilling their steaks and burgers (the picture above). On the left side of the restaurant is their pizza oven (first picture on top). Whats cool about the pizza oven is that its an unusual shape and is covered in real gold leafs. The pizza oven also has this black circular metallic bars revolving around it which they’ve nicknamed the tornado since it takes the form of one.

They will have two separate outdoor seating areas and also a VIP room. The whole restaurant was black with black floors, black walls and a black ceiling. It’s all still under major construction so by the time it launches it will look completely different.Which brings me to the the most important subject which is the launch date. The soft opening should be at the end of June or beginning of July while the tasting should start on the 21st of this month. I’ve been nagging Bassil (the owner) for the past year to invite me to the tasting and so far it looks like my persistence has paid off since I’ve been invited to the tasting! I will NOT be on a diet for the tasting although he assured me their new menu has a lot of healthy food. Taking one day off a month shouldn’t be a problem… I hope (Fahad??).

Note: I should have mentioned this for the people who don’t know but B+F Open Flame Kitchen is part of the bigger family B+F Burger Boutique, Slider Station and B+F Roadside Diner.

As part of my diet I need to have grilled food for dinner and since Turkish Grill belongs to a friend of a friend, I’ve been passing by there 90% of the time for my dinner. The problem is, 100 meters down the street from Turkish Grill lies Papa John’s. It’s extremely extremely difficult to choose grilled chicken over pizza and having Papa John’s right next to Turkish Grill is proving to be a test of my will EVERY DAY!

I enjoy staring at delicious chocolate muffins in the face and saying NO! I enjoy craving a molten chocolate cake from Chili’s and resisting it. But right after the gym when I am really hungry it’s not as easy. So far from the dozens and dozens of times I’ve passed by Turkish Grill I’ve only cheated once with a medium pizza all to myself. Today I cheated although not as badly, I had tabbouleh with the dressing and I loved it. After having tabbouleh and salad this whole week without any dressing at all (something which I do not recommend anyone trying), the tabbouleh tonight was the best tabbouleh I ever had in my life. I really miss the lemon and oil dressing.

Now to make things worse I was talking to Essa from Choowy Goowy earlier and told him to send over two jars of cookies, the original and the Mark & Nat since Nataly wanted to shoot the jars for her portfolio. I told him to shove the jars with date cookies since I hate date cookies and that way I don’t end up eating them. Guess what? I got home to find two jars stuffed with freshly made original chocolate chip cookies and the Mark & Nat Oreo cookies. I just spent the past 15 minutes swearing at him on BBM. Luckily Nat has hid the jars somewhere in the house and since I just got back from the gym I am too sore and exhausted to go look for them.

Since we’re on the subject of health and fitness, yesterday I picked up my new diet plan from Fahad. It’s a lot tougher and he’s added an extra work out day bringing it up my work out days to four. They’ve also increased my weights considerably and are going to be giving me a harder time at the gym. My new diet plan also includes supplements for the first time. I will be taking two supplements, Whey Protein Isolates and Ripped Fuel. Whey Protein from what I understand and have read will help me considerably in a variety of ways from helping me grow and repair my muscles to strengthening my immune system. Ripped Fuel on the other hand will help me burn fat, give me an energy boost and also help me gain lean muscle mass. I got both these supplements from Souk Sharq from the shop across from Nokia. Whey Protein was KD25 while Ripped Fuel was KD20.

Below is my new diet plan, you will notice it now includes burgers. Not any burgers though, I can’t have McDonalds or Johnny Rockets for example, it’s got to be better quality burgers like from Burger Boutique, Slider Station, Applebee’s and Chili’s. I tried the Chili’s burger today with a side order of broccoli and I have to say that’s the most horrible side order I have ever had with a burger. If I ever had a burger nightmare that would have been it. On the bright side I did have a burger.

Here is the diet plan:

WORKOUT DAYS

8:00 am: Upon Waking:
500ml of Water + 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

8:45: BREAKFAST
2 Egg Sausage McMuffins (No orange juice)

11:15 – Snack
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

1:30: Lunch
Option 1: 1 Burger (double patty), no cheese, no mayo + salad w/out dressing
Option 2: 1 edamame w/out salt, 6 pieces of maki, 9 pieces of sashimi
Option 3: 1 Shish Tawook or Tikka Meat, small hummus w/out oil, 1/2 white bread, tabboula without dressing

4:00 – 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

5:00: SNACK
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

8:00 – 8:20: WORKOUT + 10 minutes of cardio

Immediately After Training:
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

60 Minutes Later:
No carb, low fat, high protein, high veggie dinner

_____________________________________________

NON-WORKOUT DAYS

8:00 am: Upon Waking:
500ml of Water + 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

8:45: BREAKFAST
2 Egg McMuffins (No orange juice)

11:15 – Snack
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

1:30: Lunch
Option 1: 1 Burger (double patty), no cheese, no mayo + salad w/out dressing
Option 2: 1 edamame w/out salt, 6 pieces of maki, 9 pieces of sashimi
Option 3: 1 Shish Tawook or Tikka Meat, small hummus w/out oil, 1/2 white bread, tabboula without dressing

4:00 – 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

5:00: SNACK
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

8:00 – Dinner
No carb, low fat, high protein, high veggie dinner

12:00 – Late Night Snack
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

I am not a fan of Pinkberry, I actually only tried it once in Kuwait and couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. It tasted too much like regular yogurt and I told Nat (who worships Pinkberry) that I would only have it again once they introduced chopped cucumber as a topping (yogurt + cucumber = delicious).

But while in New York I noticed Pinkberry had cones, like regular ice cream cones. Since it was really hot and I had been walking for ages I figured I would have a chocolate Pinkberry cone (guilt free). Turns out it was pretty good and actually tasted like regular chocolate soft ice cream. They had mango and coconut flavor as well which we don’t have here plus mini-cups which are around half the size of small cups. I didn’t taste the mango and coconut and not interested in the mini-cups either, what I want is for Pinkberry in Kuwait to introduce cones.

So if anyone is listening, please get us cones or else we will have to eat chocolate ice cream at McDonalds which I am guessing has more calories.

Update: I was told awhile back that they’re thinking of opening a second Pinkberry branch at the Avenues. I hope that’s true since I hate waiting in line (unless its for a burger).

Probably the only burger that should be eaten with a fork and knife. [Article]

Thanks FYI

As most of you might have noticed, while in New York I ate a lot of burgers. Many people thought I was actually posting too many food posts but they would have been a lot more if I posted about all the burger places I went to. Before going to New York I had a list of around 60 burger places I wanted to try out which I got from the blog A Hamburger Today and even though I didn’t even get close to trying out 60 burger places I did have on average two burgers a day while in New York. And guess what? I lost weight!

Before I went on vacation I spoke to Fahad and I told him that there was no way I could eat healthy on my trip. It was New York and I wasn’t going to spend my time looking for something healthy to eat. He told me as long as I was going to do a lot of walking than I could eat whatever I wanted as long as the proportions weren’t too big. He told me I also had to have a meal every 3 hours. I could also have dessert if I wanted but it couldn’t be part of my main meal, it would have to be counted as a meal on its own. So if I had a burger at 12PM I could have an ice cream at 3PM. I thought that was fair and took his advice.

My morning started off either with a big breakfast from a cozy diner near my hotel or a McGriddle from McDonalds. I stuck to places near my hotel since I needed to have breakfast an hour after waking up. That would happen around 9 or 10am. Then, 3 hours later I would have a burger, 3 hours after that dessert (usually a chocolate cone from Pinkberry or a cookie from a bakery), 3 hours after that another burger and finally my last meal at night would be dinner at one of the trendy restaurants near my hotel.

I rarely had fries with my burger, I think I only had fries 3 times on my trip. I would also always order only 1 burger but sometimes it would be a double patty. One great thing (or it could be a bad thing) about New York is the fact I think by law they need to display the calorie count of everything on the menu. So one time I was at Wendy’s for example and I felt like a double bacon and cheese but then noticed the calorie count and decided to go with a regular double cheese burger instead. I think the calorie count helped me save a ton of calories. It was also one major reason I didn’t have french fries with my burgers since if I did the calorie count of my meal would double. I also went with Coke Zero over regular Coke since that was another easy 200-300 calorie saving.

I walked a lot, around 12 hours and the only time I took a cab was to and from the airport. I was using the subway mostly and it was mostly from Brooklyn where I was staying to Manhattan which is where everything was located. While there I walked everywhere and only took the subway if I was in a rush like to catch a store before they closed. One night I walked back to my hotel even which was around a 8-9KM walk according to Google Maps.

The result? I left Kuwait weighing 77KG and I came back weighing 76KG. I thought I had lost more weight but I am not disappointed losing only a KG with the food I was eating. Now that the vacation is over and I’ve returned to Kuwait I’m eating healthy again and today was my first time back at the gym since I left. Until my next burger rampage…

I spotted another street fair today in New York and this time I told myself if I found fried Oreo cookies I would try it. After a bit of a walk I found a kiosk that was making them, 1$ per cookie. I decided to order two.

The things I do for this blog. The fried Oreo cookies looked gross and very greasy. I told Nat these will probably be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten. Guess what? They weren’t. In fact, they were really good and I actually ate both cookies. They tasted like the Lebanese awamat (fried doughnut balls) except with Oreo as their filling.

I leave New York tomorrow and get back to Kuwait so everything should go back to normal then. Basically a lot less food posts.

And no I didn’t try it.