Category: Kuwait

I personally think the food in Lebanon is a mixture of good and bad. We obviously do good Lebanese food, we also make some of the best pizza’s, we’ve got some really great crepes and most importantly we have the world’s best beer (Almaza FTW!). One thing we strangely don’t have is good burgers. For some reason no one has cracked a good burger in Lebanon. I’ve been recommended so many places and every time I try a burger there I am left disappointed. Let’s Burger is a Lebanese burger creation which I was hoping would break this cycle.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the menu is they had mayonnaise listed under the “5 Elements for a perfect burger”. That’s when I knew things weren’t going to end well. Mayonnaise??? I continued flipping through their menu and decided to go with the stuffed cheese burger. I wasn’t asked how I wanted the burger done.

A short time later my burger arrived and I quickly took my first bite. Two things grabbed my attention. The first thing is, I liked the beef patty with the stuffed cheese inside. Because the cheese was all soft and gooey it made the beef patty very juicy. The second thing that grabbed my attention is the bun, it was cold and cracking. That meant the bun wasn’t fresh and was refrigerated. Cold bread + hot beef patty = Doesn’t work. Their sauce also wasn’t anything to write home about since although the description in the menu said grainy mustard mayo sauce, what I tasted was mostly just plain mayo.

For the final score I’m giving it a 2.5 out of 5. The patty was fine but they need to fix the bun issue, it shouldn’t be too hard to get fresh buns every morning delivered. They also really need to cut down on the mayo, not only is it not an important element in a good burger… it shouldn’t be on a burger in the first place. Period.

Let’s Burger is located at 360 Mall.
The cost of the Stuffed Cheeseburger was KD3.450

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

Recently I noticed that when I sleep for over 9 hours I wake up with neck cramps and a sore ear. It turned out my pillow had become too hard and with the way I sleep was causing me neck pains. Nat suggested I get Tempur pillows so I did a quick google to find a local dealer and landed on Some Contrast’s blog. He had found and gotten Tempur pillows from a place called The Bed Boutique in Tilal Complex. Since I was planning to pass by the Tamiya dealer there anyway, I decided to drop by and see what they had.

The shop has pillows, quilts and mattresses. They had a few brands the most popular being Tempur and Temprakon. Now one reason I felt like coming to this store was because Some Contrast posted they had a small private room (pictured above) in which you could try the pillows which is what I ended up doing. I got around 4 different types of pillows and tried them while lying down which is much better than just trying to feel the stuff in your hands. In the end I ended up getting the Temprakon Ergomagic which is a very comfy pillow (picture and details on their website). It’s a down pillow with a three layered core, one layer is a comfort foam which provides support for the head and neck, the other two layers are foam inserts which are used to control the height of the pillow. If the three layers combined are too high for you, you remove one of the inserts. If it’s still too high you remove another insert. Very practical.

Nat on the other hand got the same pillow as Yousef from Some Contrast which is the Tempur Symphony (pictured above). I tried it and also it was very comfy I didn’t think it was high enough for me since I like high pillows. The Tempur material feels very organic since it takes your shape and molds around it. I tried the Tempur mattress and it felt like the bed was alive since however you moved it slowly takes your form.

Anyway if you’re interested, The Bed Boutique is located at Tilal Complex. Their phone number is 22256171.

Update: Was just reading about the brand Temprakon on their website and it’s even better than I had thought. Their pillows and quilts are made with NASA’s OUTLAST material which is used in the NASA space suits. They’re the only manufacturer in the world allowed to use the OUTLAST material to make pillows and quilts.

Somebody opened up a Facebook cafe in Salmiya near the American University of Kuwait. Now someone needs to open up a FarmVille mini-market right next door.

Thanks Patrick

I got an email from a tipster (which was confirmed by another source of mine) telling me that Alshaya have acquired two new food chains to bring into Kuwait. The first chain is called Potbelly Sandwich Works which sells submarine sandwiches similar in style to Subway except supposedly better. The second chain is called Texas Roadhouse which specializes in steaks and has a western theme. I hadn’t heard of these two places until a few moments ago but I guess most of you will be glad the two chains are not burger joints. On the other hand I am still trying to find out some kind of information regarding the status of Shake Shack.

I was also told by another source that Pinkberry will not be opening in the Casamaroc location at Avenues like I had previously mentioned since the owner has refused to sell the place. But, they will still be opening a second branch of Pinkberry in that area.

Cinescape uploaded pictures of old movie theaters here in Kuwait to their Facebook group with the oldest theater dating back to 1954. I hope they upload pictures of Cinema Salmiya and the drive through cinema as well. [Link]

Thanks Mohammed

Spotted this at the airport.

Update: For people who don’t get it, it’s supposed to be spelt as wrap which is pronounced as rap because the w is silent. They spelled it wrape which is pronounced as rape.

I found out Gucci recently closed down their store at Villa Moda. What I heard is that Gucci is now back with Sheikh Majed who is relaunching them at 360 Mall. Sheikh Majed founded Villa Moda back in 1992 which became so successful that it was taken over by Dubai around 2 years ago. Sheikh Majed was then outed from Villa Moda or he left not sure but in any case it seems he’s now taken hold of the Gucci brand.

I also heard Prada will be leaving Villa Moda and heading with Chalhoub Group who currently have Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Nina Ricci.

I just found out Pinkberry will be opening two new locations. They’re opening a second smaller location in Avenues in place were CasaMaroc is, near Pottery Barn Kids. This should help reduce the long lines at their main location opposite Dean & Deluca. The second location is going to make Nat happy since it’s near our house. They’re opening a new location in Marina Mall, in place of the recently closed down Waterlemon branch. That should turn out to be a pretty big location.

Personally, I’m still waiting till they introduce biscuit cones.

I was recommended by a couple of readers to try out the burger at the English Tea Lounge at Avenues phase II. It’s an ostrich burger and supposedly very good so I passed by today for lunch around 3pm to try it out. The place was empty with not a single person there so we had our pick of where to sit. We got the menu and I quickly flipped to the page with the burger on it. My sister was going to have a salad but Nat just wanted to drink tea.

Then Nat noticed the fine print at the bottom of every page which said that the minimum order per person had to be KD6. I told her that’s probably when its packed but not when it’s empty. I called the waitress over and asked her if this KD6 minimum charge was enforced? She said yes. I was like wait, so if me and my sister want to order lunch but Nat just tea we can’t do that? She said no it’s minimum KD6 per person. WTF? The place was empty with no one there!? It’s a TEA lounge! I told her fine and got up and left.

What a very disappointing experience. Didn’t even know restaurants with minimum charges still existed in Kuwait yet alone having it enforced in an empty place.

Our local psychic goat here in Kuwait has predicted Uruguay to win over Germany at the World Cup. [YouTube]

I was at Sultan Center and spotted two new Ferrero Chocolates, the Hanuta and the Giotto. Both looked and sounded good but of course I can’t have any. The Hanuta was around 350fils while the Giotto 750fils.

In case you weren’t aware of this, Ferrero are the people behind Nutella.

A reader sent me this article that appeared in The Guardian a few days ago about the state of Football in Kuwait and the UAE. The article talks about Kuwait’s football achievements in the 80s and the demise of it today.

While middle-aged Kuwaiti men are genuinely proud of the football team their country produced in the 1980s – champions of Asia in 1980, World Cup qualifiers in 1982 and Gulf Cup winners in 1982 and 1986 – the same cannot be said of the current crop of players. Dubbed the “gel team”, these shebab (young men) have been branded prima donnas by the older generation, more concerned with applying gel to their intricately styled coiffures and handing out their phone numbers to doe-eyed female admirers than with training and winning.

The article starts off with the question, “Is it because family riches spoil potential players that these countries’ sporting glories lie in the past?”. Personally I have no idea why football in Kuwait today is not as good as it was in the 80’s and early 90’s, but maybe someone else can answer that question. [Article]

Thanks Pureorama

This picture was taken today at around 4:30PM. Must be a malfunction since no way it hit 55 today. Maybe it’s still stuck at 55 degrees from the last heat wave we got 2 weeks ago.

Pic by Shabzy

On my way to lunch was passing through Souk Al-Kabeer when I spotted a shop that was selling fake Hublot’s. I thought that was a refreshing sight compared to the usual fake Rolexes and Bvlgari’s. If anyone is interested in shutting down this shop it’s located on the ground floor near the middle and it just sells watches.

My favorite mountain bike brand is Cannondale and I’ve posted about the local Cannondale dealer a few times including on my Miskan blog 5 years ago. Thing is since I first got my bike in the winter of 2004 until now the dealer really hasn’t expanded, improved or changed in any way. It’s very sad and not sure why specially since more people bike today than they did 5 years ago. Maybe the dealer doesn’t care about the brand anymore but it’s very disappointing. I passed by yesterday to get my bike and Nat’s serviced and they didn’t even have transmission cables available. Luckily GoSport has a good collection of Shimano bike parts and so was able to pick up some cables from there and dropped them off to the dealer. The dealer doesn’t have many Cannondale bikes for sale as well, they had only 2 models available. I guess thats a good thing since if I did see a bike I liked I might have ended up buying it.

On the bright side I’m glad that GoSport carry a good collection of bike accessories and parts. Nothing hard core like Fox shocks or disc brakes upgrade kits but still a lot better than nothing. For everything else there is Amazon.