Category: Food & Drinks

I found out today that Planet Hollywood will be opening in the basement of the Olympia towers in Salmiya at the end of summer. The only good thing that might come out of this is if Sylvester Stallone comes for the opening and I stalk him until he agrees to take a picture with me.

Update: Turns out The Noodle House is also opening in Olympia in June.

I found out about this online BBQ store from Buzberry and I think the idea is pretty interesting. But there are a few things I would fix like adding pictures of the products, better descriptions, decreasing the delivery time to a few hours instead of 48hours, and lowering the minimum order down to KD5 or something instead of the current KD20. Adding an option to have them BBQ the stuff for you in case you don’t want to go through the hassle of doing it yourself would also be cool. [Link]

A friend of mine just told me that P. F. Chang’s China Bistro is opening up in Kuwait soon. P.F. Chang is a popular American Chinese restaurant chain in the US and the Kuwait branch would be the first outside the US. I don’t have an idea on the location or the opening date, I just know that the employees are currently getting training so if anyone has more details please share them.

Update: 4th Ring Road already posted about this [Here]

Justine Orme from Innovative Foods in New Zealand is one of the suppliers for the Dean & Deluca store in Kuwait and he just posted a comment under one of my Dean & Deluca posts. Basically he’s been asked by Dean & Deluca to supply them with more products and he wants to know what you guys think is missing or what you would want to see more of? For example he is already looking for Salami, Venison and other cold cuts in New Zealand to supply to Dean & Deluca along with Brie and a wine substitute to use in cooking like the one served on Emirates. Is there any other gourmet item you are interested in or want but can’t find? Just leave a comment below.

Personally I would like to see Camembert cheese (not prepacked), more choices of black olives, a good premium chocolate spread and some good Turkey salami.

A reader commented under one of my posts that one of my favorite shawerma places in Kuwait, Badar Al Badoor changed their name to Bazar Al Bazoor. According to the reader, when it came to renewing their license their sponsor wanted them to pay KD10,000 just for the name “Badar Al Badoor”. They told him no way and decided to change the name. Everything is still the same except the place is now called Bazar Al Bazoor. It sounds really funny now but in Arabic if you remove the dots over the letter “za” you get Badar Al Badoor again.

Smoke House is a place I heard about recently from a friend. They opened up just two months ago in Mahboula and I posted about them a few days ago. Everyone who visited the place had good things to say about it so I got there with high expectations only to feel let down once I saw the place.

Smoke House is a very tiny restaurant with a very lame looking exterior and a pretty uninspiring interior. There is no love at first sight here more like what the frak brought me to this place! I passed by with a friend of mine and when we arrived 2 out of the 4 tables were occupied. We sat down and were greeted by a very friendly waitress and were given the menus to look over. I quickly decided to go with a chili cheese fries for starters, a Smoke House Burger (medium well) with cheese for my main dish and a side order of mashed potatoes with gravy. My friend ordered the lamb chops with a side order of coleslaw and sweet corn and butter. For drinks I decided to order root beer since I noticed one of the other diners was drinking root beer out of an A&W root beer jug so I decided I would have one also.

My burger arrived awhile later and I was totally shocked. It had to be the best burger presentation I had ever seen and I don’t mean just in Kuwait. The plate had a very gourmet like presentation to it and the burger looked very appetizing, I quickly took my shots before I bit into the burger. The burger didn’t come with any lettuce or tomatoes just a bit of thinly sliced onions and cheese. I think I’ve mentioned this before but I don’t think lettuce or tomatoes belong in a good burger, it takes away from the flavor which in this case was great. The patty was thick (not too thick) and very juicy. The bun was soft, looked wonderful and although was surrounded by some juice when it arrived it wasn’t soggy. The only negative thing about my burger was the fact the cheese wasn’t melted properly.

I went to Smoke House expecting a good burger but I didn’t expect this. I’ve decided to give this burger a 4.5 out of 5 making it the highest rated burger in my burger challenge so far. The root beer I ordered by the way tasted like crap. Turns out they weren’t using A&W root beer just their mugs but the waitress was nice enough to swap it with a regular coke and I wasn’t charged for the root beer. Other than that issue the sweet corn and butter was great, the coleslaw was very good, my friend’s lamb chops were supposedly also delicious and the quantity was huge. For dessert I had an apple pie and I ended up really liking that too. They really need a nicer and much larger place but according to the waitress if they do good for 6 months then they will be opening up a bigger place which makes good sense. The prices are also very affordable if anything maybe a bit under priced and I liked the way they dealt with my complaint, very professional. I’m actually going back there tomorrow with another friend and I am going to try and convince myself to have something other than the burger, maybe their Philly cheese steak. Good stuff.

Smokehouse is located in Mahboula
The cost of the Smokehouse Cheeseburger is KD1.950

Update: It seems they’ve changed their burger! Not sure why anyone would do this but their new burger doesn’t taste the same as the one in the review.

The other day I posted about a new place called SmokeHouse, well their website just came online today and you can check out their full menu there. I don’t think I’ve ever tried smoked food so I am interested in trying it out. This is from their About Us section:

The ‘Smoke House’ is Kuwait’s first restaurant specializing in American southern style BBQ. We offer a premium selection of hickory Smoked and Barbequed meats all served with our signature ‘Smokehouse’ sauces. We use our own secret rubs and marinades and then slow cook our meats to bring you the best tasting smoked BBQ around. We also provide authentic southern style sides and delicious desserts. Whether you dine in, have your food delivered or request our catering services we guarantee you’ll be back for more.

The site sadly doesn’t include pictures of the place but it does have a map with directions. Will try them out this weekend and then post a review of their burger. [Link]

I found out about this yesterday and couldn’t wait to try it over lunch. A McGangBang is a chicken burger shoved inside a double cheeseburger and believe it or not, it turned out to be delicious. It wasn’t very messy and although I was expecting the chicken burger to slide out of the sandwich, it didn’t. This is highly recommended.

via Kottke

IMPORTANT: You can’t actually order the McGangBang from McDonalds because it’s NOT on their menu. You need to order a double cheeseburger and a chicken burger separately and then combine the two yourself. If you are really hungry you could order a double Quarter Pounder and shove a McChicken inside it but I haven’t tried that.

Has anyone heard of a burger place in Kuwait called Smokehouse? Its on exit 211 in Mahboula, block 1. Supposedly they have really good burgers. I also heard a new burger place opened up in the Avenues in place of where GBK used to be.

Update: Someone from the Smokehouse commented the following…

At The Smokehouse we specialize in Southern BBQ. We serve a variety of smoked and barbequed meats, southern style sides and a selection of desserts. And Mark we do have three different burgers on our menu. We are located in Mahboula block 1, off exit 211of the Fahaheel expressway. Our website www.smokehousekw.com should be up within a day or 2, it has a menu as well as directions and map of our location. If you need help finding The Smokehouse call us at 97340070 or 97340080.

McDonalds here in Madrid have something called McFlurry Fusion. Basically its like the normal McFlurry we have in Kuwait except they also had chocolate sauce before they mix it up. I tried the Oreo McFlurry Fusion and it was amazing! I am coming back to Kuwait tomorrow (a day early) so the food posts “should” end and everything should get back to normal here. I actually have a few Kuwait related posts pending which I will get around to once I am back.

Tried paella today for the first time at a place that was recommended called La Paella Real. It was delicious! Someone needs to open up a Spanish restaurant in Kuwait if there isn’t one already, they’ve got some amazing dishes here…

While in transit at the Frankfurt Airport I met up with a friend of mine who told me to try out a restaurant in Madrid called Sobrino de Botín. The place is the oldest restaurant in the world, established back in 1725! So I passed by tonight and had dinner there. The place is pretty cool, I didn’t like the food but that was my fault, should have gone with the seafood. The idea the restaurant existed 500 nearly 300 years ago is just crazy.

I love the Duffman characater on the Simpsons but I had no clue they actually produced the Duff Beer! It looks exactly like the one on the show. I checked wikipedia and couldn’t find any info on this. They actually sell Duff beer here in Madrid!

Found a small place in Madrid that specializes in fried calamari sandwiches. It’s such a simple idea, I loved it.

And this is why I will never eat at Hardees again… or until I forget about this. A forum user ordered a burger from Hardees and ended up not finding one bug but a bunch of bugs in his sandwich! [Link]