2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
A reader emailed to tell me that the First Ring Road is going to open up tomorrow but I didn’t think it was true. I passed by the other day and it didn’t look like it was going to be finished but according to an article on Kuna the road and bridge should be open to the public tomorrow. Weird. [Link]
Thanks Q8 Mods
Anyone know anything about a fire that happened today at Bayan Palace? Either that or they were have one huge BBQ…
Pictures by JaberTV
They shut down The Noodle House on the Gulf Road at the start of Ramadan. I thought they were going to renovate but yesterday they put up the hoarding above saying the Moti Mahal Indian restaurant was coming soon. I hadn’t heard of the restaurant before but since there is already a Moti Mahal open in the UAE, I’m guessing we’re getting the same one. [Link]
I found out last night that Cheesecake Factory is going to be located in Avenues Phase III right across from where Gaucho Grill is currently located. From what I understood, that whole outdoor area is actually going to get covered in glass and become indoor I’m guessing similar to the picture below which Avenues released last year. I also heard Cheesecake Factory is going to be around 1,000m2 which is pretty huge but not very surprising since they own the mall anyway. No idea when it’s going to open up but my bet is next year with the rest of Phase III.
I know many of you feel we already have too many burger places in Kuwait but I have to obviously disagree with that. I think we still have room for a couple of more burger joints and the couple being Five Guys and In-N-Out. From what I was told by one of my readers, it looks like Five Guys is coming to Kuwait.
According to the reader him and his partner were trying to strike a deal with Five Guys and after getting all the paperwork, doing a feasibility study and agreeing on all the terms, they contacted Five Guys again only to be told that they had given the franchise rights to someone else in Kuwait. The rumor is Al Homaizi got the franchise rights and I’ve already sent an email to my contact there hoping to get a confirmation on this but I still haven’t received a reply yet.
What does that mean? It means all we need now is In-N-Out and we will officially be the burger capital of the world.
Thanks Fahad
This is a list of confirmed (or at least 99% confirmed) and unconfirmed international food chains that will be opening in Kuwait. If I’ve missed anything out leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list
Confirmed
– Olive Garden
– Red Lobster
– LongHorn Steakhouse
– IHOP (International House of Pancakes)
– The Hummingbird Bakery
– Pei Wei Asian Diner
– The Cheesecake Factory
– Texas Roadhouse
– Potbelly Sandwich Works
– SNOG Frozen Yogurt
– The Upper Crust Pizzeria
– Tim Hortons
Unconfirmed
– Arby’s [source]
– Wendy’s [source]
Wishlist
– Five Guys
– In-N-Out
– Ben’s Cookies
– Pret A Manger
Spotted this place on the Gulf Road opposite KFC near Safir Hotel. The reason I think Fuddruckers is opening up there because the color scheme is similar to the new Fuddruckers that’s opening soon in Lebanon (check picture below). If it is the new Fuddruckers it looks pretty big.
Note: The building to the right of what I think is the new Fudds is going to be a new Lebanese Restaurant. Below is a picture of how it currently looks like.
Today I found out the Dubai branch of Red Lobster will be opening up for business on July 20th at Dubai Mall. In Kuwait on the other hand, Red Lobster is expected to open sometime in late December at Arabella.
Not sure how accurate this information is but I heard that Kim Kardashian will be coming to Kuwait this October to launch her new perfume. My source wouldn’t tell me which cosmetic place would be launching it but my guess is that it’s going to be Sephora. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
I just found out that Alshaya are currently in negotiations to bring The Hummingbird Bakery to the region. The Hummingbird Bakery is based in London and they have the best Chocolate Devils Food Cake in the world. It’s an incredible place and I use their cookbook to make some amazing cookies and apple pies.
If you haven’t heard about The Hummingbird Bakery before, here is a link to their website [Link]
Note: Someone NEEDS to bring Ben’s Cookies to Kuwait. They already have a few branches in Saudi and they’re now opening up in Dubai as well. What about us over here??
There’s a cool little pizza place in Lebanon called Margherita thats open in the Gemmayze street. It turns out they’re opening up in Kuwait before the end of the year. I recently posted a review of Margherita on my other Lebanese blog [Here] but in summary, it’s not as good as Solo pizza but it should give all the other pizza places in Kuwait a run for their money.
Margherita is most likely going to open at the Arabella projects in Al Bedaa. I like pizza nearly as much as burgers so I think it’s great that new pizza places are opening.
Remember when back in February there were rumors floating around that internet providers would start implementing download limits? Back then I spoke to Qualitynet support and was assured that “I could relax and download the whole Internet if I wanted to and I would be fine”. Then, two weeks ago when they added the fine print on their DSL page saying “Terms and Condition & Fair Usage Policy Apply” I called them up again. Support told me this was just a temporary issue because of a cable cut.
But now it seems they’ve changed their stance on this sensitive subject. I just called them up and they told me that even though they still haven’t received an official letter from management with details on what the limits are going to be, we should expect that there will be a limit in place soon.
Unconfirmed user reports have placed the limits as the following:
– 2MB DSL users will have 2.8GB daily limit, 19GB weekly limit or 85GB monthly. Once you surpass your limit your connection speed will drop to 512KB.
– 4MB DSL subscribers, one subscriber says Qualitynet told him they will be limited to 139GB a month while another said Qualitynet told him it’s 85GB as well.
Not sure what to say about this, I find this a bit depressing. Please Qualitynet don’t cap our bandwidth!
Note: ALL ISP’s in Kuwait will be applying caps, it’s not just Qualitynet.
Update: According to a reader in the forum KEMS will start watching for bandwidth abusers starting tomorrow. They won’t be setting a cap but if they notice a user abusing their bandwidth then those users would have a cap applied. The reader couldn’t get an exact figure from the KEMS support guy on what counts as abuse.
Update2: I just got an email telling me about a NEW internet provider called Mada. They are offering WiMax, 10Mbps in Salmiya area (I guess might be higher or lower other areas), NO DOWNLOAD CAP and it’s KD60 for 3 months. They have a booth at Marina Mall. I was there last night actually and saw the booth but didn’t know what it was. This is their website [Link]
I just heard awhile ago from a source that Tesco and Sultan Center have just worked out a deal where Tesco will supply Sultan Center with an extensive range of British lines. This will include Tesco products and British brands that are not yet available in the region. I don’t know how reliable this source is so count this information as a rumor for now but if it is true it contradicts my previous post in which I said that Alshaya was bringing Tesco to Kuwait. Or maybe both things can happen?
Paris Hilton has a reality show called My New BFF which I’ve watched once before by mistake. The show is about Paris Hilton looking for a new best friend and it involves a bunch of guys and girls all trying out for that position. Well the show has now moved to Dubai and one of the contestants is a Kuwaiti girl called Reem Al Alnezi (pictured above). The Dubai version of the show doesn’t have any male contestants which means I am not in the running to be Paris Hilton’s best friend. That’s ok though since the only thing we had in common anyway was our love for Hardees.
Here is a link to photos from My New BFF Dubai [Link]
Thanks Fatemah
